This Boy's Off the Bus

John McCain’s campaign won’t let Time columnist Joe Klein on its planes, Politico reports. Though he rode with McCain during the primaries, Klein hasn’t been allowed onto McCain or Palin jets since June, when he asked McCain a tough question about Iran. Though the campaign said he hadn’t asked in time, Klein says he called “more than a day in advance.”

This is the first of the nine campaigns Klein has covered to ban him from its plane, but he’s not the only journalist left on the ground. New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd says she was banned as well. Though one spokesperson says Klein’s requests have come too late, another noted, “We don't allow [liberal blog] Daily Kos diarists on board either.” (More McCain-Palin stories.)