Obama and McCain Trade Barbs

McCain and Obama continue their presidential campaign battle over the Iraq War.

In a speech at Virginia Military Institute, McCain derided Democratic anti-war efforts including calls for a U.S. withdrawal. The Republican said he'd rather lose the 2008 presidential contest than have the U.S. fail in Iraq. To that, I say HA. And his stance on the war will lose him the presidency, so no fear there McCain!

"No matter how much this administration wishes it to be true, the idea that the situation in Iraq is improving because it only takes a security detail of 100 soldiers, three Blackhawk helicopters, and two Apache gunships to walk through a market in the middle of Baghdad is simply not credible or reflective of the facts on the ground," said Obama in a statement Wednesday referring to a recent McCain visit.

"A power vacuum in Iraq would invite further interference from Iran at a time when Tehran already feels emboldened enough to develop nuclear weapons, threaten Israel and America, and kidnap British sailors," McCain said of the exit timetable proposed by Obama and other Democrats. "If the government collapses in Iraq, which it surely will if we leave prematurely, Iraq's neighbors, from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, Turkey and Egypt, will feel pressure to intervene on the side of their favored factions. This uncertain swirl of events could cause the region to explode and foreclose the opportunity for millions of Muslims and their children to achieve freedom. We could face a terrible choice: Watch the region burn, the price of oil escalate dramatically and our economy decline, watch the terrorists establish new base camps or send American troops back to Iraq, with the odds against our success much worse than they are today."

"What we need today is a surge in honesty," Obama said. "The truth is, the Iraqis have made little progress toward the political solution between Shiia and Sunni which is the last, best hope to end this war. I believe that letting the Iraqi government know America will not be there forever is the best way to pressure the warring factions toward this political settlement."

"Everything's fine," said McCain. "We're moving on, we're moving on, we're moving on."

On Monday, McCain unleashed an unusually biting and blunt broadside against Obama, accusing him of backtracking on a previous commitment to work with McCain in developing a bipartisan proposal for lobbying and ethics reform.

In a letter to Obama on Monday, McCain -- upset by his colleague's support for a reform bill put forward by Democratic leaders as well as a suggestion that McCain's approach might delay the process -- accused Obama of "self-interested partisan posturing" and "disingenuousness."

McCain also told Obama "I understand how important the opportunity to lead your party's efforts to exploit this issue must seem to a freshman senator, and I hold no hard feelings over your earlier disingenuousness. I have been around long enough to appreciate that in politics, the public interest isn't always a priority for every one of us," McCain wrote. "Good luck to you, senator." If McCain wanted to focus on public interest, maybe he'd do what the public wanted, not what he wanted. The public wants the war to end, but McCain has fallen into party line with the "stay the course rhetoric.

In response, Obama sent a letter back to McCain, saying he was "puzzled" by McCain's reaction and insisting he still supported a bipartisan approach to ethics reform.

"The fact that you have now questioned my sincerity and my desire to put aside politics for the public interest is regrettable but does not in any way diminish my deep respect for you, nor my willingness to find a bipartisan solution to this problem," Obama wrote.

What set off McCain was a letter Obama sent him late last week, after he and several other Democrats attended a meeting hosted by McCain to discuss a bipartisan approach to lobbying and ethics reform.

In that letter, Obama expressed support for a reform bill being pushed by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, rather than McCain's proposal for a bipartisan task force to look at legislation.

"I know you have expressed an interest in creating a task force to further study and discuss these matters, but I and others in the Democratic caucus believe the more effective and timely course is to allow the committees of jurisdiction (in the Senate) to roll up their sleeves and get to work on writing ethics and lobbying reform legislation that a majority of the Senate can support," Obama wrote.

In the letter he sent Monday, McCain accused the Democratic leadership of wanting "to use the issue to gain a political advantage in the 2006 elections." And he denied that his task force was designed to short-circuit the Senate committee process.

Obama said he made it clear during last week's meeting that the Democratic caucus would insist that any reform plan go through the normal committee process -- and that he believes Reid's bill "should be the basis for a bipartisan solution."

Substituting for Rush Limbaugh on Limbaugh's radio show, Roger Hedgecock said that the dispute between Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain shows "how Democrats treat African-American" officeholders. According to Hedgecock, "[T]hey get put back on the plantation."