WASHINGTON, Feb. 13 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following is being issued by the Democratic National Committee:
After casting himself as a "Maverick" in 2000, the new John McCain is walking in lockstep with President Bush, pandering to the right wing of the Republican Party, and embracing the ideology he once denounced. On the campaign trail McCain has callously abandoned many of his previously held positions, even contradicted himself, in a blatant attempt to remake himself into a candidate Republicans can accept in 2008. So just who is the real John McCain? The Democratic National Committee will present a daily fact aimed at exposing the man behind the myth.
Today's McCain Myth: John McCain can be trusted to reduce the influence of money in politics:
In 2001, the New York Times described Senator McCain as a "champion of strict government regulation of campaign spending," and called campaign finance reform "the issue that propelled his presidential campaign in 2000." [New York Times, 10/22/01]
Today the New York Times reported that "Mr. McCain's advisers said that the candidate, despite his signature legislative efforts to restrict the money spent on political campaigns, would not accept public financing and spending limits for this year's general campaign." [New York Times, 2/13/08]
Gone is the Maverick McCain who sponsored the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform, sought to reduce the role of money in politics, and tried to limit the influence of lobbyists. In his place is Campaign McCain, who has more lobbyists raising campaign cash than any of his rivals, who "let Tom DeLay and the other members of Congress who were doing Abramoff's bidding completely off the hook," and who failed to "include the names of prominent U.S. Senators with Abramoff ties" and Bush Administration officials like Karl Rove -- who accepted gifts from Abramoff clients -- out of his committee's report. [Washington Post, 12/31/07; Huffington Post, 2/12/08] And the John McCain who co-sponsored legislation to require grassroots lobbying organizations to report details of their activities and finances in the last Congress, voted against the bill in 2007. [Washington Post, 2/11/07; Los Angeles Times, 3/8/06; The Hill, 1/18/07; S.Amdt.20 to S.1, Vote #17, 1/18/07, agreed to 55-43; R: 48-0, D: 7-43, McCain voted "Yea"]
So much for Mr. Campaign Finance Reform.
Paid for and authorized by the Democratic National Committee, http://www.democrats.org/. This communication is not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.
Democratic National Committee
