Politico has a story up showing the clearest indication yet that the McCain campaign is illegally coordinating television advertising with an outside group. The short-story is this: on July 2, the McCain campaign placed $1.5 million in advertising in the Virginia area. The next day -- July 3 -- the McCain campaign canceled that media buy. On the very same day -- July 3 -- the outside group made a large media buy in the same region, filling the gap created by the McCain campaign's cancellation.

It's possible this was all just a coincidence, but given the close connections between the McCain campaign and this particular group (Vets for Freedom, also known as VFF), I have my doubts. In May, VFF attacked Barack Obama with swiftboat style ads. This created a bit of controversy, because at the time both Lindsay Graham and Joe Lieberman were on VFF's board of directors. Each has since quit the group, but it's hard to imagine that the McCain campaign has cut ties with the outfit altogether.

VFF's original ad campaign was also suspicious because it echoed the McCain campaign's line of attack on Barack Obama almost word-for-word -- except the ad preceded the campaign's attack. Moreover, just a few weeks earlier, John McCain himself personally appeared at a VFF rally and heaped praise upon the organization.

Watch for yourself -- how likely do you think it is that there was no coordination between McCain and VFF?