|
June 12, 2008
Posted: 02:05 PM ET
From CNN Political Producer Alexander Marquardt (CNN) – The day after Jim Johnson resigned from Barack Obama’s vice presidential candidate vetting committee, John McCain set his sights on Eric Holder — one of the two remaining members of the committee. “I think people in the media and observers will make a decision as to whether these people, individuals, should be part of Senator Obama’s campaign,” McCain told reporters in Boston. “I think it is a matter of record that Mr. Holder recommended the pardoning of Mr. [Marc] Rich.” WATCH CNN's Analysis of Johnson's resignation Rich was a commodities trader who fled to Europe in 1983 following tax evasion charges and allegations of illegal oil dealings with Iran. He was pardoned by former President Bill Clinton at the end of his second term while Holder was deputy attorney general. Critics of the pardon noted Rich's wife, Denise, was a generous contributor to the Democratic Party and the Clinton Library.
Johnson stepped aside amid criticism that he received a favorable mortgage from Countrywide Financial, a company Obama routinely attacks on the stump. “All those things will be taken into consideration by the media and the American people, especially when you are entrusting individuals with one of the most important decisions that a presidential candidate can make before that individual is elected and that is who the running mate is,” McCain added. Obama spokesman Hari Sevugan responded the McCain's comments, pointing to McCain's VP search head, longtime Washington insider A. B. Culvahouse. "It’s telling that John McCain - whose Vice Presidential search process is headed by a prominent DC lobbyist who served as the Reagan Administration’s point man on the Iran-Contra scandal - would try to recycle a tired attack on Mr. Holder rather than talk about the issues on a day when a nonpartisan report shows that the Barack Obama would provide three times as much tax relief to middle class families and John McCain would provide nearly a quarter of his tax cuts to households that make more $2.8 million," Sevugan said Along with Holder, Caroline Kennedy is also serving on Obama's VP search team. Filed under: Barack Obama John McCain
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||