HuffPo’s attempts at moral relativism fall flat

Yesterday, the HuffPo attempted to link McCain to former PLO operative and longtime associate of Barack Obama Rashid Khalidi:

In regards to Khalidi, however, the guilt-by-association game burns John McCain as well.

During the 1990s, while he served as chairman of the International Republican Institute (IRI), McCain distributed several grants to the Palestinian research center co-founded by Khalidi, including one worth half a million dollars.

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. (See grant number 5180, “West Bank: CPRS” on page 14 of this PDF.)

The relationship extends back as far as 1993, when John McCain joined IRI as chairman in January. Foreign Affairs noted in September of that year that IRI had helped fund several extensive studies in Palestine run by Khalidi’s group, including over 30 public opinion polls and a study of “sociopolitical attitudes.”

Of course, there’s seemingly nothing objectionable with McCain’s organization helping a Palestinian group conduct research in the West Bank or Gaza. But it does suggest that McCain could have some of his own explaining to do as he tries to make hay out of Khalidi’s ties to Obama.

I’m going to check the HuffPo sourcing later, but assuming all the i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed with it, do they not honestly not see the difference in Obama’s close relationship to Khalidi – even knowing the kind of person Khalidi was – to a group McCain chaired 10 years ago giving grant money to a group Khalidi was co-chair of?  Do they honestly not see that it’s not just Obama’s association with Khalidi that is troublesome, but alongside it the ties to Bill Ayers and other radical leftists who share similar views about America?

It’s very convenient of the HuffPo to cherrypick this to make it look like McCain is no better than Obama on the issue, but once again this is a pattern with Obama: He has reportedly toasted Khalidi (did McCain even know Khalidi was co-chair of the group, and if so did he know about Khalidi’s PLO ties?), and reportedly Obama’s children were even babysat by the Khalidis, and Obama has indicated that he  knows that Khalidi has controversial views on the issue of Israel – yet he still saw (sees?) fit to associate with an outrageous figure who has condoned the use of violence against Jews?  Not only that, but again, you’ve got the black liberation theologist and purveyer of “social justice” Rev. Wright – a man who believes we deserved 9-11 and who has praised the Jew-hating Louis F., you’ve got unrepentant domestic terrorist Bill Ayers who believes we deserved 9-11, white guilt sufferer Father Phleger (sp?) and other radical left ties.  If McCain had this many associations with rad righties he’d have been laughed out of the primaries early on.  The media would have jumped his behind over them (and rightly so).   Yet, because it’s Obama, most in the mainstream media have given these connections little to no attention – with the exception of the Rev. Wright issue, and that was only after “Faux News” and ABC ran the tapes of Wright bashing America relentlessly to the point the rest of the media had no choice but to weigh in.

A perfect example of the media’s blatant willingness to cover for Obama is the fact that the LAT still refuses to release a tape of Barack Obama praising Khalidi in 2003 at a banquet in Khalidi’s honor.  Show of hands how many of you believe that the LAT would have taken the same approach had this been McCain toasting a radical right figure sympathetic to violence against another group of people?

I didn’t think so.

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