DNC:McCain Refuses Two Chances to Reject Ralph Reed's Tainted Funds, Reaps $1.75 Million

[maddezmom]

WASHINGTON, Aug. 19 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following was released today by the Democratic National Committee:

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080519/DNCLOGO )

Last night John McCain held a fund-raiser in Atlanta, GA, with help from George W. Bush smear architect and Jack Abramoff crony Ralph Reed, who brags of being a member of McCain's "Victory 2008" team. Although Reed was hastily directed away from attending the McCain fundraiser after a storm of stories exposed Reed's $4.2-million-dollar tie to Abramoff and his lead role in Bush's vicious 2000 smear campaign in South Carolina, McCain's still accepting the $1.75 million Reed helped raise for him. It's more of the same from McCain, whose double-talk on ethics means saying he'll ban lobbyists from his campaign even as he embraces them behind closed doors, on-board the Straight Talk Express, in the front rows of his campaign events, and, as last night in Atlanta, at high-dollar fundraisers.

The McCain campaign refused to cancel the fundraiser with Abramoff-linked Ralph Reed even after non-partisan watch-dog organizations called on McCain to do so - and after Representative Henry Waxman criticized McCain, saying, "Raising money with Ralph Reed shows that the John McCain who ran in 2000 would have a hard time considering voting for the John McCain we see today." Instead of canceling the fundraiser, McCain edged Reed out of the program as the McCain campaign launched a string of excuses for his involvement.

The McCain campaign claimed that "Reed has nothing to do with the campaign, hadn't donated to it, and was not acting on the campaign's behalf in the solicitation e-mail." But the campaign's feeble contradiction doesn't hold up against what Reed himself said: "Reed told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he sent the e-mail at the request of the campaign and was given boilerplate language to use."

Although McCain made sure Reed was not present last night, Reed's tainted contributions to the McCain campaign were front and center. McCain met with the donors Reed recruited in Atlanta last night - and accepted $1.75 million in Reed-linked donations. Now it appears that McCain has every intention of keeping the funds Reed raised for him.

more:http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/dnc-mccain-watch-mccain-takes-175-million-in-tainted-funds,510494.shtml