Conservative talking heads and e-mail chatter were ablaze after the Drudge Report posted a piece that claimed The New York Times rejected a guest column from Sen. John McCain because it did not “mirror” one published a week earlier by Sen. Barack Obama.

It was the best thing to happen to the McCain campaign. He needed the boost. Obama’s tour to Afghanistan, the Middle East and Europe with major TV anchors in tow had relegated McCain to B-roll of him riding in a golf cart with Papa Bush in Maine and sitting at a Yankees game with Rudy Giuliani.

Nothing can jump-start a Republican’s campaign faster than a perceived slight by the big bad liberal media.

“Bias!” cried Republicans, who are in a 4-foot hover over the fact that the Times’ opinion page editor, David Shipley, served as a special assistant and speechwriter to President Clinton from 1995 to 1997.

Please. Throughout the country, former politicos, speechwriters and aides to politicians from both sides of the aisle labor at America’s newspapers.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram had a former aide to Democratic Sen. Lloyd Bentsen serving on the Editorial Board at one time; today the paper has a former Bush administration communications person working on the news copy desk.

Opinion page editors make daily judgment calls on which guest columns to print and which won’t see the light of day on their pages.

But the bottom line on what gets published versus what gets a polite “no thanks” is the uniqueness of the thoughts presented and the quality of the writing.

Does the column move an issue forward by framing it in a way not previously stated? Is it a compelling read?

Does it, above all, express strong opinion?

(You’d be surprised – or maybe you wouldn’t – by how many submissions we receive from politicians that are devoid of opinion at all, and amount to little more than “aren’t I wonderful” puffery or “isn’t my opponent awful” diatribe.)

The New York Times controls what appears on its pages, which, like it or not, are valuable real estate.

That said, it did take the heat for refusing the McCain piece after running one from Obama.

But it’s important to note that the column wasn’t rejected because of the author’s party affiliation or political viewpoint; Shipley rejected it because it did not meet the criteria for what he wanted to present his readers.

According to Drudge, Shipley e-mailed McCain’s staff Friday to explain why he was passing on the column.

“It would be terrific to have an article from Senator McCain that mirrors Senator Obama’s piece. I’m not going to be able to accept this piece as currently written. … I’d be pleased, though, to look at another draft.”

The fact that McCain’s folks were encouraged to submit another draft derails the argument that Shipley was trying to keep McCain’s voice from his page.

McCain’s people turned this into a media conspiracy against their man and, in the process, managed to get more eyeballs on McCain’s deconstruction of Obama’s “plan for victory” than ever would have perused it in the Times.

For McCain, Shipley’s decision was a win-win.

Jill “J.R.” Labbe is deputy editorial page editor of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

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