McCain is accusing the LA Times of holding back a supposedly incendiary tape of Obama attending a banquet for a "PLO Spokesperson"
"We should know about their relationship including, apparently, information that is held by The Los Angeles Times concerning an event that Mr. Ayers attended with a PLO spokesman,’’ Mr. McCain said. "The Los Angeles Times refuses to make that videotape public. I’m not in the business about talking about media bias, but what if there was a tape with John McCain with a neo-Nazi outfit being held by some media outlet. I think the treatment of the issue would be slightly different.’’
Leaving aside that somewhat bizarre reference to himself with a neo-Nazi outfit (or was it wearing a new-Nazi outfit?) this newfound outrage of McCain's created conveniently enough in front of Jewish voters in Florida, has a blatant disregard for the facts, not to mention common sense.
The facts are as follows:
- The banquet was held for Rashid Khalidi, a scholar who degress from Yale and Oxford, and has spoken on All Things Considered, Morning Edition, The Charlie Rose Show, The News Show with Jim Lehrer and the Voice of America, just to name a few. Professor Khalidi has denied being connected with the PLO, and there is no evidence connecting him to the PLO - so the assertion that Professor Khalidi is a "PLO Spokesman" is right up there with "Saddam has weapons of mass destruction", e.g. somewhere betewen an opinion and a lie.
- Proessor Khalidi has publicly stated that he disagrees with Obama's views on Israel, and Obama has been unwavering in his support of Israel. To use this to try and smear Obama's pro-Israel views is disingenuous at best.
- The tape was provided by an anonymous source to the LA Times, on the condition that it not be released. Not that the Republicans have ever been concerned with issues like maintaining the integrity of American journalism through the protecting of sources, but we should note that McCain is essentially calling on the LA Times to disregard basic journalism principals by releasing the tape.
- Finally, and most hypocritically, McCain has his own, arguably much DEEPER Khalidi connection through the International Republican Institute, of which McCain is the Chairman, which donated $850,000 to Palestine Research and Studies, a group co-founded by Professor Khalidi. Some information on the International Republican's Institute connection with the Palestine Research and Studies available here.
So once again, McCain's attacks are providing to be not only false, but deeply hypocritical as well.
I am Jewish, think having a strong Israeli state is critical, and am no fan of people like Rashid Khalidi. I probably wouldn't have gone to that banquet. But it is completely in keeping with Obama's philosophy of inclusion, openness and dialog, and I do not fault Obama for attending. I DO fault McCain for trying to turn it into a last minute "October surprise" issue.
But it won't work, and will probably blow up in McCain's face like all of the other smears he has attempted.
More from the NY Times here.