Sin of Omission?
A Washington Times columnist attacks McCain but leaves out a little something
BY Sarah Laskow | December 21, 2007
Washington lawyer Bruce Fein, who writes a weekly column for The Washington Times, used the venue to attack Senator John McCain without disclosing that he had agreed to be an adviser to Representative Ron Paul, one of McCain’s rivals in the race for the GOP presidential nomination.
Fein, who was associate deputy attorney general in the Reagan administration, is a high-profile and often-quoted constitutional lawyer who has been a longtime columnist for the conservative newspaper. In a December 4 column titled “The McCain Doctrine,” Fein branded the Arizona senator as standing for “war, war, and more war,” saying that McCain “would be satisfied if the people for whom Americans fought to save from purported tyrannies voted into power the likes of Adolf Hitler’s National Socialists, Hamas, or Hezbollah.”
Mary Lou Forbes, the commentary pages editor of The Washington Times, told the Center for Public Integrity that she was not aware of Fein’s relationship to the Paul campaign, which identifies him on its official website as “legal counsel.”
Forbes queried Fein by e-mail following the Center’s inquiry, and in his reply Fein said of Paul: “I have nothing to do with his political campaign. I have never spoken to him about it or have been consulted by him or his campaign supporters.” Fein added that he had agreed to represent Paul if the candidate “needed legal assistance in getting ballot access or related election-law issues,” but that so far the campaign has not asked for his help.
A May 4 Washington Times column in which Fein praised Paul for signing the “American Freedom Pledge” noted that Fein had “agreed to serve as an attorney for Ron Paul’s presidential campaign.”
Fein did not respond to the Center’s inquiries.