Tonight, John McCain will attend a fundraiser for his presidential campaign in Michigan. According to the invitation, he will be joined by the chair of his Michigan Victory 08 committee, John Rakolta, Jr., and McCain Michigan co-chairman Robert Liggett. What the invitation does not say, however, is that Rakolta and Liggett were two of the key backers of an organization that helped finance an ad that compared Democrats to Adolf Hitler in the 2006 election. Rakolta and his wife contributed $10,000 to a group called Voice the Vote, which used the money to buy a newspaper ad that compared Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm and a procession of Democratic presidents to Hitler. [Associated Press, 3/21/07; McCain campaign invitation, via: http://www.debbieschlussel.com/archives/2008/04/exclusive_who_i.html (accessed 5/5/08)]

Rakolta is just one of a troubling circle of radical friends and cronies surrounding McCain. As the Chicago Tribune noted this week, McCain has praised G. Gordon Liddy and attended fundraisers in his home despite the fact that Liddy served a four-year prison term for his role in the Watergate break in. He spent a year seeking the endorsement of Rev. John Hagee, despite Hagee's history of anti-Catholic, anti-women, anti-LGBT, and anti-African American rhetoric. McCain's former campaign manager, Terry Nelson, was responsible for a racist ad against Harold Ford in 2006. McCain himself even campaigned for George Wallace, Jr., a known apologist for racist groups.

"John McCain consistently says he will be a new kind of Republican, but time and time again he surrounds himself with some of the most radical and inflammatory voices in his Party," said Democratic National Committee Communications Director Karen Finney. "McCain's failure to distance himself from people who compare political opponents to Hitler, propose kidnapping war protesters, or defend radical organizations is one more reason John McCain is the wrong choice for America's future. If McCain is willing to stoop to this level, he truly will do anything to win."

McCain's Friends on the Fringe

HITLER AD FINANCIER JOHN RAKOLTA

Voice the Vote Bankrolled by Rakolta, Liggett and Cummings Families. Michigan's Voice the Vote PAC, which was active during the 2006 mid-term elections, "placed a racially charged ad…in a weekly Detroit newspaper that compared Gov. Jennifer Granholm and other Democrats to Adolf Hitler.." According to campaign finance records, "state Republican fund-raising heavyweights Julie and Peter Cummings, John and Terry Rakolta and Robert Liggett contributed more than two-thirds of the cash the group raised." [Detroit Free Press, 3/15/07]

Voice the Vote PAC Produced Ad Comparing Democrats to Adolf Hitler. In 2006, the Detroit-based political action committee Voice the Vote ran ads in the Michigan Chronicle that "featured photographs of Hitler, Granholm and former Democratic presidents, claiming Granholm was the latest in a long line of Democrats to take black voters for granted." [Detroit Free Press, 3/15/07]

WATERGATE CONSPIRATOR G. GORDON LIDDY

McCain Praises Liddy's Values, Says He's "Proud" of Him. "In 1998, Liddy's home was the site of a McCain fundraiser. Over the years, he has made at least four contributions totaling $5,000 to the senator's campaigns--including $1,000 this year. Last November, McCain went on his radio show. Liddy greeted him as 'an old friend,' and McCain sounded like one. 'I'm proud of you, I'm proud of your family,' he gushed. 'It's always a pleasure for me to come on your program, Gordon, and congratulations on your continued success and adherence to the principles and philosophies that keep our nation great.'" [Chicago Tribune, 5/4/08]

Liddy Plotted Murder, Plotted to Kidnap War Protesters, Has No Regrets Over Watergate Role. "Which principles would those be? The ones that told Liddy it was fine to break into the office of the Democratic National Committee to plant bugs and photograph documents? The ones that made him propose to kidnap anti-war activists so they couldn't disrupt the 1972 Republican National Convention? The ones that inspired him to plan the murder (never carried out) of an unfriendly newspaper columnist? Liddy was in the thick of the biggest political scandal in American history--and one of the greatest threats to the rule of law. He has said he has no regrets about what he did, insisting that he went to jail as 'a prisoner of war.'" [Chicago Tribune, 5/4/08]

RADICAL REVEREND JOHN HAGEE

McCain Spent One Year Courting Hagee Endorsement. "In an interview that will appear in this Sunday's New York Times Magazine, controversial televangelist Rev. John Hagee declares, 'It's true that [John] McCain's campaign sought my endorsement.' McCain has attempted to distance himself from some of Hagee's views, much as Barack Obama is doing in relation to Rev. Jeremiah Wright. But unlike McCain, Obama has not stood on stage with Wright and accepted his accolades this year." Editor and Publisher, 3/20/08]

Rev. John Hagee on Hurricane Katrina: "All hurricanes are acts of God because God controls the heavens. I believe that New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God and they were recipients of the judgment of God for that." [NPR Fresh Air, 9/18/06]

• Hagee Repeated Claim: "The topic of that day was cursing and blessing… What happened in New Orleans looked like the curse of God, in time if New Orleans recovers and becomes the pristine city it can become it may in time be called a blessing. But at this time it's called a curse… In the case of New Orleans, their plan to have that homosexual rally was sin. But it never happened. The rally never happened." [Dennis Prager Radio show, 4/22/08]

Hagee on African Americans: The San Antonio Express-News reported that Hagee was going to "meet with black religious leaders privately at an unspecified future date to discuss comments he made in his newsletter about a 'slave sale,' an East Side minister said Wednesday." The Express-News reported: "Hagee, pastor of the 16,000-member Cornerstone Church, last week had announced a 'slave sale' to raise funds for high school seniors in his church bulletin, 'The Cluster.' "The item was introduced with the sentence 'Slavery in America is returning to Cornerstone" and ended with "Make plans to come and go home with a slave." [San Antonio Express-News, 3/7/96]

Hagee on Catholicism: "Most readers will be shocked by the clear record of history linking Adolf Hitler and the Roman Catholic Church in a conspiracy to exterminate the Jews." [Jerusalem Countdown by John Hagee]

Hagee on Women: "Do you know the difference between a woman with PMS and a snarling Doberman pinscher? The answer is lipstick. Do you know the difference between a terrorist and a woman with PMS? You can negotiate with a terrorist." [God's Profits: Faith, Fraud and the Republican Crusade for Values Voters, Sarah Posner]

More Hagee on Women: "[T]he feminist movement today is throwing off authority in rebellion against God's pattern for the family." ["Bible Positions on Political Issues," John Hagee]

RACIST AD CREATOR TERRY NELSON

Racist Ad Against Harold Ford Approved By Terry Nelson, Former Senior McCain Strategist. Terry Nelson, who served as McCain's campaign manager in 2006 and part of 2007, was the head of the independent expenditures operation for the RNC responsible for the content of the advertisements run against African American Senate candidate Harold Ford that experts said played on racial fears of voters. "John Geer, a professor at Vanderbilt University and a specialist in political advertising, said that it 'is playing to a lot of fears' and 'frankly makes the Willie Horton ad look like child's play.'" Despite Nelson's role in approving the ad, McCain strategist John Weaver said that the campaign had no intention of firing him. [New York Times, 10/27/06; Washington Post, 7/11/2007; New York Times, 10/26/2006]

• Washington Head of NAACP Said Ad Plays To Racial Fears. Hilary Shelton, Washington director of the NAACP, said the ad plays off racial fears of some voters. "In a Southern state like Tennessee, some stereotypes still exist…There's very clearly some racial subtext in an ad like that." [AP, 10/26/2006]

MLK HOLIDAY OPPONENT RICHARD QUINN

Richard Quinn, McCain's South Carolina Spokesman, Criticized the MLK Holiday as "Vitriolic and Profane." Richard Quinn, identified as "McCain's South Carolina strategist" in 2008, also worked for the Senator in the 2000 campaign. In 1983, Quinn wrote a column "arguing against the recognition of Martin Luther King Day," saying, "King Day should have been rejected because its purpose is vitriolic and profane. The Black leaders who lobbied so furiously for King Day confirmed another unpleasant reality. By celebrating King as the incarnation of all they admire, they have chosen to glorify the histrionic rather than by heroic and by inference they spurned the brightest and best among their own race." [Greenville News, 3/16/2008; Spartanburg Herald-Journal, 1/6/2006; Philadelphia Tribune, 2/22/2000]

• Quinn Served As Editor Of Magazine Described As "Rabidly Devoted To The South's Confederate Heritage." In its November 2004 issue, Vanity Fair described Southern Partisan, the magazine of which Richard Quinn served as editor, as "rabidly devoted to the South's Confederate heritage." [Vanity Fair, 11/2004]
• Quinn Praised Ku Klux Klan Member David Duke. In Southern Partisan, Quinn praised David Duke in a 1990 entry, writing, "what better way to reject politics-as-usual than to elect a maverick like David Duke?" [Newsday, 2/17/2000]
• McCain Repeatedly Defended Quinn, Refused To Fire Him Despite Views. In 2000, when the group, People For the American Way, called on McCain to fire Richard Quinn, McCain defended him saying, "this is a fine man who worked for Ronald Reagan and Strom Thurmond and other fine people." In a 2000 ABC News interview, McCain said Quinn was "a man who is very intelligent, and a man who has done a great job for me in the state of South Carolina. And I do not believe that he is a racist." [Associated Press, 2/18/2000; ABC News, "This Week," 2/6/2000]

HATE GROUP DEFENDER GEORGE WALLACE, JR.

McCain Endorsed George Wallace Jr., Called Him A "Committed Conservative Reformer," Despite Speeches to Hate Group. In November 2005, McCain visited three Alabama cities to endorse George Wallace Jr. for lieutenant governor. McCain said, "I'm proud to offer my support to this committed conservative reformer. George will bring great leadership and integrity to the lieutenant governor's office." [AP, 11/17/2005]

• Wallace Spoke Repeatedly To White Supremacist Group. Wallace had spoken on numerous occasions to the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC), a white supremacist hate group; once in 1998, twice during 1999, and gave the opening remarks to their national meeting in June of 2005. The audience for his speech included "Don Black, proprietor of Stormfront.org, the most influential hate site on the Internet, and former Alabama grand dragon of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan; Jamie Kelso, right-hand man and Louisiana roommate of former Klan leader David Duke; Jared Taylor, editor of the neo-eugenicist American Renaissance magazine; Alabama CCC leader Leonard "Flagpole" Wilson, who got his nickname shouting "Keep Bama white!" from atop a flagpole during the University of Alabama race riots in 1956." [Southern Poverty Law Center, Intelligence Report, "Into the Mainstream," Summer 2005, http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=541 ]
• Wallace Said There Was "Nothing Hateful" About The CCC. After speaking to the Council of Conservative Citizens, George Wallace Jr. said the group appeared to him to be "good patriotic people…There is nothing hateful about those people that I've seen." According to the Associated Press, "the Council of Conservative Citizens says it opposes interracial marriage, massive immigration of non-European and non-Western peoples, hate crime legislation, and multicultural and 'Afrocentric' curricula in schools." [AP, 6/6/2005]