Howard Dean: McCain Has a Problem of Saying One Thing and Doing Another

March 2, 2008 -- Today on CNN's Late Edition, Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean highlighted John McCain's hypocrisy on the campaign trail. Citing McCain's efforts to skirt the same campaign finance laws he once championed and his failure this week to denounce John Hagee who has made discriminatory comments, Chairman Dean contended that John McCain "has not made a case for his honesty."

Echoing George Will who called John McCain a "situational ethicist" in a recent column, Dean pointed out McCain's long-term pattern of doing favors for friends going back to the Keating Five scandal. Dean said McCain is offering Americans four more years of George Bush, especially given that he said he would keep U.S. troops in Iraq for 100 years and supported Bush's veto of children's health care. [Washington Post, 2/28/08]

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Below are excerpts from his interview:

John McCain's Hypocrisy on Campaign Finance Reform:

"John McCain is a flawed candidate. Here is a guy who is a typical situational ethicist. He runs on his integrity but he doesn't seem to have any. We're familiar with the fact that he got on the ballot in Ohio with what now turns out to be false pretenses. He qualified because he was taking public financing and now he says he's not going to. He doesn't have permission from the F.E.C to do that."

"This is a long-term pattern with John McCain. Let's not forget that this is the John McCain that took $100,000 in campaign contributions and flew on corporate jets for the savings and loan magnate Charles Keating who is now serving jail time or was serving jail time. The John McCain that he says he is is not who John McCain is. He's a situational ethicist very much like George Bush."

John McCain's Embrace of John Hagee:

"And just this week he refused to denounce and reject John Hagee, a militant anti-catholic, right-wing pastor. John McCain has a history of doing what it takes regardless of what the ethics of this are. I think he's going to be a flawed candidate. I don't think people want four more years of what is essentially George Bush."

"John McCain has a problem with personal integrity. He has a problem of saying one thing and doing another. What about John Hagee? What about a guy who is a vicious anti-Catholic, who is supporting John McCain and John McCain does not denounce or reject him, as Barack Obama did to Louis Farrakhan. That is the kind of stuff that really bothers Americans. People arguing over philosophy is not a problem. We can have our disagreements with John McCain. Maybe people want to stay in Iraq for 100 years. That's fair game. But people will not elect somebody who they don't think is honest and I don't think John McCain has made a case for his honesty."

John McCain Represents a Third Bush Term:

"He thinks it's great to stay in Iraq for 100 years, thought it was terrific that George Bush vetoed children's health care. I don't want... four more years of George Bush and I think that's what John McCain offers us."

Source: DNC