Still The Same Ol’ Karl Rove: I Wish McCain’s Khalidi Attacks Had Started ‘Last Spring’
Still The Same Ol’ Karl Rove: I Wish McCain’s Khalidi Attacks Had Started ‘Last Spring’
In recent days, Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) campaign has aggressively tried to paint Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) as anti-Israel because of his relationship with Palestinian-American Professor Rashid Kahlidi. On Tuesday, Rudy Giuliani pointed out that the Woods Foundation funded “Khalidi’s organizations” while Obama was a board member. During a rally in Ohio yesterday, Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) characterized Khalidi as a “radical professor” and Obama’s “political ally.”
In the past few months, Karl Rove has received considerable media attention for saying that the McCain campaign had “gone one step too far, and sort of attributing to Obama things that are, you know, beyond the 100 percent truth test.” But make no mistake: Rove hasn’t really changed. Yesterday on The O’Reilly Factor, Rove had no problem with the substance of the misleading Khalidi attacks, wishing only that they had come sooner:
ROVE: I worry a little bit that they get numb to it this late in the game. We do know is that at the close of the contest, the undecided voters tend to disregard things that they are hearing for the first time, unless it’s from a credible third party source. [...]
What bothers me about this is where was the McCain opposition research when this article came out last April that talked about Obama’s presence at the dinner for Khalidi and mentioned in the story the tape. This would be a lot better if this drumbeat had been started last spring, rather than started five or six days before the election.
Watch it:
The Khalidi attacks are just as misleading as all the others that Rove condemned earlier. As the Washington Post explained in 2004, Khalidi is a well-respected, mainstream scholar of Middle Eastern studies and doesn’t have “a radical take on the present state of affairs.” Additionally, while McCain served as chairman of its board, the International Republican Institute distributed several grants to the Palestinian research center co-founded by Khalidi.
Evidently, you can take Rove out of dirty politics, but you can’t take dirty politics out of Rove.
Transcript:
O’REILLY: Also, in addition to the economic stuff, Sarah Palin is now being used to throw out a whole bunch of stuff to make people more fearful of John McCain (sic). I want you to react to this Palin sound bite today. Roll the tape.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SARAH PALIN: It seems that there was yet another radical professor from the neighborhood who spent a lot of time with Barack Obama, going back several years. This is important, because this associate, Rashid Khalidi, he, in addition to being a political ally of Barack Obama, he’s a former spokesperson for the Palestinian Liberation Organization.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O’REILLY: OK. Now, it’s Rashid Khalidi. And he’s a radical professor that teaches at Columbia University. And Barack Obama went to dinner at his house. And The L.A. Times has a tape of what — the conversation at the dinner. And there were allegedly some anti-Israel statements, not by Barack Obama, but by some people there. But Khalidi is obviously a person not friendly to Israel.
Now that tape.
ROVE: Yes, bad guy.
O’REILLY: Yes. He’s being harbored and all that. But is it effective, in your opinion, for Sarah Palin to keep bringing these associations up? Or are people numb to it now?
ROVE: I worry a little bit that they get numb to it this late in the game. We do know is that at the close of the contest, the undecided voters tend to disregard things that they are hearing for the first time, unless it’s from a credible third party source.
What bothers me about this is – I mean, and it might have some resonance with people who are for McCain. What bothers me about this is where was the McCain opposition research when this article came out last April that talked about Obama’s presence at the dinner for Khalidi and mentioned in the story the tape. This would be a lot better if this drumbeat had been started last spring, rather than started five or six days before the election.
O’REILLY: If you were advising McCain then, you would say stay on the economy, you seem to be getting traction there. That’s where you got to be?
ROVE: Yes. And look, McCain ought to stay on the economy. I’m not necessarily certain that it’s a bad thing to have Palin talk about this for one event on one day. I’m not certain I would make the staple of her speeches through the balance of the election.
O’REILLY: No, I think you’re right. I think it’s — the choir gets revved up about this, but the choir isn’t going to make John McCain turn it around.
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And I wish Karl could tell the truth. Log eyed Rove will have a long list of trespasses when he meets St. Peter.
October 30th, 2008 at 11:44 amwait wait! how do you get rove out of dirty politics?! this is possible?!
October 30th, 2008 at 11:44 amI do too, then the ditto heads would find out that McCain gave him gobs of money while Obama attended a dinner.
October 30th, 2008 at 11:49 amThanks to Karl, it’s irrational to believe anything bad you hear about a Democrat.
October 30th, 2008 at 11:49 amSo is Barack Obama running for President of Israel? When did this happen?
October 30th, 2008 at 11:50 amWhen can we stop paying attention to this fat failure?
October 30th, 2008 at 11:51 amP.S. – Please fix “Rashid Kahlidi” in the first sentence – K and Kh are two very different letters in Arabic.
October 30th, 2008 at 11:51 amRove: “I Wish McCain’s Khalidi Attacks Had Started ‘Last Spring’”
And I wish that Karl Rove has a painful heart attack by next spring! Seriously, this is the GOP’s genius???
October 30th, 2008 at 11:58 amRove is just spewing more hot air. Playing the Khalidi card is only useful as a Hail Mary pass when the clock is running out. If Khalidi had been used as an anti-Obama trick earlier, there would have been plenty of time to showcase McCain’s own connections to the man and paint him as a hypocrite.
No, this is exactly the time Rove would use Khalidi to slam Obama. This is exactly the time when a desperate campaign goes for the kitchen sink — throw anything and everything out there. Splatter mud like crazy. And don’t worry if mud gets splattered on your own candidate, because at this point, he’s got nothing to lose.
The implosion is kind of amusing, actually. Not just because the McCain campaign is now employing weapons just as damaging to McCain as to Obama, but also because they don’t have any actual damaging people left in their arsenal, so they have to make them up.
October 30th, 2008 at 12:04 pmIOKIYAR
-vs-
Clinton did it first.
????????
Come on – since when does attending a fund raiser tarnish one for life ?
October 30th, 2008 at 12:05 pmWhy the hell hasn’t KKK Rove been hung for his war crimes yet?
October 30th, 2008 at 12:05 pmKarl is a good liar and spin doctor as people believe everything he says and learn the truth later.
Obama was a board memeber of Woods Non Profit Fund for Charity from 1999-2002. Yes as was and is still a board member who help communities and family rebuild their lives.
The article in the LA Times talked about the dinner that all attended and how much success the Woods Fund had done over the years and those who helped.
Now what Karl doesn’t want to talk about is how Senator John McCain worked with Khalidi from 1990-1998 and helped raise close to 1 million dollars for a good cause.
Now Obama knew Khalidi for 3 years and McCain worked and knew Khalidi for 8 years what’s all this really about.
October 30th, 2008 at 12:07 pmI wish the McCain campaign took all of Rove’s advice. 20 months of association games, that would have been fun.
Could the McCain campaign seriously been any less about the issues Karl?
October 30th, 2008 at 12:13 pmGee, I wonder what is worse: palling around with terrorists — or giving them a half million dollars?
Hmmmmmmm.
October 30th, 2008 at 12:14 pmSo what’s the deal with the PLO spokesman thing? ABC News says Khalidi was a PLO spokesman:
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/10/palin-questions.html
But Khalid denies it:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/10/29/mccain_calls_on_la_times_to_re.html?hpid=topnews
Is ABC just pimping McCain’s crap again? Just curious.
October 30th, 2008 at 12:17 pmThey are diggin all the skunks up the last few days out of desperation…..even trent lott and newt have made appearances. Guess when you have nothing left to lose……
October 30th, 2008 at 12:18 pmJackie Says:
Now Obama knew Khalidi for 3 years and McCain worked and knew Khalidi for 8 years what’s all this really about.
October 30th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
_______
Demonizing someone with an Arabic name six days before the country has an election featuring a candidate with an Arabic name.
October 30th, 2008 at 12:19 pmPlease, McCain has been associated with this guy for years and has fought to help finance him. I heard somewhere that McCain was head of a board that awarded numerous grants to Kahlidi.
A 1998 tax filing for the McCain-led group shows a $448,873 grant to Khalidi’s Center for Palestine Research and Studies for work in the West Bank
October 30th, 2008 at 12:19 pmBillinChicago Says:
Is ABC just pimping McCain’s crap again? Just curious.
October 30th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
______
In mainstream media terms, “PLO spokesman” is any Palestinian who doesn’t want Israel stealing their land.
October 30th, 2008 at 12:20 pmand O’Reilly complains about his ratings…
GET USED TO IT BUDDY!
You think they’re going down now??
Instant Karma’s gonna get you :)
October 30th, 2008 at 12:22 pmMcwars is to old and forgetful………obviously for good reason, he doesn`t want to be linked to a so called radical professor he once supported.They are sad sad little people on the right and lets not forget the hypocrisy.
October 30th, 2008 at 12:26 pmOf course, in PalinLand, anyone who doesn’t teach with a Bible in one hand and a flag in the other is a “radical Professor”
You’d think she would have run into more of them with the five? six? colleges she attended before finally graduating…. but then I haven’t seen a diploma yet…
October 30th, 2008 at 12:26 pmyawn.
October 30th, 2008 at 12:28 pmwho ordered the fathead with extra stupid sauce?
Carl! How many times do you have to be proven wrong before you go work with Ken Starr at Pepperdine? There, no one will question your morals/ethics (or lack thereov). You and Ken can compare notes on how much $$ you screwed out of the general public. Keep it classy , carl.
October 30th, 2008 at 12:39 pmWhat will KKKarl be for Halloween …… HIMSELF !
October 30th, 2008 at 1:04 pmIt’s a good thing for Righties that they’re 100% numb to irony – it’s the only thing that allows them to proclaim the BS they do with a straight face.
October 30th, 2008 at 1:11 pmRove, the great political has-been. Everyone is so onto his tactics and sliminess.
October 30th, 2008 at 1:38 pmI’m sure Rove in the spirit of full disclosure mentioned the grants McCain gave out and if not Oreilly called him out, after all is Fox not “fair and balanced?”
October 30th, 2008 at 2:04 pmI don’t recall the Founding Fathers saying the President would be designated by a right wing television network.
They specified voting by the people, not declarations from pundits.
October 30th, 2008 at 2:26 pmfreeman Says: What will KKKarl be for Halloween …… HIMSELF !
Now THAT’S scary!
October 30th, 2008 at 3:06 pmSo, Rove, included in these attacks would be personal attacks on McCain, who had vastly more palling around with Khalidi by providing him with— uh, — how much funding did McCain’s group give Khalidi again? Hmmm, Rove? McCain loves this guy! And the bottom line– is there anything wrong with either McCain or Obama associating with Khalidi? Is there? Really? No lying now!
October 30th, 2008 at 7:51 pmAnd wait– Rove refused subpoenas– when will he be charged or arrested?
October 30th, 2008 at 7:52 pm