The Open Village

“I’m sure John McCain loves his country,”"But loving your country and lying to the American people are apparently not inconsistent in his view.” -Richard Clarke, former counter-terrorism czar

“Even if he were mediocre, there are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers. They are entitled to a little representation, aren’t they, and a little chance? We can’t have all Brandeises, Frankfurters and Cardozos.” - Roman L. Hruska

It is increasingly becoming difficult to keep up one’s interest in the political discussion these days. But the recent news that the campaign of senator John McCain was planning a media blitzkrieg of negative campaigning to “turn the page” on the current focus on our national economic woes spells out, more than anything else, the poverty of ideas in the Republican Party today. True to form, after a feeble attempts to string together a semblance of a coherent message about the economic crisis, John McCain and his George W. Bush team of advisers have decided to go back to their comfort zone - political mud-slinging, character assassinations and media manipulation. By throwing the astoundingly hollow and tone-deaf Sarah Palin in the mix, John McCain has confirmed what many of us have suspected for a long time. He is a selfish, blind-ambition driven egotistical maniac who, despite his shallow slogan of “Country First”, has exposed this country to foreseeable danger in his pick of Palin as his running mate. The saddest part of this is that by merely throwing out an outrageous comment about the Ayers connection, and having the media, ever so hungry for controversial “news” pick up on it, the objective of changing the conversation from the economy to silly non-issues has been achieved, even if short-term.

In a year when the most number of jobs have been lost, more homes have been lost to foreclosures than ever, more businesses have shut down than anytime in history; investment banking as we knew it is gone, the government is bailing out financial institutions than we can keep pace with, all John McCain as his team want to talk about is Obama’s association with a 1960s era radical?

In an election year when Americans are wondering about how we can successfully prosecute two international wars, repair our damaged international reputation because of our torturing of prisoners, work on resolving the Israeli-Palestinian crisis, tackle world poverty, increase our efforts at combating HIV/AIDS, John McCain wants to talk about Ayers?

In a year when Americans were reminded of Katrina through the devastation caused by hurricanes Ike and Gustav, and the fact that three years after the fact, New Orleans is still healing from the damages done by Katrina, John McCain wants to “turn the page” on discussing how to resolve these challenges?

If the issue is going to be about unsavory associations, let’s look at a few:

John McCain is associated with Gordon Liddy who served four and a half years in prison in connection with his conviction for his role in the Watergate break-in and the break-in at the office of the psychiatrist of Daniel Ellsberg, the military analyst who leaked the Pentagon Papers. Liddy has acknowledged preparing to kill someone during the Ellsberg break-in “if necessary”; plotting to murder journalist Jack Anderson; plotting with a “gangland figure” to murder Howard Hunt to stop him from cooperating with investigators; plotting to firebomb the Brookings Institution; and plotting to kidnap “leftist guerrillas” at the 1972 Republican National Convention — a plan he outlined to the Nixon administration using terminology borrowed from the Nazis. (The murder, firebombing, and kidnapping plots were never carried out; the break-ins were.) During the 1990s, Liddy reportedly instructed his radio audience on multiple occasions on how to shoot Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms agents and also reportedly said he had named his shooting targets after Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Liddy has donated $5,000 to McCain’s campaigns since 1998, including $1,000 in February 2008. In addition, McCain has appeared on Liddy’s radio show during the presidential campaign, including as recently as May. An online video labeled “John McCain On The G. Gordon Liddy Show 11/8/07″ includes a discussion between Liddy and McCain, whom Liddy described as an “old friend.” During the segment, McCain praised Liddy’s “adherence to the principles and philosophies that keep our nation great,” said he was “proud” of Liddy, and said that “it’s always a pleasure for me to come on your program.”

According to Paul Begala, John McCain sat on the board of a very right-wing organization, it was the U.S. Council for World Freedom, it was chaired by a guy named John Singlaub, who wound up involved in the Iran contra scandal. It was an ultra conservative, right-wing group. The Anti-Defamation League, in 1981 when McCain was on the board, said this about this organization. It was affiliated with the World Anti-Communist League – the parent organization – which ADL said “has increasingly become a gathering place, a forum, a point of contact for extremists, racists and anti-Semites.”

There is also the uncomfortable association Governor Palin had with a secessionist hate group called the Alaska Independence Party (AIP), a group whose founder, Joe Vogler, a plastic explosive dealing militant once proclaimed that “the fires of hell are frozen glaciers” compared to his “hatred for the American government.” She even attended the 2008 convention of the AIP, and her husband is a life-long member of the separatist group.