Of all the conservatives who have rushed out in defense of John McCain in light of the New York Times' vague, oddly timed "McCain Might Have Screwed a Lobbyist" story, perhaps no one is angrier than Clinton-hating conservative pundit Lucianne Goldberg. "It's so amateurish, I'm appalled," Goldberg tells Radar.

She speaks from experience with these matters. Goldberg, of course, was the New York literary agent who catalyzed the Lewinsky scandal by convincing Linda Tripp to surreptitiously tape Monica Lewinsky talking about her affair with Bill Clinton, and then deliver the tape to Newsweek. "The only way to go forward with a story like this is to nail it physically with tapes or pictures," Goldberg, who now runs the conservative forum lucianne.com, says. "Or you need one of the people involved to admit it. The Times has nothing like that. I'm shocked by their lack of standards."

Even worse, it's all the Mormon's fault!

"The scenario racing around is that this was all Mitt Romney's doing," Goldberg says. "His people were trying to get this out there a few months ago. The conspiracy theorists point out that he never said he was ending his campaign—just suspending it, because he knew this was coming. He wanted a way back in if McCain had to drop out."

Still, Goldberg remains confident that this will all blow over soon enough for McCain, leaving nothing but egg on the face of Times editor Bill Keller. "The Times had four reporters working on this for months," she explains. "They've shaken the trees bare, and there's not a leaf left in sight. I think it will backfire badly on them."

Which is just fine by her. "The worst thing about this story is that it takes Hillary Clinton out of the spotlight," she complains. "Those anti-Hillary stories were doing blockbuster traffic for us." Soon enough!