Saddleback Spokesman on Code-of-Silence-Gate

[RamboLiberal]

Source: ABC News

A. Larry Ross, a spokesman for Saddleback Church and Pastor Rick Warren, says that the campaign of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has assured the organizers of Saturday night's "Civil Forum" that McCain did not "see or hear any of Senator Obama's appearance."

But as for the question the McCain campaign won't answer -- did anyone with McCain, given the questions via email or cell phone, share them with the senator -- Ross says, "I cannot speak to that."

Before the forum, Ross says, "both candidates agreed to the format of two consecutive interviews." Based on a coin toss, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, went first, and both candidates also "agreed to and understood that in order to maintain a level playing field, Sen. McCain wouldn't see or hear any of Sen. Obama's appearance."

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Ross demurred when asked if it bothers him or Pastor Warren that the McCain campaign has so far refused to say no one told the senator about the questions Obama was asked, though he did note that "the language the McCain campaign used" in its conversations with Saddleback officials was that he didn't hear or see the broadcast itself.



Read more: http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/08/saddleb...

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That McCain's people aren't talking confirms to me that they at least were briefing him on what Obama was already asked and answered.

I like it's been labeled Cone-Of-Silence-Gate! Come on MSM - do your frickin' job!

[kansasblue]

1. Question needs asked: Did Warren give McCain the questions in advance.

Warren in the middle of the debate says to McCain.

'Good, you got my questions'

[Binka]

4. It Was A Tell Mobsters Do It All The Time These Fucks Are Criminals

DOUCHEBAG Warren with his purpose driven LIE, gave John the questions in advance.

[DissedByBush]

24. Yes he did

But then he telegraphed his questions to everyone in advance.

So much for a true debate.

It doesn't bother me even if McCain knew because all it means is the joint press conferences that pass for presidential debate these days got a little more interesting.

[bjobotts]

25. They torture and lie about it, lied us into a war, joke about bombing Iran

and your so naive that you wonder if McCain "cheated", after all the lies his campaign has told about Obama??? Please...just memorize this so you'll not get fooled again. From Driftglass:


"...After all, if the last 30 years of GOP politics has proven anything, it’s that Conservative horse-shit has a "strong influence on the weak-minded".

…1. Never trust these motherfuckers. Ever. They will never leave the business of winning and losing to anything that smells of "free and fair", because they know if they do they'll lose every time. Every game they run is crooked, every piety they utter is a lie, and every deck they deal from is stacked, marked and frozen.

So...

2. Never, ever fight them on ground of their choosing..."

Which is exactly what Obama did. Warren is no saint and there were 40 million abortions "before" Roe V Wade too. It's "pro-choice" not "pro-abortion" you idiot. All Republican safe questions, all republican frame work. A presidential campaign event held in a Christian Mega-church and moderated by a preacher of the right wing persuasion.

FUCKING IDIOTS.

[Democrats_win]

2. Rules are meant to be broken especially if you're a lying, low-life Republican.

[C_U_L8R]

3. Then why did they mention "cone of silence" multiple times?

They seemed to make quite a big deal that McCain would
be sequestered where he could not hear or be told the questions or answers.
Why did they bring up the subject so many times if it was ENTIRELY UNTRUE ????

Someone needs to put these deceptive little creeps on the spot to explain themselves.

[Another Joe]

34. PLEASE SEE MY POST BELOW

about how the PR firm has tried to cover this up - they claim it was "parenthetical" and we should know, because warren laughed when he said it.

Foolish us for taking a preacher at his word - LOOK OUT, when warren laughs he is actually telling you that lies follow!

[Name removed]

5. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[kestrel91316]

6. McCain didn't HAVE to see or hear it. All he needed was his lackeys

in a position to do so and then relay critical information to him and coach him.

Plus, there was nothing to stop the good preacher from asking questions that were tailored to fit with McCain's stump speeches.

[Bozita]

7. Legs. The story needs to grow some sturdy legs.

Good on ABC News.

[wordpix]

8. I'm pleasantly surprised ABC is covering this---kudos to ABC!

[Bluenorthwest]

9. Rick Warren lied

And that must be driven home. This homophobic hypocrite lies with an ease of the devil himself. He's a liar, and his 'church' a house of mendacity.

[NorthCarolina]

10. Rick Warren must be a matchbook cover Preacher

since "Honesty" and "Truth" can be sacrificed for "agenda" in his form Christianity.

[tridim]

11. I hope he enjoys extremely hot places.

[Diane R]

18. I don't care about Warren. McCain cheated..THAT's the story that needs to spread.

[Another Joe]

35. ITS WORSE THEN THAT

His PR firm claims that when warren laughs, everything he says is parenthetical - we should not believe him cuz he's, you know, joking.

According to his PR firm, every time warren laughs, he is telling us that what he has said is a lie. I know that he laughs during parts of his sermons - guess then he is telling his parish that he has just told a lie.

[Bozita]

12. And now we learn that McCain VOTED FOR the bear study. Yup, the one he ridiculed.

take a look ...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[MadrasT]

16. Aw, come on...

You expect him to actually remember how he voted???

[bjobotts]

26. $12 BILLION SHRINK WRAPPED BILLS LOST IN A WAR ZONE AND HE'S TALKING 3MIL BEARS

[Limelight]

13. My bible tells me that God hates unbalanced scales...

In other words God doesn't like cheaters.

And now that I think about it... that's two marks against McCain...

[happygoluckytoyou]

14. McCain, I won't tell you the question but it rhymes with "Are you a BASShole"

[Bluenorthwest]

15. Here's to the mods!

Go mods!

[bobd0]

31. Here's to hypersensitivity and censorship!

Go hypersensitivity and censorship!

What are you going to do next? Rewrite the seven dirty words?

You got the mods to delete the sub-thread you over-reacted to, wasn't that enough? Did you really need to get a last dig in?

Hey, Mods, in fairness, shouldn't you delete Bluenorthwest's sub-thread too? What does it have to do with the discussion?

[David Zephyr]

17. The "Cone of Fucking Hypocrisy and Cheating".

These self-professed "men of god" are all a bunch of phonies.

Their seared concsciences are no more refined than that of Charlie Manson.

[rinsd]

19. Looks like ABC didn't like McCain complaining to the NBC.

[cadaverdog]

20. What's so hard to figure out?

They said McCain was riding in a motorcade over to Saddleback. The event was broadcast on the friggin radio in real time. You telling me they didn't have the radios in the limos tuned into what Obama was saying? Hel-lo.

[Cosmocat]

38. Two letters - X and M ...

No FREAKIN WAY, not a chance he wasn't listening to the broadcast ...

His ride left his hotel at fricken 8:01 ...

[CitizenPatriot]

21. who got this on their cell phone?

c'mon mccain peeps- we know you have issues with your dude. upload the video!!!

[oldskool]

22. Why is everyone freaking out

about a RW religious forum? Everyone knows they lie and cheat.
It was a McCain crowd to begin with. The talking heads are
given their talking points too. Not really a big surprise.

[bobd0]

32. I think everyone is freaking out because they keep doing it with impunity

And without the Republican controlled media informing the average American moron that this keeps happening. It's very frustrating to think that those people out at Saddleback, as well as so many other Americans, have blinders on that work so well that they'll keep electing scum like McCain even after eight disastrous years of scum like Bush and Cheney.

IT's eight o'clock. I'm going to watch KO and try to get my spirits up.

[Hulk]

23. Yeah...I'll believe the lying snake in the grass....

Like, get real! "Just ask john mcAncient or his staff..." That'll solve the problem.

Warren f*cked up...he knows he f*cked up, and mcSame's camp got one up on the questions. Simple and honest.

Did it make a difference? Not really. He was ready with some answers...for once. But they still sucked...and so does he and his whole fascist "snake in the grass" party.

GL old man. You're gonna need all you can get...just to keep from looking like a total dunce in these debates and the rest of this campaign. Hope the beer-wife has got her condo in Hawaii dusted off, cause your vacation/retirement is in sight.

[Canuckistanian]

27. I LOVE that there's a big deal about this

Anything to distract from McCain's message.

While he's fighting fires, Obama's team can take a breather and plan the next move.

This is pretty sad for an "attack", but I'm glad to see everyone's taking it seriously.

[bulloney]

28. Saddleback staff: "Did you hear any of Obama's responses?" McCain staff: "Nope,"

Saddleback: "That's good enough for us. Case dismissed."

This whole thing smells fishy. If there was a coin toss to determine who's questioned first, how was that done if McCain arrived a half-hour late?

These questions and answers are likely based on semantics. McCain himself likely didn't listen to the Obama interview, but his staff could have and gave McCain a quick rehearsal on the questions to expect and how to trump any responses Obama had. McCain was too quick to respond to Rev. Warren's questions for me to believe he wasn't briefed on questions to expect from Warren.

Rev. Warren preceded the Obama interview by talking as though McCain was in the building and participated in any pre-interview activities, such as the coin toss.

And when Andrea Mitchell raises questions on this whole thing, you know something smells rotten in Denmark.

[gauguin57]

29. "Sorry about that, Chief!"

Cone of silence, my foot.

[orleans]

30. dirty as the day is long. cheat? of couse they did. they want to win, right?

look at the fuckhead--he cheated this country through TWO elections!

[Another Joe]

33. ACCORDING TO "REV" WARREN'S PR FIRM

he was just "joking" when he said "code of silence" - that if you were watching, he was laughing. It was not suppose to mean that he was in the building or that any precautions were taken to ensure he had no information about the interview.

They insist it was just a "gentleman's agreement" and that each candidate was on the honor system. They acknowledge that mccain was not in the building (even though warren clearly said he was).

They claim to "guarantee" that mccain could not have gotten any information about questions or answers. They cannot say how they can "guarantee" this because of the Secret Service.

In other words, exactly the kind of talk you would expect from a PR or marketing firm - TOTAL BULL!

[SleeplessinSoCal]

40. Not only were they deceptive, but they charged a fortune to witness it.....

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/church-tickets-event...

[mistertrickster]

36. THIS IS HUGE! The 'Pukes don't get to have their "character issues" when it comes to

Democrats and then ignore cheating and lying about cheating when it comes to CONs.

We need to go medieval on their ass with this.

[bluerum]

37. Frankly, if McCone himself watched I don't think that he would have been

that well prepared. He is a dolt and would have spent an hour formulating a response to the first question.

However, it is becoming increasingly obvious that his aides were watching, parsing the questions and briefing him with high impact answers before he went on.

They are lying scum.

Lower than whale shit.

Unworthy of the trust of the American people.

[Caretha]

41. ding ding ding

you got it!

[TomInTib]

39. NBC News is going to feature this.

At least, that's what I just heard Brian Williams say on the TV set.

[Supersedeas]

42. ambush at the Saddleback shoot-em up

[humbled_opinion]

43. Who cares anyway...

If people don't realize by now that the Rethuglicans are lying cheating immoral SOB's then they will never learn until they are being lined up to go in the gas chambers themselves. Obama did just fine... If McCain cheated he didn't do a very good job at it anyway. This election belongs to Obama in a landslide...

Just support our candidate... Screw the other side... i.e., they are using this debacle to try and paint the Democratic party esp. the Obama campaign as whiners and complainers....

Obama stands very well on his own...He can go anytime anyplace against any rethug and win. America is done with the Conservative standards they have awoken to the truth that it is pure murderous evil. At lease thats what Bush poll numbers tell me... LOL...