One thing that bothers about John McCain is his ties to left-wing groups like George Soros. In 2001 McCain started a group called the Reform Institute and accepted contributions George Soros’ Open Society Institute and Teresa Heinz Kerry’s Tides Foundation and others. The Tides Foundation is a non-profit organization with a history of funding causes such as abortion, homosexual-rights activism and open borders. In fact it was founded by Drummond Pike in 1976 who is an anti-war activist. Not exactly a bastion of conservative thinkers. This is why some conservative folks are steadfastly denying that McCain is conservative… just a liberal wrapped up in a conservative sheepskin. Can’t blame them.
McCain dropped ties with the Reform Institute in 2006 after it was made public that there was a $200,000 contribution from Cablevision. McCain received the donation for the Reform Institute by using his position with the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation to write an influential letter to the Federal Communications Commission on behalf of Cablevision. Does not seem like a history of bringing change to Washington… instead it sounds like business as usual… one hand washes the other. Yet I have not heard anyone on FoxNews (especially O’Reilly who is a Soros buster) mention the ties between McCain and Soros. Perhaps I missed it.
Another troubling fact is that Dr. Juan Hernandez serves as a Senior Fellow of the Reform Institute’s Comprehensive Immigration Reform Initiative. His position on immigration is that we should have a transparent border with Mexico. Not an opinion I share. The same Dr. Juan Hernandez serves as an unpaid volunteer on McCain’s campaign. McCain’s “close the border” stance does not jive with Hernandez’s open border stance. I suppose McCain could be using Hernandez to woo Latino voters… I just hope it is not like the spider and the fly.
This criticism will start coming up more and more. The axiom is true… your character is judged by whom you associate yourself. Quite honestly, I can applaud McCain for reaching to the other side in an attempt to find common ground on which to build. But it seems that McCain is far too deep into the liberal mentality… beyond what most would consider “reaching out”.
Hopefully this issue will not go away in the next few weeks and months. In fact the scrutiny needs to intensify. McCain needs to explain in detail his current position and past relationships with these people. He needs to explains the rationale for his deep involvement in the Reform Institute.
Filed under: 2008 Elections
