John McCain and his Republican supporters were full of wrath on Monday when New York Times did not publish the Op-Ed article by the GOP presidential candidate on the end game for Iraq. McCain’s essay was written in response to an op-ed from Sen. Barack Obama that was published in the paper last week.

Obama, in his July 14 article, criticized McCain for not further encouraging the Iraqi government to take control of the country. McCain's rejected op-ed essay was answer to Obama’s article and was a lengthy critique of Obama's positions on Iraq policy, particularly his view of the surge. The GOP presidential candidate had written that troop withdrawals must be based on "a realistic assessment of conditions on the ground, not on an artificial timetable."

McCain campaign said that John McCain was unfairly treated by the New York Times. The New York Times’ decision to reject McCain’s eassay was unfair, and the paper was giving more coverage to Bracak Obama.

But, David Shipley, NY Times’ deputy editorial page editor said that all these allegations were baseless. He asked McCain to rewrite his Op-Ed with the same level of detail as an opinion piece by Barack Obama published last week. In an e-mail to the McCain campaign, David Shipley wrote he could not accept the piece as written, but would be "pleased, though, to look at another draft."

Shipley wrote, “To that end, the article would have to articulate, in concrete terms, how Sen. McCain defines victory in Iraq. It would also have to lay out a clear plan for achieving victory - with troop levels, timetables and measures for compelling the Iraqis to cooperate.”

He added, "Let me suggest an approach. The Obama piece worked for me because it offered new information (it appeared before his speech); while Senator Obama discussed Senator McCain, he also went into detail about his own plans. It would be terrific to have an article from Senator McCain that mirrors Senator Obama's piece." Read McCain's rejected piece

"We look forward to publishing Senator McCain's views in our paper just as we have in the past. We have published at least seven Op-Ed pieces by Senator McCain since 1996. The New York Times endorsed Senator McCain as the Republican candidate in the presidential primaries. We take his views very seriously," Shipley said in the statement.

Shipley, who was President Bill Clinton's senior speechwriter from 1995 to 1997, advised the McCain campaign that "the article would have to articulate, in concrete terms, how Senator McCain defines victory in Iraq.

He said, “It would also have to lay out a clear plan for achieving victory -- with troops levels, timetables and measures for compelling the Iraqis to cooperate. And it would need to describe the senator's Afghanistan strategy, spelling out how it meshes with his Iraq plan."