McCain Supporter Had Own Ties to Radical Protesters

[BEG]

I was just going to post the WSJ link but decided to post the FR link where I found it so you can read their comments.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2101593/posts

McCain Supporter Had Own Ties to Radical Protesters (Defends Prolife Priest???)
WSJ ^ | 100808 | MARY JACOBY
Posted on October 9, 2008 2:12:18 PM CDT by Fred

The McCain campaign, in a continuing effort to link Barack Obama to domestic terrorism, released a statement Wednesday from a New York supporter, recounting how his family home was firebombed by the radical 1960s group founded by Obama supporter William Ayers.

But the McCain supporter, John M. Murtagh, has his own ties to radical protesters: He served as a lawyer for a Catholic priest who led protests at an abortion clinic that turned violent.

Mr. Murtagh embarked on a media campaign in the spring to publicize the 1970 firebombing of his family home by the Weather Underground, the group that Mr. Ayers helped to found. His account of that incident, posted on the Web, has been linked to by right-leaning bloggers. Mr. Murtagh, a lawyer and a member of the Yonkers, N.Y., city council, gave a television interview last May to Fox News's Greta Van Susteren, and recently appeared on the Fox News show hosted by Sean Hannity. Mr. Murtagh said he was nine years old at the time his family was targeted because his father, a judge, had presided over a trial of members of the radical Black Panther party.

On Wednesday, the McCain campaign amplified those efforts by issuing a statement from Mr. Murtagh. "Barack Obama may have been a child when William Ayers was plotting attacks against U.S. targets -- but I was one of those targets," the statement read. "Barack Obama's friend tried to kill my family."

Mr. Ayers, now an education professor at the University of Illinois in Chicago, was an early supporter of Sen. Obama. Charges against him were dismissed in the 1980s after procedural errors by federal investigators came to light.

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...

[NHSparky]

And the smearing of the messenger has begun again.

[Chris_]

He served as a lawyer for a Catholic priest who led protests at an abortion clinic that turned violent.

Wow! That's almost EXACTLY like what Ayers did!!!

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

Oddly, the priest appears conviction-free after trial.

[BEG]

 

Neither Mr. Murtagh nor a spokesman for the McCain campaign said they saw any parallels between Mr. Ayers and the Rev. Murphy.

"With all due respect, I think it's a stretch. Father Murphy was being sued for praying outside an abortion clinic," Mr. Murtagh said.

Michael Goldfarb, the McCain spokesman, noted that the Rev. Murphy had not been convicted of any crimes. He said it wasn't relevant that Mr. Ayers hadn't been convicted, either, because in 2001 he gave a newspaper interview in which he embraced his violent past.

Mr. Ayers co-founded the Weather Underground in the 1960s. The group said violence was justified if it brought about social change.

Mr. Ayers became a fugitive in 1970 after a Weather Underground bomb-making session destroyed a townhouse in Greenwich Village, killing three members. While Mr. Ayers was on the run, the Weather Underground conducted bombings against the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol and in 1981, he surrendered to authorities.