McCain Campaigns for George Wallace Jr.
    Montgomery Advertiser

    Monday 16 January 2006

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., right, was in Birmingham on Monday with lieutenant governor candidate George Wallace Jr. McCain visited three Alabama cities to campaign for Wallace. (Photo: Bernard Troncale / Montgomery Advertiser)

    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 also made appearances Monday for Wallace in Mobile and Huntsville.

    The $250-per person Birmingham reception was at The Club, where people could pay an additional $1,000 to have themselves photographed with McCain, Wallace and Wallace's wife, Elizabeth.

    The Birmingham News reported that in remarks at the reception, McCain praised Wallace as "a good and decent American" who wants to reform Alabama education and broaden the Republican Party's base.

    But the senator and possible presidential candidate spent more time talking about the U.S. involvement in Iraq, which he termed "a noble cause," and the need for the nation to stay the course. He said he disagreed with the recent call by veteran U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., a decorated Vietnam veteran, for a U.S. troop withdrawal.

    "To set a timetable, when it doesn't comply with the situation on the ground, I think is a recipe for disaster," McCain said.

    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.

    In reply, Wallace, the son of four-term Gov. George Wallace and Gov. Lurleen Wallace, said he had spoken twice to CCC meetings, most recently in June, and did not endorse its views. He said he does not research every group that invites him to speak and that his speech is always the same, "about public service and our family's legacy."

    "My father worked too hard and suffered too long to bring all of the people of Alabama together, especially in his later years, and I love him too much to do anything to mar that legacy," Wallace said.

    A spokesman for McCain could not immediately be reached for comment.

    He said he hopes to make progress on getting his anti-torture amendment to become law. McCain got the Senate to approve the amendment, which forbids "cruel, inhuman or degrading" treatment of prisoners by the CIA or military officers, by a 90-9 vote. The amendment is part of a defense spending bill, and President Bush has vowed to veto the bill if it contains the McCain amendment.

    McCain said his office was discussing the amendment with the White House and National Security Adviser Steve Hadley, and "we aren't going to back off on it."