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McPeak’s McCarthyism comments draw fire

One of Senator Barack Obama’s top military aides, retired Air Force four-star Gen. Merrill “Tony” McPeak, has run into controversy for rebuking statements made about former President Bill Clinton.

McPeak, a co-chair of Obama’s campaign, said Saturday he was astonished and disappointed by recent comments the former president made while speculating about a general election between Obama’s Democratic rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Republican John McCain.

Standing next to Obama on stage at a campaign rally in southern Oregon, the retired Air Force chief of staff repeated Bill Clinton’s comments to the silent audience.

The former president told a group of veterans Friday in Charlotte, North Carolina: “I think it would be a great thing if we had an election year where you had two people who loved this country and were devoted to the interest of this country. And people could actually ask themselves who is right on these issues, instead of all this other stuff that always seems to intrude itself on our politics.”

McPeak then said to his Oregon audience: “As one who for 37 years proudly wore the uniform of our country, I’m saddened to see a president employ these tactics. He of all people should know better because he was the target of exactly the same kind of tactics.”

That apparently was a reference to Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign, when he was accused of dodging the Vietnam War draft.

McPeak also made off-the-cuff remarks to reporters Friday in comparing the former president’s comments with the actions of Joseph McCarthy, the 1950s communist-hunting senator.

“I grew up, I was going to college when Joe McCarthy was accusing good Americans of being traitors, so I’ve had enough of it,” McPeak said.

Howard Wolfson, a spokesman for Hillary Clinton’s campaign, said Saturday that McPeak’s comments were a “deliberately pathetic misreading of what the president said.” Wolfson said the remarks had nothing to do with Obama and were merely meant to underscore the need to keep the presidential race focused on issues.

Neither Hillary Clinton nor Obama were commenting on the latest controversy. The New York senator was spending the Easter holiday weekend off the campaign trail. After his campaign stop in Oregon, Obama was taking a few days of vacation.

It was not the first time Bill Clinton has been criticized for comments while campaigning on his wife’s behalf. Before and after South Carolina’s primary in January, the former president was accused of fanning racial tensions for appearing to cast Obama as little more than a black candidate popular in a state with a heavily black electorate.

Obama is also advised by another high-ranking Air Force retiree, retired Maj. Gen. Scott Gration, a former F-16 fighter pilot who has commanded a task force during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Gration, a fluent Swahili speaker, accompanied Obama during a 2006 trip to Kenya, homeland of Obama’s estranged and now deceased father.