Cross posted at the Buckeye State Blog
My letter to Team McCain:
Danny,
Greetings. My name is Jerid Kurtz and I administer Ohio's political community blog, the Buckeye State Blog.
I'm writing about your recent acquisition of former Senator Mike DeWine as Senator John McCain's Ohio Chair for his presidential campaign. Congratulations on picking up such a prominent name. However, I do have a question.
Your comments the other day to the Cleveland Plain Dealer implied that Senator McCain's campaign condones all of former Senator DeWine's actions during his recent campaign against now Senator Sherrod Brown. Specifically, the McCain campaign stated:
As for DeWine's loss, [Danny] Diaz said, "I think in a very difficult political environment, Sen. DeWine ran a principled campaign that focused on important issues, and we are fortunate to have him leading our effort in the state." (emphasis added)
I'm curious if you're aware of the ex-Senator's doctoring of images of the two towers from the 9/11 tragedy for a campaign ad. In case you're not aware of the incident, you can learn more at this CNN link. While I certainly believe that former Senator DeWine has run fine campaigns in the past, I do not believe his recent 2006 loss was of a principled nature. As such, I have to ask if the McCain campaign is tacitly endorsing such campaign tactics.
Once again, perhaps the campaign was not aware of the former Senator's actions, or perhaps I am misconstruing the campaign's official statement. Either way, please clarify your position for me and my readers so we can be absolutely certain where Senator McCain stands on this issue.
All the best,
Jerid