More on John McCain's Association with Rashid Khalidi

Picture from Washington Post

When I heard about the "missing tape" of Barack Obama at a party for Rashid Khalidi this morning on good ol' right-wing radio this morning, I had a brief "uh-oh" moment. October Surprise?

The tape was actually shot, and reported upon back in April, and is apparently the latest "scandal" to burble up from right-wing blogs and talk radio. Sean Hannity did it with William Ayers and Reverend Wright. Fringy, pointless stories keep somehow wending their ways into the actual campaign. And Hannity's already hyper-inflated ego must be barely containable these days.

But I should have known better. First, Obama's association with Khalidi seems tangential at best, and actually less than John McCain's association with the man. Of course. And on a side-note, are people like Khalidi and Ayers able to sue for the treatment that they've been given? I mean, however bad their past actions may have been, they appear to be law-abiding people these days. And yet they are being cast as the worst kind of villain today. I don't doubt that both men, and several others slimed in this campaign have had their lives rocked by this campaign.

Anyway, more on the story, here.

[Excerpt]

The Khalidi Gambit: McCain Attacks Obama for Connection to Palestinian Activist Whose Work McCain Helped Fund

. . .McCain today said, “The Los Angeles Times refuses to make that videotape public...I’m not in the business of talking about media bias...but what if there was a tape of John McCain with a neo-Nazi outfit...I think the treatment of the issue would be slightly different.”

But McCain has his own connection to Khalidi.

In 1993, McCain became chairman of the International Republican Institute. He still chairs that respected organization. . .

Read more at: ABC News