Edwards Still Being Asked About 527s

By: Aaron Lewis
Topics: John Edwards

(CBS)

From CBS News' Aaron Lewis:

MUSCATINE, IOWA -- John Edwards said there's "great energy and organization and the campaign's growing every single day." He said he expects to "close strong."

But the issue of independent political groups, or 527s, won't quite go away. In the press conference, he took three questions, all of them on 527s and the one group running TV ads on Edwards' behalf.

He said, "If Senator Obama and his campaign want to focus on negative attacks, they can do that but that is not what I'm gonna do."

"I have called on these 527s to stop," he said. "I'd do it again. I call on them to stop. I'm not asking them to do anything for me."

In the Q & A, a Dennis Kucinich supporter (who caucused for Edwards in 2004 after Kucinich was deemed not viable) asked Edwards if he would commit to Kucinich's plan for a Department of Peace.

"I'm not for a Department of Peace," said Edwards.

"It's a perfectly fine idea. I'm not saying it's a bad idea. It's just not what I would do. I think the way the President of the United States approaches the rest of the world is more important than any of these bureaucracies."