Monday, February 25, 2008

John McCain and the Rick Renzi 35-Count Indictment

Go to Huffington Post original

In 2006, Senator John McCain campaigned heartily for his fellow Arizona Republican Rick Renzi's reelection to his third term in the House of Representatives. At campaign rallies and fundraisers McCain said that Representative Renzi was an important part of the Republican Congressional delegation from Arizona and he praised Mr. Renzi's "honesty and integrity." McCain was so impressed by Mr. Renzi's virtuousness that he recruited him to serve as the co-chair of his presidential campaign in his home state.

With the recent stories about McCain using the Commerce Committee to serve the financial interests of his corporate benefactors, wouldn't it be wise for McCain to put on the GOP ticket for 2008 a man known for his "honesty and integrity?" If Sean Hannity and other choir boys in the Right's Greek Chorus are correct in their assertion that the news of McCain's past impropriety in the Senate is nothing more than a "liberal" newspaper smearing an honest politician, then I hope they stand up also for McCain's old friend and ally: the Honorable Rick Renzi.

The outrages of The New York Times continued this past weekend when the paper ran a story reporting that a federal grand jury indicted Congressmember Renzi on 35 counts of corruption, fraud, money laundering, extortion and other crimes. Surely, this is yet another "hit and run smear" attack by the Times. Any man that John McCain vouches for and says is "honest" and has "integrity" must be beyond reproach.

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