McCain Co-Chair Calls Obama "A Guy Of The Street," Raises Drug Use

Former Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating, a McCain campaign co-chairman, edged up to an explicitly racial attack on Barack Obama on Thursday, describing the Illinois Senator as a "guy of the street" before raising his youthful drug use.

Appearing on Dennis Miller's radio show, Keating charged that the Democratic nominee was covering up his "very extreme" record, and urged Obama to be more honest with Americans. "He ought to admit," Keating said, "'You know, I've got to be honest with you. I was a guy of the street. I was way to the left. I used cocaine. I voted liberally, but I'm back at the center.'"

Keating began to address Obama's former pastor Jeremiah Wright -- a topic that John McCain himself has said should be off-limits -- but Miller interrupted him to return to the discussion of cocaine.

Listen to the audio here.

The criticism is the latest in a spate of increasingly aggressive attacks from the McCain-Palin camp.

It's unclear what Keating meant by "a guy of the street," but his assertion that Obama should "admit" his brief drug use in high school makes little sense, since it was Obama himself who did disclose it in his memoir published 12 years ago.

Keating was one of McCain's earlier supporters, endorsing the Arizona Senator even before he officially launched his 2008 presidential bid. Keating is a member of McCain's National Campaign Committee, and serves as co-chair for various campaign groups, such as Catholics for McCain and Sportsmen for McCain.

Here's the transcript from Miller's program today:

MILLER: It's the most liberal, let's just say that. We're talking to Frank Keating, former Oklahoma Governor, John McCain supporter. Frank, let's just say, it's the most liberal. The thing that bothers me the most about all this with Barack Obama is not the -- I know he's the most liberal guy. You know, I know he's gotten this close to the White House and I know most people don't realize he's probably the most liberal senator we have. The thing that bothers me the most is I recognize the obfuscation and the smoke and mirrors as Clinton-esque. When I hear him reduce Ayers to "this is a guy who lives in my neighborhood" or Rev. Wright, "I was there 500 times and never saw him." The acts themselves don't bother me as he's starting to treat me like an idiot too when he's blowing this smoke my way. He ought to just come clean and say, "listen, I came up through Chicago, you make some errors there." I'd almost be able to absolve it more easily then.

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KEATING: Well, and that's what concerns me, Dennis, because when I was in the State Senate and statehouse of my state, if someone had voted against the entire state budget because it had too much money for corrections, all of us would have, you know, strained our necks to find out who is this because that would have been a very extreme position, basically saying to a law enforcement officer as I was or my son was a state trooper, "you know, you make an arrest, you risk your life, for nothing" because we're going to make sure that person doesn't go to prison even though the laws of the state require it. So, that puzzles me. Just he ought to admit, "you know, I've got to be honest with you. I was a guy of the street. I was way to the left. I used cocaine. I voted liberally, but I'm back at the center." I mean, I understand the big picture of America. But he hasn't done that...

MILLER: He's copped to that...

KEATING: Jeremiah Wright is...

MILLER: Wait, I've got to jump in Frank. He has copped to the blow use, right? I mean, he did so in his own book he said he did blow.

KEATING: Oh yes, he did.

MILLER: Well, I'm just saying that doesn't enter this to me.

Comments

[treyd3]

Well, while we're on the subject of past misdeeds, can we bring up the fact that McCain cheated on his former wife (the former wife who kept a vigil for him until he returned from Vietnam) while she was bedridden in the hospital. Then, he left her for a millionaire heiress. Yep, McCain, integrity in motion....­.I wonder why Keating doesn't bring up that past misdeed?

[labman]

I guess when the comedy timing is no longer there, you go into talk radio

[4peace]

Perhaps Cindy McCain's drug use will disqualify her from being "first Lady". She always looks loaded, but then so does Laura Stepford Bush.

[picval]

I want to throw up! McCain should be removed from office! This is all they got! If McCain wins, I will be totally amazed, and absolutly crushed.

[mentalasanything]

I'm sorry but Cindy McCain looks like a hype.

[KHAAANNN]

Well, if ANYBODY knows about Cocaine use, it's Denis Miller.
People living in glass houses shouldn't throw stones Dennis.
If I were McCain, the LAST guy I would want spouting off for me would be a guy named KEATING!

[trishinpitt]

Actually, that's the only thing Dennis is willing to concede is not an issue....

But I remember back in the day, when Dennis was still funny, he used to rail on Reagan and Bush the Elder... he called them out on what he saw was wrong. But he has since found a new audience in the conservative world... and he has done nothing but make excuses for Bush the Lesser and continues to do so with McCain.

The last decent thing I remember Dennis Miller doing was sticking up for Admiral Stockdale back when Perot picked him as his running mate. After that, he sold is soul to the same guy McCain did.

[Rog49Thomas]

There's a lot of talk about character in the campaign. And one party is attacking the presidential candidate of the other party for his imagined links with unsavory people.

Most of this is in the past.

I'd like to point out some very chilling current day associations of that candidate.

On a regular and consistent basis today he consorts with all sorts of lowlifes:
(1) corrupt politicians (one who is currently on trial)
(2) adulterers (some of whom appear to be serial adulterers)
(3) people who deny science and reality
(4) pedophiles
(5) supporters of terrorists (such as D'Aubuisson, the Contras)
(6) torturers (School of the Americas' supporters along with our own home grown gulag promoters)
(7) illegal wire tappers (including on US troops)

Yes, I'm calling Brother Neo out for his persistent fraternization with members of the Republican Party in the Senate and Congress of the United States of America.

It's quite chilling when you think about it.

[rankola]

I wonder if any research has been done on intimacy among POW's. Seriously, POW's are often in deplorable conditions, often tortured, often deprived of food, and possibly given crude medical intervention. There is a definite psychological trauma that does occur and emotional bonding does take place. The question, though, does it go beyond being emotionally intimate to being physically intimate.

[sunnygirl]

Even if Obama used drugs earlier, it was in the past when he was very young. It does not matter as long as he is straight now. Many people do many crazy things in their youth but mature once they grow older. Even our President Mr. Bush used alcohol earlier and there is speculation about him having used illegal drugs like marijuana and cocaine as well. For reference, please see these links:

(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Bush_substance_abuse_controversy

(2) http://www.realchange.org/bushjr.htm#cocaine

In this URL, there is the following text:

According to a new book, three independent sources close to the Bush family report that Governor Bush was arrested in 1972 for cocaine possession, and taken to Harris County Jail, but avoided jail or formal charges through an informal diversion plan involving community service with Project P.U.L.L., an inner city Houston program for troubled youths at the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center in Houston's dirt-poor Third Ward. (In another new book, reporter Bill Minutaglio, writes that the year of community service was arranged by the Governor's father, ex-president Bush, after he caught Bush Jr. driving drunk.)

[bubbles3660]

Big deal. I'll be that McCain shared a few bowls with Thomas De Quincey in 1821.

[tmccbo]

Yea, lets question a high school boy who experimented with drugs. But don't talk about Cindy McCain stealing drugs from her charity to feed her four year drug habit. Not coming clean about it until the feds investigated. And what about John McCain saying he knew nothing about it. How stupid and self involved do you have to be not to notice a four year drug habit in your spouse?

[bearcck]

C'mon...sh­e went to rehab...sa­me place as Rush Limbaugh. If you go to rehab the slate is clean. I wonder what insurance policy they had that covered that?!

I want to know who took care of her kids while she was zoning out for 4 years. That's a lot of time for a mother to be nuts. Didn't she have car pool, bake sales, soccer games, laundry and other things to do that gave her a need to straighten up.

At my house...if I have a cold...eve­ryone notices...­.because things fall apart quickly in one day.

[lobear00]

Keating, didn't come from the street, he was a piece of the street, the piece that never got washed.

[dbawden]

I wish they'd get their story straight. I thought Obama was an "elite", the antichrist, and a terrorist. Now I'm really confused.

[amerifun]

These people are pathetic. They are holding on to the the hate politics of the past while the rest of the country holds on for dear life. The negativity and hate politics must end now. It's time for a positive change. When we are in need of coming together as a nation the Republican smear campaign seeks to divide us. Freedom of speech is a right that we do not need to abuse every time there is an election.
Let's stop the false accusations. Let's stop planting fear into the minds and hearts of our citizens.
Let's stop stirring up trouble.
Enough !

[Georgianna]

Senator Obama's past experimentation with "blow" does not faze me in the least. Many college students experiment with drugs and alcohol. If we took a survey, I think we would find those who did not, a very small minority.

The McCain campaign needs to be very careful here, given his wife Cindy's addiction to presecription drugs.

The question for us, as American citizens, is which candidate has the vision, the judgment, and policies-- the energy and enthusiasm to get this country on the right track? Is anyone listening to the youth of this nation? The work that will be required of us is going to require that our youth take a leadership role in getting us out of this mess. My generation, those fifty an over, needs to move aside and allow our young people to lead. As far as I can tell, the only candidate who is speaking to our young people and to all Americans about the issues that confront this nation in a cogent-, coherent manner is Senator Obama.