Known by the company he keeps

By Weekly Archive On Oct 22, 2008

First,
this confession. Many years ago, while teaching high school in San
Francisco, I lived in the same precinct as former Black Panther
Angela Davis. I may even have said hello once or twice. Yes, I am a
terrorist.

But
I’m not the only one. As a young man, former North Vietnamese
dictator Ho Chi Minh worked as a baker at Boston’s famous Parker
House Hotel. All those who worked with him in the kitchen? Lock ’em
up! Terrorists!

Absurd?
Of course! But no more absurd than John McCain’s continuing
accusations that Barack Obama is a terrorist sympathizer because of
his relationship with Bill Ayers. As revealed in this column last
week, their relationship is almost nonexistent.

Obama
was 8-years-old and living in Indonesia with his mother when Ayers
helped found the Weatherman organization. By the time Obama met him,
in 1995, Ayers was a tenured education professor at the University of
Illinois in Chicago, consultant to the mayor on education reform, and
had been honored as Chicago’s "Citizen of the Year." Along
with dozens of others, Obama served on two charitable boards with
Ayers and attended a political coffee in his home. Obama hasn’t seen
Ayers, or spoken with him, for three years.

That’s
it. End of story. But, based on that slim connection, McCain and
running mate Sarah Palin accuse Obama of "palling around with
terrorists." This is the kind of guilt-by-association politics
— "Are you now, or have you ever been?" — we haven’t seen
since the days of Sen. Joseph McCarthy. And it’s especially dangerous
for John McCain, who’s been "palling around" with some
pretty unsavory characters himself — starting with Charles Keating,
whose fraudulent business practices triggered the S&L crisis that
cost taxpayers $3.4 billion.

McCain
accepted over $150,000 in campaign contributions from Keating and
associates. He and his family also often vacationed at Keating’s
Bahamas retreat and flew on his private jet. Cindy McCain invested in
a Keating real estate project. They were business partners and
personal buddies.

Then
there’s G. Gordon Liddy, who spent four years in federal prison for
his role in the 1972 Watergate burglary. Liddy held a fundraiser for
McCain in his home. In November 2007, as a candidate for president,
McCain told Liddy on his radio show: "I’m proud of you. . . .
Congratulations on your continued success and adherence to the
principles and philosophies that keep our nation great."

What
principles was McCain talking about? In his autobiography, Liddy
admits plotting with co-conspirator Howard Hunt to kill journalist
Jack Anderson. And in 1994, after the government’s raid on the Branch
Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, Liddy told his listeners: "Now
if the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms comes to disarm you
and they are bearing arms, resist them with arms. Go for a head shot.
. . . Kill the sons of bitches." Are those the principles that
"keep our nation great"?

Retired
Gen. John Singlaub is another McCain sidekick. In the 1980s, as a
member of Congress, McCain sat on the advisory board of Singlaub’s
organization, the U.S. Council for World Freedom. Long linked to
ultra-right-wing death squads in Central America, the council played
a major role in the Reagan administration’s Iran-Contra scandal,
serving as the front group for Ollie North’s illegal White House
operation of selling arms to Iran in order to arm the contras.

McCain’s
own rogues gallery also includes Washington attorney William Timmons,
whom McCain recently named to head his presidential transition team
(as though he’ll need one). Not only is Timmons a registered lobbyist
— one of many lobbyists McCain has surrounded himself with, despite
his daily promise to chase lobbyists out of Washington, he also
counts among his previous clients: Saddam Hussein!

For
five years, Timmons worked with a team of lobbyists to ease
international sanctions against Iraq. Their lobbying activities
occurred in the years immediately following the first Gulf War, when
the United States had already branded Iraq as a rogue enemy state and
a sponsor of terrorism.

In
other words, in the warped thinking of the McCain campaign, John
McCain hangs out with convicted felons, a would-be murderer, an
illegal arms merchant and Saddam Hussein’s lobbyist, and he’s an
American hero. Barack Obama serves on a charitable board with a man
who conspired to commit illegal acts 26 years before he met him, yet
he’s a terrorist.

Go
figure. Only Sarah Palin could follow that logic.

Bill
Press is host of a nationally syndicated radio show and author of a
new book, "Train
Wreck: The End of the Conservative Revolution (and Not a Moment Too
Soon)."
You can hear "The Bill Press Show" at his Web site:
billpressshow.com. His email address is: bill@billpress.com.
(c)
2008 Tribune Media Services, Inc.