Yonkers Politician Enters McCain-Obama Fray Over Weatherman Bill Ayers

Lately, as John McCain trails Barack Obama in the polls, the McCain-Palin camp has been seizing on Obama's connection to former 1960s radical William Ayers, founder of the Weather Underground. Vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin has accused Obama of "palling around" with Ayers, calling him a domestic terrorist, and, now, Yonkers City Councilman John Murtagh is joining the criticism--a move that Daily News calls "desperate."

When Murtagh was 9 years old and his father, Justice John Murtagh, was presiding over a trial of the Black Panthers in 1970, his family's home was firebombed, supposedly by the Weather Underground. Murtagh said, "Barack Obama may have been a child when William Ayers was plotting attacks against U.S. targets - but I was one of those targets."

Obama spoke out, telling ABC News:

"I'll repeat again what I've said many times. This is a guy who engaged in some despicable acts 40 years ago when I was eight years old. By the time I met him, 10 or 15 years ago, he was a college professor of education at the University of Illinois... And the notion that somehow he has been involved in my campaign, that he is an adviser of mine, that... I've 'palled around with a terrorist', all these statements are made simply to try to score cheap political points...

"I am surprised that, you know, we've been seeing some pretty over-the-top attacks coming out of the McCain campaign over the last several days, that he wasn't willing to say it to my face. But I guess we've got one last debate. So presumably, if he ends up feeling that he needs to, he will raise it during the debate."

Obama also questioned why McCain was focusing on that line of attack instead of discussing the economy. Murtagh, for his part, told the Daily News, "The issue is really not an attempt on my family's life. The issue is Barack Obama's judgment."

The NY Times recently looked at the Obama-Ayers connection, finding that while it seems like Obama may have downplayed his "contacts with Ayers," who is a fixture in education and anti-poverty groups, "But the two men do not appear to have been close." Earlier this year, when the Ayers connection was brought up in the primary race, the Washington Post reported Ayers did donate $200 to Obama's State Senate re-election campaign and "moved in the same liberal-progressive circles." And Michelle Obama discussed Ayers on the Daily Show and Larry King show, noting that Ayers and Obama both served on the board of the Annenberg Challenge. When Larry King brought up that it was started by the Annenberg family, she pointed out that Mrs. Annenberg is a McCain supporter.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on October 9, 2008 10:27 AM

Comments [rss]

NannyState

R-E-D H-E-R-R-I-N-G.

ironybubble

Ah yes, Yonkers.

It's nice that he's talking about national politics but ah, how about repaving the roads!

ma bell

i see. how naive we can be. so we should take left wing bloggers as speakers of truth but cast off right wing bloggers as liars and desperate. fact is, there is a little bit of truth to everything.

doesn't it give you a sore neck to sit that way consistently? and furthermore...isn't it kind of stinky up there?

SP

The difference is, Palin actually DOES pal around with terrorists, Obama doesn't.

starrygordon

The longer form of the article is here:

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/10/07/palins_unamerican/

It'll be pretty funny if this "terrorism" stuff works around to stick on Palin and poor old McCain.

ma bell

so SP let me get this straight...you have rightly held palin up to these standards...but you are going to give obama a pass? consistently inconsistent

SP

Let's not forget that Sarah Palin is a member of the Alaskan Independence Party, whose leader sought to buy plastic explosives to conduct bombings against federal institutions. But the story has a quite interesting twist...

David Talbot reports on what would have been the crowning achievement of Alaskan Independence Party founder Joe Vogler had he not been first killed in a plastic explosives deal gone bad:

Vogler's greatest moment of glory was to be his 1993 appearance before the United Nations to denounce United States "tyranny" before the entire world and to demand Alaska's freedom. The Alaska secessionist had persuaded the government of Iran to sponsor his anti-American harangue.

That's right ... Iran. The Islamic dictatorship. The taker of American hostages. The rogue nation that McCain and Palin have excoriated Obama for suggesting we diplomatically engage. That Iran.

The following year, Todd and Sarah Palin attended the AIP convention, and Todd Palin joined the party shortly thereafter.

So Obama is the terrorist sympathizer?

starrygordon

I think it's sad that poor old McCain has resorted to slander at the end of his career. No election could be worth disgracing yourself like that.

jibbly

FUD FUD FUD FUD, FUD FUD FUD FUD...

I love this thread!

ma bell

i never said that he did. what a sad state of affairs...

Gothamist_Cynic

Republicans are fucking stupid.

bxbrian

it's not like mccain's got a stellar track record either though, ma bell. that's not to say that anyone here is blameless or faultless, or that you're wrong.

ma bell

sleezeballs associate with sleezeballs. if you hang out with riff raff you are riff raff. its not freaking rocket science. there is a lot to like about obama but his shady past is too much to handle.

bxbrian

That, and Ayers' group only succeeded in killing a few of its own members.

I interviewed a fellow student in college who went on to firebomb a recruiting station (albeit unsuccessfully). Does that make me a terrorist pal?

babyhitler

Ides, GEORGE BUSH IS THE BIGGEST FUCKING TERRORIST EVER! And McCain is his sidekick. How's that for a fucked up association? The party of George Bush must die! Vote for Obama for Revenge for the last 8 years of stupidity, corruption and treason.

bxbrian

76:

There's still some time before he's forcibly removed from the place. Maybe we'll get to keep Shrub.

Spirit of 76

If not for term limits, ides of march would have voted for Dubya next month.

nycviabos

Yonkers City Councilman John Murtagh has chosen to associate and work with persons who have, within the past decade, used violence and the threat of violence to prevent women from exercising their right to an abortion. The Ayers thing is fearmongering in the worst possible form and it will fail to secure the White House for McCain.

WSJ reports:

"From 1999 to 2001, Mr. Murtagh served as a pro-bono lawyer for the Rev. John T. Murphy, a leader of a group of antiabortion protesters who spent years picketing outside Long Island Gynecological Services in Garden City, N.Y. Rev. Murphy ran a charity called 'Save the Babies,' records show.

"According to a 1995 Nassau County, N.Y., court decision involving the clinic, the Nassau County Police Department was called to the premises at least 17 times in 1994 and 1995 to investigate reports of physical assault, harassment, bomb threats and in four cases, the firing of bullets into windows."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122350949805717257.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

citizenerased

@#24

Its called "thoughtcrime"

If anything is like the Dystopia of 1984 its today/the last 8 years.

All you trolls should be put in room 101 to have banksy's rats gnaw some sense into your brains.