McCain: no mo MoDo

According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Maureen Dowd has been barred from John McCain's campaign plane. Here's the explanation, from the Post-Gazette's Timothy McNulty:

It all started when Maureen covered an Aug. 30 McCain-Palin rally in Washington, Pa., then wasn't let on the McCain plane afterward, forcing her to overnight at a Pittsburgh airport hotel while the traveling press went on without her.

"I had had a great relationship with John McCain for 16 years, through columns he liked and didn't like. So at first I thought it was a mistake and doublechecked with the press office. They said I was banned from both planes for 'the foreseeable future.' Then [McCain spokeswoman] Nicole Wallace was gloating about it to reporters on the Palin plane," Dowd wrote in an email.

As McNulty notes, the McCain campaign has already declared war on the Times (and the press in general). But whether you love Dowd or hate her, she's hardly a Democratic shill. Odd move. (Via Romenesko)