• Iraq,  Iraq War,  John McCain,  President 2008

    Iraq War Veterans Call Out Barack Obama So McCain Supporting Senators Quit

    Iraq War veteran Specialist Kate Norley

    Yesterday a video featuring Kate Norley was released by Vetsforfreedom,org and promptly two U.S. Senators associated with the organization and the John McCain for President campaign quit.

    Senators Joseph I. Lieberman and Lindsey Graham, prominent surrogates for Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign, stepped down Wednesday from their positions with an independent group that released a pair of Internet advertisements attacking Senator Barack Obama on Iraq.

    Mr. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, and Mr. Graham, Republican of South Carolina, were both on the policy advisory board to the organization, Vets for Freedom, which on Wednesday released its second Web advertisement in less than a week attacking Mr. Obama.

    The senators’ positions with the group, which describes itself as a grass-roots advocacy organization pushing for victory in Iraq and Afghanistan, seemed to place them in contravention of new conflict-of-interest rules released by Mr. McCain’s campaign that specifically prohibit anyone “with a McCain campaign title or position” from participating in a “527 or other independent entity that makes public communications that support or oppose any presidential candidate.”

    After inquiries from reporters, the senators released a joint letter to Vets for Freedom on Wednesday saying they had requested a leave from their positions to come into compliance with the new policy.

    “This is obviously something we’re working through,” said Brian Rogers, a spokesman for the McCain campaign. “This is the kind of thing that happens when you have the strictest possible policy on these issues.”

    The new policy was meant to head off embarrassing questions about connections of members of the McCain campaign to special interests that run counter to Mr. McCain’s reformist reputation. But adhering to that standard has proved complicated.

    Why?

    Oh, McCain wants to remain the “MAVERICK.”

    This assinine policy already cost the McCain campaign a solid staffer in Soren Dayton – for a Tweet early in the Jeremiah Wright flap.

    Team McCain better wake up and remember that transparency is what counts and campaign staffers do have lives outside the Arizona Senator’s small view of the world.

    This is NOT a way to win a campaign.


  • Barack Obama,  David Petraeus,  Iraq War

    Iraq War Veterans Call Out Barack Obama

    Iraq War veteran Specialist Kate Norley

    Iraq War veteran Kate Norley asks presumptive Democrat Presidential nominee Barack Obama two questions:

    • Senator Obama, when will you finally decide to go back to Iraq, to see the progress first hand?
    • And when will you finally decide to meet one-on-one, unconditionally, with General Petraeus?

    Senator McCain asked the same questions today.

    Well, over to Obama.