McCain Shifts Focus To Obama's Other Veep Vetter

(CBS)

BOSTON – Not content with one of Barack Obama's vice-presidential vetters, Jim Johnson, resigning yesterday, John McCain reminded reporters that another member of his vice-presidential selection committee, Eric Holder, should be scrutinized as well. "Mr. Holder recommended a pardon for Mr. Rich, and all of those things should be taken into consideration by the media and the American people," McCain said. "Especially when you are entrusting these individuals with one of the most important decisions that a presidential candidate can make before he's elected, and that is who his running mate is."

Mr. Rich is Marc Rich, a financier who was charged with 51 counts of tax evasion and fled to Switzerland during his prosecution. His wife Denise was a donor to President Bill Clinton, who pardoned Rich during the last week of his presidency. Holder was the number two official at the Justice Department at the time, and helped Clinton obtain the pardon for Rich.

"It's telling that John McCain - whose vice-presidential search process is headed by a prominent D.C. lobbyist who served as the Reagan administration's point man on the Iran-Contra scandal - would try to recycle a tired attack on Mr. Holder," responded Obama spokesman Hari Sevugan, referring to McCain's VP vetter, Arthur Culvahouse.

McCain also voiced his concern for today's Supreme Court decision which allows terror suspects held at Guantanamo Bay to challenge their detention in U.S. courts. "These are unlawful combatants," McCain said. "They are not American citizens." But he also reiterated his stance that the prison should be closed. "I always favored closing Guantanamo Bay, and I still think we ought to do that," McCain said.