This could turn out to be nothing but David D. Kirkpatrick & Michael Cooper writing in the NY Times found what could be a Senate ethics violation by John McCain.

About 3 p.m. Tuesday, Senator John McCain ducked off the Senate floor, entered the Republican cloakroom and took out his mobile phone. Just hours after accepting the resignation of his two top campaign aides, he was making a conference call to his top fund-raisers to urge them to keep up the fight.

The call, however, may only have exacerbated an already tough week for Mr. McCain. Senate ethics rules expressly forbid lawmakers to engage in campaign activities inside Senate facilities. If Mr. McCain solicited campaign contributions on a call from government property, that would be a violation of federal criminal law as well.

McCain was well aware of the rules. Ten years ago he led Republican calls for an independent prosecutor to investigate accusations of violations of the same rules by Vice President Al Gore. Mr. McCain went on to make the episode a cornerstone of both his 2000 Republican primary campaign and his argument for the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law.

Matt David, a spokesman for the McCain campaign, confirmed that Mr. McCain made the phone call from the cloakroom. Mr. David said Mr. McCain used his campaign cellphone and did not specifically ask the fund-raisers for campaign contributions, which would have been a crime. And the spokesman sought to distinguish Mr. McCain’s call, made as he was managing the Republican side of a fierce Senate debate over the Iraq war, from the accusations once made against Mr. Gore.

If I were, lets say the Ron Paul or Tom Tancredo camp I would jump all over this. The reports not long ago that McCain had been ditching Senate votes to campaign are a nice backdrop to throw in “and when he does make it to work I hear Mr. McCain is breaking ethics rules. Maybe you should stay out on the campaign trail Senator.”

Like I said it could end up being nothing but it helps with the ongoing narrative that McCain is desperate and not straight with the American people.