McCain Calls for a No Mud Sling Zone But Will He Adopt His Own Standard?

Adam Aigner-Treworgy and Mark Murray notes that John McCain demands an apology from Barack Obama for something Ed Shultz said:

“It’s a free country, and we have freedom of speech in America, and Mr. [Ed] Shultz is entitled to his views. I would hope that in keeping with his commitment that Sen. Obama would rapidly condemn, Sen. Obama would condemn such language since it was part of his campaign. But that kind of thing, I don’t think is necessary at all in this campaign. I made it very clear how I feel about war and my experiences with it.” As mentioned earlier, the Obama campaign didn’t condemn Schultz’s remark, but issued this statement: “John McCain is not a warmonger and should not be described as such. He’s a supporter of a war that Senator Obama believes should have never been authorized and never been waged.” And contrary what McCain said, Shultz’s remark wasn’t technically part of Obama’s campaign; it came at a fundraiser for the North Dakota Democratic Party, which Obama attended.

While the war monger comment by Shultz was certainly over the top – it is based on the fact that John McCain has become a neocon supreme. But I can see someone arguing that such over the top comments should not become part of the Presidential campaign. After all, I was really angry about the Swift Boat part of the 2004 campaign. McCain pretended to be angry but when George W. Bush refused to reign in his dirty tricks squad, McCain still campaigned for Bush-Cheney. To me – this was McCain being a hypocrite. So far we have seen all sorts of dirty and dishonest attacks on Barack Obama from Republicans and to date John McCain has not even lifted a finger to stop this. Until he does – Team Obama should ignore this call to renounce Ed Shultz. If Team McCain wants a No Mud Sling Zone, they should being by practicing what they preach. Then again – they would have to cease to be the Modern GOP if they got rid of their bag of dirty tricks.