Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Rashid Khalidi

In the latest wave of attacks from the right, McCain and surrogates are suggesting that Obama has nefarious ties to Rashid Khalidi. Apparently, Obama may have have spoken at a dinner in Chicago and said some kind words about him. Khalidi, in case you don't know who he is, is a supporter of Palestinian rights and a professor at Georgetown University. Here's an article from the Washington Post about him. I'll let you read it and decide for yourself how radical he is.

Here's the kicker. If Khalidi is really such a horrible guy, the McCain's got some explaining to do for his own ties to him. You see, McCain was the chairman of a group called the International Republican Institute. In their infinite wisdom, they gave Khalidi's organization a grant for nearly half a million dollars. Here's the group's tax form to prove it. It was grant 5180 and CRPS stands for Khalidi's Center for Palestine Research and Studies. McCain's association with Khalidi through the IRI goes back all the way to 1993, though the grant above was given in 1998.

So let me get this straight. The McCain campaign wants a video released which shows Obama and Khalidi at a dinner together, and that's bad. McCain is the chairman of a group that gives Khalidi hundreds of thousands of dollars, and no problem. Nice logic at work there.

2 comments:

Kay Dennison said...

I guess it makes sense if you want it to. Can you say, "McCain is a hypocrite?" I can.

Straight Talk on McCain said...

Either Khalidi is radical or he isn't. Either way, McCain did alot more to support him than Obama did.