MIAMI - The Republican National Committee demanded Monday that television networks stop running a television ad by the Democratic Party that falsely suggests John McCain wants a 100-year war in Iraq.
The ad says President Bush has talked about staying in Iraq for 50 years, then plays a clip of McCain saying, "Maybe 100. That'd be fine with me."
The announcer then says: "If all he offers is more of the same, is John McCain the right choice for America's future?"
Republican National Committee Chairman Mike Duncan said the ad deliberately distorts what McCain, the likely GOP presidential nominee, said.
The committee's chief counsel, Sean Cairncross, said he sent letters Monday to NBC, CNN and MSNBC insisting that they stop airing the commercial.
At issue is McCain's answer, in January, to a question about Bush's theory that troops could be in Iraq for 50 years.
McCain said: "Maybe 100. As long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed, that'd be fine with me, and I hope it would be fine with you, if we maintain a presence in a very volatile part of the world where al-Qaida is training, recruiting, equipping and motivating people every single day."
Democratic Party chief Howard Dean said "there's nothing false" about the ad.
"We deliberately used John McCain's words. This isn't some ominous consultant's voice from Washington. This is John McCain's own words. And we've been very upfront about everything that he's said."
McCain is the victim of his own sarcastic sense of humor. He made the "100 years" comment as a smart-aleck aside to a question, but in this day and age, you can't afford to say anything that you don't want to hear in an opposition ad some day.
To the RNC: Quit whining, you bunch of sissies, and get back to trying to figure out how to win elections around the country.
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