Posted 3:07 PM by Scoobie Davis

Questions for George Stephanopoulos to Ask John McCain This Sunday
(Updated below)
On Sunday, John McCain will appear on This Week with George Stephanopoulos. Cliff Schecter, author of the forthcoming book The Real McCain: Why Conservatives Don't Trust Him and Why Independents Shouldn't, keenly aware of Stephanopoulos' behavior at last Tuesday's Democratic debate, has picked some really good questions for Stephanopoulos to ask McCain (Schecter's request to Stephanopoulos is very reasonable considering the advice that Stephanopoulos took for the Democratic debate).

Schecter has an impressive list of questions. Two of Schecter's questions are particularly relevant to me: Question Number Five "Doesn't your flip-flop on Jerry Falwell being an 'agent of intolerance' show your opportunistic pandering to the religious right?" and Question Number Twelve "[I]f Barack Obama must account for everyone he has ever passed within a 100 square mile radius of, then here are some associations you might want to explain, with the indicted, the white supremacists and the downright corrupt: Rick Renzi (indicted), Terry Nelson (racist ads against Harold Ford in 2006), Trent Lott (pining for a Strom presidency), The Wyly Brothers (corrupt), Bob Perry (Chief Swift Boater), Richard Quinn (white supremacist), Rev. Richard Land (homosexual hate), Ken Blackwell (Ohio election suppression), Charlie Black (lobbyist and according to John Gorenfeld's new book, Bad Moon Rising, Reverend Moon lover)."

One thought: Jerry Falwell, who mentioned in Question Number Five should also be listed in Question Number Twelve for various noxious actions such as his using the Bible to justify Jim Crow laws (Falwell's argument was that blacks were stricken with the "Curse of Ham" and thus were meant to be the servants of whites); Falwell blaming the 9/11 attacks on his fellow Americans (despite an initial apology, Falwell later stood by his original denunciation); Falwell's support of terrorism (Falwell's Moral Majority awarded a plaque to notorious Salvadorian death squad leader Roberto D'Aubuisson--know by friends and enemies as "Blowtorch Bob" for his favorite implement of torture); and anti-gay hate (Falwell once said that AIDS was God's way of "spanking" homosexuals).

UPDATE I: Keith Olbermann has more questions. I didn't realize that McCain has been associating with a radical like G. Gordon Liddy. I read Liddy's book Will. The man is completely deranged and is completely unrepentant about his role in the Watergate burglary. Liddy also advocated the shooting of federal law enforcement agents in the head and the crotch (Liddy later backpedaled on his statements). If the media is going to rake Barack Obama over the coals about some very tenuous associations with William Ayers, then McCain deserves scrutiny for chumming it up with the likes of Liddy:

UPDATE II: Americablog has more.