Gingrich Joins McCain in Blasting RNC for Blagojevich Attacks on Obama

As I reported yesterday, this year's Republican nominee for president, Senator John McCain, has urged the RNC to stop attacking Barack Obama over the Rod Blagojevich scandal. Now, party elder Newt Gingrich is doing the same, in much stronger terms, in a letter to GOP chair Mike Duncan. From Politico:

I was saddened to learn that at a time of national trial, when a president-elect is preparing to take office in the midst of the worst financial crisis in over seventy years, that the Republican National Committee is engaged in the sort of negative, attack politics that the voters rejected in the 2006 and 2008 election cycles.

The recent web advertisement, "Questions Remain," is a destructive distraction. Clearly, we should insist that all taped communications regarding the Senate seat should be made public. However, that should be a matter of public policy, not an excuse for political attack.

In a time when America is facing real challenges, Republicans should be working to help the incoming President succeed in meeting them, regardless of his Party.

Gingrich goes on to call for the GOP to take down the ad.

As I've said before, this isn't just kum ba yah posturing. Gingrich and McCain know that the facts overwhelmingly favor Obama here, and to stridently demand information that ends up making him look good is a poor strategy.

Obama has been consistent and forthright, to the extent that he can be. He conducted a thorough review of his office's contacts with Blagojevich, and immediately made public its conclusion. Blagojevich's prosecutor asked that the complete report be delayed a week to protect the investigation, and Obama complied with that lawful request.

What is to be gained from trying to make hay from that? I don't know, shrillness points? But still, they spin. If something is not known, Obama must be hiding it!

Or maybe they do it for me, to give me that thrill up my leg every time I get to say "I told you so!"

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