McCain's eligibility issue

Speaking of McCain, just as he's nearing the magical delegate number of 1,191 to wrap up the Republican nomination, his campaign is quietly scrambling to squelch the "mounting interest" of the national press in whether McCain is eligible to run for the White House at all.

McCain was born on a military installation in the Panama Canal Zone in 1936. According to this story by Carl Hulse in the International Herald Tribune, Hulse reports that McCain's advisers exude confidence that there is no question about his citizenship, but since there is no precedent definitively confirming the definition of "natural-born citizen," they are researching it just to be sure.

There is more than a little bit of irony to me in this story, given McCain's work on the illegal immigration issue and the prominence it has played in his campaign (and the attacks lodged against him).