Newt Gingrich Offers $50,000 For Video of Barack Obama with Palestinian Rashid Khalidi, McCain Campaign Accused LA Times of Withholding

These Republicans just cannot accept the fact that they may lose the next presidential election. The McCain campaign has accused the LA Times of suppressing an Obama video. The LA Times said that its promise to the source prevents it from posting the video, which shows Barack Obama praising Palestinian activist Rashid Khalidi at a 2003 banquet. Is this another Rev. Jeremiah Wright type? What is amazing is that this story has been out there since April, 2008, and McCain, Gingrich and company have now decided to press the issue six days before the election? Smells like a rat to me.

"A major news organization is intentionally suppressing information that could provide a clearer link between Barack Obama and Rashid Khalidi," said McCain campaign spokesman Michael Goldfarb. " . . . The election is one week away, and it's unfortunate that the press so obviously favors Barack Obama that this campaign must publicly request that the Los Angeles Times do its job -- make information public."

The Times on Tuesday issued a statement about its decision not to post the tape.

"The Los Angeles Times did not publish the videotape because it was provided to us by a confidential source who did so on the condition that we not release it," said the newspaper's editor, Russ Stanton. "The Times keeps its promises to sources."

The newspaper's readers' representative, Jamie Gold, said in a statement: "More than six months ago the Los Angeles Times published a detailed account of the events shown on the videotape. The Times is not suppressing anything. Just the opposite -- the L.A. Times brought the matter to light." Hello, just dirty politics from the McCain camp because the election is slipping away from them.

According to the LA Times, the original article said that Obama's friendships with Palestinian Americans in Chicago and his presence at Palestinian community events had led some to think he was sympathetic to the Palestinian viewpoint on Middle East politics. Further, the Times states that Obama publicly expresses a pro-Israel viewpoint that pleases many Jewish leaders. In reporting on Obama's presence at the dinner for Khalidi, the article noted that some speakers expressed anger at Israel and at U.S. foreign policy, but that Obama in his comments called for finding common ground. It said that Khalidi in the 1970s often spoke to reporters on behalf of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Khalidi later lived near Obama while teaching at the University of Chicago. He is now a professor of Arab studies at Columbia University in New York.

So, enter Newt Gingrich, a scumbag in his own rights, offering $50,000 for the video. Again, this is really the lowest act of dirty politics. Didn't John McCain meet with Pinochet? Gee, did they forget that he has mixed with "questionable' characters too? "Keating Five." I rest my case.In case the Republicans have forgotten, the economy is in the tank and people are losing jobs in massive numbers, the last thing they care about is a video tape the LA Times refuses to publish.