McCain campaigns for George Wallace Jr., Denounced by DNC

[Rose Siding]

BIRMINGHAM -- U.S. Sen. John McCain promised Monday to continue to push for passage of an anti-torture amendment during a visit to Alabama to campaign for Public Service Commissioner George Wallace Jr., a candidate for lieutenant governor.

"The image of the United States is suffering terribly throughout the world, terribly," the Arizona senator and former Vietnam prisoner of war said during a reception he attended on behalf of Wallace. "And if you don't believe me, ask any person in any foreign country."
.....
McCain's Alabama visit drew fire from the Democratic National Committee, which said McCain should have denounced past speeches Wallace has made to the "racist Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC)," a group which opposes "all efforts to mix the races" and advocates U.S. withdrawal from such organizations as the United Nations and the International Monetary Fund.

DNC press secretary Josh Earnest said McCain's endorsement of Wallace without denouncing his "connection" with the CCC was on a par with President Bush's appearance at South Carolina's ultra conservative Bob Jones University during the 2000 presidential primary campaign, when Bush and McCain were opponents.

"Americans deserve better than Republican politicians with presidential ambitions who pander to racist organizations and their apologists," Earnest said.

http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051122/BUSINESS/511220345/1003