I’d like to take a break here from my balanced and non-partisan look at why Obama is a better social and economic conservative than John McCain to address some of the fear-mongering coming from the Republican base, because I just can’t bite my tongue a moment longer.
I think it’s beyond hilarious that John McCain and Sarah Palin are reduced to attacking Obama based on his “character” and associations when they have such juicier skeletons in their closets. I’m going to focus on the political spectres of Bill Ayers, Rev. Wright, and Tony Rezko, and counter them with McCain and Palin’s problematic associations with violent anti-American activists, loudmouthed preachers, donors and sweetheart real-estate deals. It’s not terribly pretty.
“Domestic terrorist” Bill Ayers was a dumb hippy student anarchist who attacked empty buildings to make a political point, and never harmed or killed a single person; he was a 20-year old vandal. To contrast, G. Gordon Liddy was plotting far more despicable acts (firebombings and murders) at twice that age; he’s a GOP hero. This is a guy who said that “if the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms comes to disarm you and they are bearing arms, resist them with arms. Go for a head shot; they’re going to be wearing bulletproof vests. … Kill the sons of bitches.” McCain is vociferously proud of this supporter and donor; the men are genuinely friends. He just defended this relationship by saying that it’s okay to be friend with Liddy because he served jail time. So if Ayers had been in prison, he’d be a good citizen? Point in fact, when he tried to turn himself in, all charges against him were dropped.
John McCain voted twice against persecuting terrorist bombings and arsons as federal crimes. This legislation (S.636) was meant to close a huge loophole in the law: domestic terrorists who crossed state lines could not be persecuted in any court until this bill was passed over his objections. Why would McCain vote against it? Because the law specifically cited two prominent targets of domestic terror: churches and health clinics. He voted to protect arsonists and bombers who target abortion-providers, rather than to protect Americans from home-grown terrorism.
The truth is that Ayers and Obama randomly happened to be boardmembers on the same non-profit. And, incidentally, this non-profit is the Annenberg Foundation. It is run by a Republican who has maxed-out donations to McCain and a very long list of GOP candidates for decades. David Kearns also sat on this board with Obama and Ayer: he was a secretary of education under GHW Bush, and worked for and donated to McCain’s 2000 and 2008 campaigns. Annenberg and Kearns are just the two most prominent Republicans on the board, there are at least a dozen. None of these archconservatives had any complaints about working with Ayers (Walter Annenberg gave Ayers a $49 million dollar research grant). And no GOP candidates who have taken their money have been criticized for their casual associations with Ayers.
Fair’s fair; guess who McCain served on a board with? Nazis. Yup, genuine card-carring former NSDAP members. Also Klansman. The terrifyingly-named U.S. Council for World Freedom is a far-right organization that organized, funded, and sponsored genocidal death-squads to topple legitimate Western democracies. You probably haven’t heard of them because the Obama campaign has too much class.
And speaking of undermining Western democracies, ever heard of the Alaska Independence Party? They are a radical fringe seccessionist movement with strong ties to Iran. Let’s think about what the words “treason” and “traitor” mean for a moment. Sarah Palin’s husband was a member of this anti-American political party for about a decade. She attended and spoke at many of their rallies, as recently as this year—let’s call that treason: its founder damned America with far more fire than Reverend Wright.
And please let’s talk about Sarah Palin’s pastors. Thomas Muthee brought her up to the pulpit to perform a laying-on-of-hands in which he commanded her to infiltrate the US government to combat the “Israelites” who were already working insidiously to do so. Ed Kalnins preaches that critics of President Bush and people who voted for John Kerry in 2004 will go to hell, and that the 9/11 attacks and Iraq war are part of Jesus’s “war plan.” Larry Kroon—who sees Jews merely as a tool to bring about the End Times: get enough of them to Israel, and Jesus will return!—waxed joyful about the “great day” when God “is gonna strike out his hand against, yes, the United States Of America! There’s no exceptions here—there’s none. It’s all.” What’s coming to roost? Palin recently refused to headline an event unless she could be introduced by David Brickner, founder of Jews for Jesus, who claims many distasteful things, among them that terrorist attacks against Israel are righteous punishment from God against Jews for not accepting Christ.
When she first ran for mayor in Wasilla, it was on a “We need a Christian leader” whisper-smear campaign accusing her Lutheran opponent, Justin Stein, of being Jewish. She quoted violent racist Westbrook Pegler in her RNC acceptance speech, a Hitler-apologist who called for the assassinations of FDR and RFK (batting .500!). Do we want an anti-Semite (or even just someone who “pals around with” radically violent anti-Semites) like Palin anywhere near our Middle East policy?
And we all know about McCain’s big fan Rev. John Hagee, who called Catholicism “a Godless theology of hate” and “the Great Whore of the Revelation.” He thinks the Holocaust was part of God’s “divine plan” for the Jews, whose “rebellion [against Christ] had birthed the seed of antisemitism.” Initially, McCain—who had very actively courted Hagee’s seal of approval—said he was very proud to have his endorsement, but later repudiated the reverend’s anti-Catholic (though not anti-Semitic) beliefs.
The final big smear against Obama’s “associates” deals with Tony Rezko, a political fundraiser and real-estate agent, who contributed to Obama’s early campaigns and helped him get a deal on a home. I’ve addressed some of McCain’s problematic donors already, but I’d like to bring in some of John McCain and Sarah Palin’s real estate dealings.
When Palin tried to sell her home in 2002, a potential buyer had two concerns: several zoning violations, and the fire hazard represented by a nearby carport. She used her influence as mayor to exempt the violations, and promised the buyer that the carport would be demolished. It was never removed. (She also illegally used $50,000 of taxpayer money to redecorate the mayor’s office. When she was told that an expenditure this large had to be authorized by the city council, she replied,”I’m the mayor, I can do whatever I want until the courts tell me I can’t.”)
While the Keating Five scandal is the apex of McCain’s real-estate scandals, it’s certainly not the only one. He gave Donald Diamond a sweetheart deal, and eliminated a lot of red tape, in a land-grab involving a decommissioned Army base.The strongest correlate to Tony Rezko on the McCain side is probably Arizona rancher Steven A. Betts. After Betts hired McCain’s 1992 campaign strategist and two former campaign staffers (including McCain’s current campaign chief-of-staff) as lobbyists, McCain fast-tracked legislation allowing the six-figure donor and check-bundler to “trade” his worthless pastureland for valuable federal property over the vocal objections of local residents.
During McCain’s primary campaign, the duo of Harry Sargeant and Mustafa Abu Naba’a credited contributions of dubious origin to poor Californians who did not have the income to make these donations, and who in many cases were not eligible to donate or vote. McCain assisted Sargent and Abu Naba’a's corporation in obtaining a $1.4 billion DOD contract “to supply oil to US troops in Iraq.” This seems a bit sketchy. Incidentally, Abu Naba’a is not a US citizen or national, and it’s completely illegal for him to have any role in the campaign donation process.
McCain accepted far more cash and gifts from Charles Keating than any of the four Democrats implicated, and the collapse of Keating’s Lincoln Savings and Loan—a result of shady mortgages and McCain’s pushes for deregulation—cost taxpayers nearly three billion dollars. Is this a man we should trust to oversee the fallout of the current financial crisis, precipitated by Charles Keating writ large?
And just today we learn that William Timmons, the lobbyist John McCain named to head his presidential transition team, previously lobbied on behalf of Saddam Hussein, to ease sanctions against Iraq. Timmon’s right hand men, Samir Vincent and Tongsun Park, working on his behalf, were indicted of federal criminal charges for acting as unregistered agents of Saddam Hussein’s government.
In addition to the millions that Rick Davis, John McCain’s campaign manager took from Freddie Mac as recently as this summer, Freddie paid lobbying firm DCI $2 million to prevent a regulatory overhaul bill that may have averted the current mortgage crisis from passing in the Senate—this was back in 2005!! John McCain hired DCI’s chief executive to run the RNC, and Freddie Mac donate $250,000 to the convention. Remind me how the logic works where McCain claims that Obama is in the tank with Freddie Mac?
