Late Friday evening, the McCain campaign responded to a letter sent to Attorney General Michael Mukasey earlier that day that called on the Justice Department to allow special prosecutor Nora Dannehy to add recent allegations of partisan misconduct within the department to her investigation of the 2006 U.S. attorney firings.
Ben Porritt, a spokesman for the McCain campaign, says the letter written by Robert Bauer, general counsel for the Obama presidential campaign and a Perkins Coie partner, falsely accuses Sen. John McCain and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin of turning ACORN into a "sham anti-fraud campaign."
The McCain campaign has accused the group of committing voter fraud by submitting invalid voter registration forms. The Obama campaign has denied any affiliation with ACORN.
“After a week of shifting stories and clumsy corrections in regards to Barack Obama’s connections to ACORN, the Obama campaign resorted to their now-customary heavy handed tactic of attempting to criminalize political discourse," Porritt said in a statement. "Today’s outrageous letter to Attorney General Mukasey and Special Prosecutor Dannehy at the Justice Department asking for a special prosecutor to investigate Senator McCain and Governor Palin’s public statements about ACORN's record of fraudulent voter registrations, including in this week’s Presidential debate, is absurd. It is a typical time-worn Washington attempt to criminalize political differences.”
"....criminalize political differences.”
When crimes are committed in the course of furthering a political agenda, of course the perpetrators should be prosecuted. The claim of "political differences" is no defense.
Posted by: John Q | October 23, 2008 at 03:48 PM