McCain Attacks Soros-Funded Group -- Even Though McCain's Group Took Soros Money, Too
This is a fun one: John McCain is attacking a new pro-Dem third party group because it's being partly funded by George Soros -- even though a group McCain co-chaired took one hundred and fifty thousand dollars from Soros, too.
Yesterday, McCain sent out a fundraising email blasting the new Soros-funded Dem effort.
"George Soros the `liberal megadonor' is at it again," McCain campaign manager Rick Davis wrote, sounding the "Soros" alarm in a way guaranteed to get right-wingers to open their wallets. "He and his group of billionaire left-wing Democrats have pledged $40 million dollars of soft money to smear John McCain in a national television ad campaign."
But it turns out that Soros' charitable foundation, the Open Society Institute, gave $150,000 to a group called the Reform Institute, which is dedicated to campaign-finance reform and transparency in government, an OSI spokesperson confirms. The grant was made in 2003.
McCain was honorary co-chair of the Reform Institute starting in 2001, when the group was founded, and held that post until 2005.
It gets better.
It also turns out that the author of the fundraising letter attacking Soros -- McCain campaign manager Rick Davis -- was president of the Reform Institute from 2001-2005, the Institute spokesperson says.
So McCain and Davis are now attacking a nascent Dem effort because it's being partly funded by Soros -- even though a group that had McCain as honorary co-chair and Davis as president took $150,000 from Soros.
As The Huffington Post's Sam Stein, who reported this first, puts it:
"The man Rick Davis believes funds `baseless left-wing projects' has not only funded McCain's own organization...but also portions of Rick Davis' salary."
Nonetheless, the larger story here is what this reveals about McCain's ideological shift over the years. In 2001 McCain's desire to reform campaign finance effectively aligned him with Soros. Now that he's running for president seven years later, McCain has been reduced to using the Soros bugaboo to wheedle money out of the right.
Eh, they're always doing this. It's such a big fat bunch of hypocrisy and projection - but that's what little Repugs are made of.
I hope Soros just continues to funnel huge amounts of his huge fortune into liberal causes.
We need him.
April 11, 2008 12:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Is it $150,000 or $50,000? Your column says both:
But it turns out that Soros' charitable foundation, the Open Society Institute, gave $150,000 to a group called the Reform Institute...
...even though a group that had McCain as honorary co-chair and Davis as president took over $50,000 from Soros.
...(we don't know how much over $50,000 he gave)...
April 11, 2008 12:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
My question is how did Mitt's oppo research team miss this one???
April 11, 2008 12:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Time for a good old cliche: This is called biting the hand that feeds you.
April 11, 2008 12:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Flip. Flop.
April 11, 2008 12:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, but Soros didn't really become a conservative scapegoat until the '04 cycle, so it's not that hypocritical.
April 11, 2008 1:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
White House hopeful Barack Obama told an almost-hometown crowd in Gary on Thursday that he was their best shot at reviving the economy, bringing jobs back to northwest Indiana, and fixing the crumbling roads and bridges here.
Though the polls show him locked in a tight May 6 Democratic primary race with Hillary Clinton, he never mentioned her by name. Instead, Obama focused on Republican nominee John McCain, criticizing the Arizona senator's position on the Iraq War and on the mortgage foreclosure relief plan McCain released Thursday.
"Sen. McCain is making some proposals about how to deal with our housing crisis," Obama said. "Sen. McCain's solution to the housing crisis seems a lot like the George Bush solution, which is to sit by and hope it passes by while families face foreclosure and watch the value of their homes erode."
McCain would spend less than Obama and Clinton but would offer federal help to some homeowners facing foreclosure. Obama would create a $10 billion fund to bail out families who can't pay their mortgages and another $10 billion fund to give to local governments to help them deal with the mortgage foreclosure crisis.
Obama told the crowd at Roosevelt High School --alma mater of the the older members of the Jackson 5 -- about his work 20 years ago helping workers laid off from the nearby steel mills.
"Thousands of people have been laid off," Obama said. "Many of you here in the room lived through those hard times and are still living through it today . . . health care, college, a gallon of milk, a gallon of gas, have all shot up and you are feeling the pinch."
Lake County, Ind., Commissioner Roosevelt Allen told Obama Northwest Indiana's sidewalks, streets, buildings and bridges are "crumbling."
Obama said he would spend $60 billion building up the nation's infrastructure.
Obama exhorted parents to do a better job parenting before they blame schools for their children's problems: "Parents, if you don't parent, we can't [fix that] in school. . . . Fathers, be fathers. Be a part of your child's life and try to make them proud. If your child is misbehaving at school, don't curse out the teacher."
Obama is on a four-day swing through Indiana before heading back to Pennsylvania. Not since 1968 has Indiana been this courted by presidential candidates.
April 11, 2008 1:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
WTF does this have to do with McCain and Soros, liam? Spare us the off-topic Obama worship, please...this is fodder for your own diary, dude.
April 11, 2008 1:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Feigned Giggle Fits strike again.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/04/11/clinton-laughs-off-colombia-questions/
April 11, 2008 1:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wishy washy.
There goes another wheel off the Straitened Talk Express
Hey, Uncle Bastard, love the avatar!
April 11, 2008 1:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't really see the virtue of one not disagreeing with someone because that someone might have helped one on a different issue at another time.
Alliances should be by issue and not by personality.
April 11, 2008 9:03 PM | Reply | Permalink