In Halperin's account, McCain lawyer John Dowd described McCain's "former relationship with Charles Keating as 'social friends.'"

Ah. They were "palling around," one might say.

he Obama Fan-Dance Must End   [Mark R. Levin]

As someone who has written critically of John McCain on a host of issues, including the Keating Five, none of it compares to the life that Barack Obama has led and his belief system. Obama is not merely associated with domestic terrorists, Palestinian radicals, Marxists, and black liberation ideologues — he was their favorite candidate. They groomed him. They befriended him. He befriended them. He socialized with them. In other words, these people saw Obama as representing their views and aspirations and he saw them the same way. I am not among those who raise Obama's associations but add "of course, it doesn't mean Obama shares their views." Oh really? These miscreants include Obama's former pastor, political mentors and allies, and friends. Obama attempts to downplay and distance himself from his own circle of allies now that he is running for president. But he is one of them. Obama is getting a pass that no other candidate in my memory has ever received.

If John McCain had belonged to a church for 20 years and that church advocated white supremacy and the  pastor of the church spewed racist propaganda wrapped in Biblical verses — much of which was caught on video-tape — what would we say? If McCain's good friends included people involved in blowing up abortion clinics instead of the Capitol Building, the Pentagon, and police stations, what would we say? If McCain was socially close to a professor with ties to neo-Nazi groups in Berlin, as opposed to a professor who had ties to the PLO, what would we say? If McCain spent his formative years schooled in fascism as opposed to Marxism, what would we say?

Every time Obama's life experiences and character are raised, the response is a diversionary tactic. Today, we're supposed to be impressed with the moral equivalency argument (Ayers = Keating Five), or Obama's associations and friendships aren't what they appear to be, or Obama really isn't like all those people he drew around him, or those raising these issues are guilty of McCarthyism.  There are 30 days left in this election. It's high time the Obama fan-dance ended.    

corner.nationalreview.com/post

If I wanted to deaden my brain, I would subscribe to nationalreview.com myself (or read the National Enquirer and People magazine). I certainly don't need a cow pie from NRO plopped into a thread here without comment by TalkBack's own cut-n-paste master.

To TNR Editor in Chief: is there a way we could turn off this drivel from "The Corner"?  If I want to read it, I can always go there.

"what's this giant mistake that transformed McCain into a reformer?"

What reformer?  Transformed when?  Giant mistake?  More like a giant bookdoggle by a man too addicted to the high-life to pass up on the Keating largesse.  This was not a "mistake"; it was deliberate and corrupt politics.

Man does it stink over here! Smells like something died. After crapping itself. What the hell is that?

Oh, I see, jacobt1 dragged in something putrescent from the Corner. Reminds me of a dog I knew who used to like drag turds out of the cat box and snack on them.

Bad jacobt1! Bad jacobt1!

Jeff, Icarus,

Damn. You beat me to it.

Jacobtl, please stop sharing these creative writing exercises from GOP water-bearers. It adds nothing to the conversation, and makes me wonder why I feel bad for you when icarusr calls you out for acting like a petulant child.

The only difference between this editorial and any of the previous editorials is the author and his claim to authority because he has been "critical" of McCain in the past. The funny part is that being crtiical, as I understand it in this context, does not mean taking a position against McCain but to imply having judged McCain impartially. Thus, his claim to authority is his assertion that because he has been impartial towards McCain in the past, he is being impartial towards Obama now.

Meh. Stick with the facts and the legitimate reporting; like the story or not, but when you have to avoid the legitimate reporting in favor of opinions and editorials, you might be stretching to make your case.

If you want to know more about Charlie Keating, go to talk to him. The 85-year-old Keating is as unrepentant as ever, and he's easy to find, at his Indian Hill address in Cincinnati, zip code 45243.

This is the second most influential Republican zip in America (i.e., stratospheric fundraising). Walk the neighborhood and you'll find Carl Lindner, Mercer Reynolds, III (Bush Sr's. and Bush Jr.'s and now McCain's top money wrangler), Rob Portman, and probably John Boehner, who's usually in the 'hood for cocktails when he's in town.

This is the home of many of the financial pirates who cleaned up during the S&L scandal, and will be cleaning up again. Ain't that the way?

(The easiest way to steal from a bank is to own the bank. The easiest way to steal from the government is to run the government.)

Obama, Ayers and...Republicans?

I don't make a practice of posting excerpts of press releases from the presidential campaigns, but this is so funny it's worth making an exception.

For some reason, the usually smart Obama campaign has decided to fight back against attempts to link their candidate to William Ayers, the Weather Underground terrorist who said in 2001 that he wished he had been a more effective bomber of American targets. The Ayers-Obama relationship is the subject of an ad from the American Issues Project, an anti-Obama group, which suggests that Obama and Ayers are friends. In response, the Obama campaign has launched a counter-ad and has written to the Justice Department to intervene.This morning, reporters received from the Obama campaign an email citing a Huffington Post item trying to link South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford to Ayers.

Below is some recent reporting about ties between Republicans and Bill Ayers:

Ayers and Governor Mark Sanford tied through the University of South Carolina. “The campaign season's hottest gotcha game -- six degrees of William Ayers -- has suddenly become a bit more complicated for John McCain and the Republican Party. It turns out that Ayers, a 60s-era radical and former Weathermen member, is linked to GOP Gov. Mark Sanford through their work for the University of South Carolina. Since 2005, Ayers has held the title of "distinguished scholar" at USC for participating in an education project. He has attended various university events, been praised highly by school administrators, even published columns on university's website. Meanwhile, Sanford holds the position of Ex-Officio Chairman of USC's Board of Trustees.”    www.huffingtonpost.com/.../ayers-linked-to-gop-gover_n_121363.html

So Obama's campaign is saying, on the one hand, that it's unfair to link their candidate to Ayers, although he served as chairman of a group Ayers founded and attended fundraisers at Ayers home. And at the same time the campaign is sending out emails attempting to link Mark Sanford to Ayers because they have honorary titles at the same 40,000-student university? That's funny.

Obama's complaints about the unfair linkage would be more convincing if they weren't citing sources attempting to do the same thing. And those complaints would be more convincing if Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, who is close to Obama, hadn't offered his take on Obama and Ayers:

"They're friends. So what?"

www.weeklystandard.com/.../obama_ayers_andrepublicans.asp

Hey, it is a cut-n-paste with some value! But Jacob chooses the wrong message from it.

This is not an attempt to discredit Mark Sanford. It is aimed at discrediting the entire Ayers line of attack. Because if Ayers was such a VICIOUS UNREPENTANT TERRORIST with whom any association is a sign of TREASON, why would the University of South Carolina have named him a "distinguished scholar" IN 2005?! This highlights the mainstream side of Ayers, and shows that those making attacks on Obama for an association with Ayers are being pretty damned choosy with their facts.

bad jacobt1, another time out in your kennel for you!