Implosion in 5…4…3…2…1…

Now McCain's media team has resigned.

Political ad-makers Russ Schriefer and Stuart Stevens, veterans of President Bush's 2000 and 2004 campaigns, on Monday emailed the new campaign manager -- lobbyist and longtime McCain adviser Rick Davis -- to say that they were quitting. The two men told friends they had considered leaving for days, as they hadn't been paid and the campaign's financial straits raised questions of when and how much they would be.

…Since Mr. McCain accepted the resignations of former campaign manager Terry Nelson and chief strategist John Weaver two weeks ago, and put Mr. Davis in charge, more than a dozen senior staffers have left [the campaign].

Ouch. And it gets even worse, as the Journal takes the opportunity to spill a little more salt in McCain's wounds, reminding readers that, yesterday, they reported that old friend and new campaign manager Davis was essentially ripping off the campaign by exploiting his place in it. According to the Journal, an internet company owned by Davis and his lobbying partner billed McCain's campaign more than $1 million. Then, Davis "arranged for the campaign to give its property-management business to a second new company started by a lobbyist-friend's client, Indian-casino developer Richard Fields. That move came despite the fact that Mr. McCain had become known as the Senate's biggest critic of scandals involving Indian casinos." (See Abramoff, Jack.) Both deals have been ended, but the campaign is in debt to both companies.

There have also been objections that "Davis and his firm lobbied for a Kremlin-backed Ukrainian Party that is opposed by the U.S. government and Mr. McCain." Lordy begordy!

It leaves one wondering why on earth McCain would keep this guy around as his campaign manager. And then comes this paragraph at the end of the story:

As these issues festered, Mr. McCain twice agreed to sideline Mr. Davis as CEO, last December and in April. But Mr. Davis continued to advise the senator informally, and was a frequent traveling companion and confidant of the senator's wife, Cindy. McCain supporters privately attribute Mr. Davis's reemergence at the head of the campaign to her influence.

Damn! That is one nasty hit piece on Johnny McCain, ending with a wink-wink nudge-nudge that his wife is schtooping his campaign manager, who himself is getting fat off the old man's campaign.

Once again, McCain finds his dirtiest opponents are on the same side of the aisle he is.