Posted by Jed Lewison on Sun Apr 20, 2008 at 5:46 PM Pacific

John McCain hearts Karl Rove

If nothing else became clear this week, it should now be obvious that John McCain will not eschew Karl Rove-style politics this campaign season. In fact, he's already embraced them. On Friday, he sent supporters an e-mail falsely suggesting that Barack Obama had ties to Hamas. Today -- unprompted (edit: it wasn't unprompted after all) -- he parroted the Clinton-Hannity-Stephanopolous line of attack and falsely claimed Barack Obama supported William Ayers' violent acts -- acts which Barack Obama has repeatedly denounced as detestable.

McCain said the thing that outraged him most was Obama's reference to Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn during the debate. Here's what Obama said:

This is a guy who lives in my neighborhood, who's a professor of English in Chicago, who I know and who I have not received some official endorsement from. He's not somebody who I exchange ideas from on a regular basis.

And the notion that somehow as a consequence of me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago when I was 8 years old, somehow reflects on me and my values, doesn't make much sense, George.

The fact is, is that I'm also friendly with Tom Coburn, one of the most conservative Republicans in the United States Senate, who during his campaign once said that it might be appropriate to apply the death penalty to those who carried out abortions.

Do I need to apologize for Mr. Coburn's statements? Because I certainly don't agree with those either.

So this kind of game, in which anybody who I know, regardless of how flimsy the relationship is, is somehow -- somehow their ideas could be attributed to me -- I think the American people are smarter than that. They're not going to suggest somehow that that is reflective of my views, because it obviously isn't.

Here's McCain's response, according to Jake Tapper:

"The worst thing of all, that I think really indicates Senator Obama's attitude, is he had the incredible statement that he compared Mr. Ayers, an unrepentant terrorist, with Senator Tom Coburn, Senator Coburn, a physician who goes to Oklahoma on the weekends and brings babies into life," McCain said. "It's very insulting to a great man, a great doctor, a great humanitarian... (H)ow can you countenance someone who was engaged in bombings which could have or did kill innocent people?"

After Stephanopoulos pointed out that Obama had said he doesn't agree with comments Ayers has made, McCain said, "Doesn't agree with them? Does he condemn them? Would he condemn someone who says that they're unrepentant and wished that they had bombed more?"

A few points here.

First, Obama's point was clear: he was saying that the mere fact that he knows someone does not mean that he agrees with everything that they said. He wasn't drawing an absolute parallel -- in fact, it's clear that Obama has a closer relationship with Coburn (with whom he has passed legislation) than he does with Ayers.

More notably, McCain falsely accused Obama of supporting Ayers' violent actions. He seems to have backed off a little bit, but McCain knows better. He's either mentally unfit to be president or he knew that he was lying, because Barack Obama has made it clear, repeatedly, that he finds Ayers violent activities to have been detestable.

The final point is the most important point, and it's where we need to start thinking about making the biggest pushback.

Clinton, Rove, and McCain are trying to paint a portrait of a radically violent American left. Like all things though, you have to ask: compared to what?

And the truth is that compared to the right-wing domestic terrorism -- even just abortion-related terrorism -- the right-wing in this country has been far more violent than the left, especially in recent years. According to  NARAL:

A campaign of violence, vandalism, and intimidation is endangering providers and patients and curtailing the availability of abortion services. Since 1993, seven clinic workers – including three doctors, two clinic employees, a clinic escort, and a security guard – have been murdered in the United States. Seventeen attempted murders have also occurred since 1991. In fact, opponents of choice have directed more than 5,600 reported acts of violence against abortion providers since 1977, including bombings, arsons, death threats, kidnappings, and assaults, as well as more than 132,000 reported acts of disruption, including bomb threats and harassing calls.

Viewed in that violent context, Coburn's view that doctors who perform abortions be given the death penalty takes on a far more ominous tone.

I am aware of no such equivalent on the left.

Meanwhile, what is John McCain's record on abortion clinic violence?

Again, according to NARAL:

• McCain voted against the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE), which makes it a crime to forcibly interfere with women's access to reproductive-health facilities.
• McCain voted to allow perpetrators of violence or harassment at reproductive-health clinics to avoid paying the fines assessed against them for their illegal acts by declaring bankruptcy.

If this is the kind of campaign John McCain wants to run, he's entitled to his own decision.

But he's not entitled to his own facts.