Camp McCain goes after vetter Holder--Marc Rich pardon

[underpants]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/06/13/campaign.civility/index.html

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Sen. John McCain's and Sen. Barack Obama's camps Friday continued to snipe at each other over advisers, despite promises from both presidential candidates to engage in civil, issue-based campaigns.

Just days after Obama secured the number of delegates for the Democratic presidential nomination, McCain's campaign targeted Jim Johnson, a former CEO of Fannie Mae and a Washington insider whom Obama had tapped to help vet vice presidential nominees, for receiving a mortgage with favorable terms from Countrywide.

Obama has criticized the mortgage company for its lending practices.

Obama initially defended Johnson, but the advisor stepped down earlier this week, saying he did not want the controversy to distract from Obama's campaign. Watch McCain call for more resignations »

Now, McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, is targeting a second Obama vetter, Eric Holder.

Holder was a deputy attorney general during the Clinton administration and signed off on the controversial pardon of Marc Rich, a financier who was a fugitive at the time, during the final days of the Clinton presidency. Watch McCain go on the attack »

"Holder recommended the pardoning of Mr. Rich and all of those things will be taken into consideration by the media and the American people," McCain said during a town hall in Boston, Massachusetts, on Thursday.

"I think Eric Holder, obviously, is a very honorable man who worked the majority of his life in law enforcement. He has done nothing wrong, and I think this is sort of gone a little bit out of control," Robert Gibbs, Obama's communication director. Watch Gibbs raise questions about McCain's vetter »

Gibbs also raised questions about the person McCain has tasked with vetting his vice presidential candidates, Arthur Culvahouse.

Culvahouse is a registered lobbyist who had represented Fannie Mae, Johnson's former firm, and is chairman of Omelveny & Myers, a lobbying firm that has represented Exxon-Mobile and Enron.

"Not to get into guilt by association or things like that, but let's look at who John McCain has vetting his vice presidential prospects," he said. "He's a former lobbyist and the head of the legal team in the Reagan White House during the Iran-Contra hearings."