Nagourney and Bumiller mention in passing in tomorrow’s Times that the Republican congressman representing Nebraska’s second district, Lee Terry, has taken out ads to appeal to "Obama-Terry" voters. (The Obama campaign promptly sent the image over.)

I’m not sure if that’s really a bellwether. I haven’t seen a lot of other Republicans putting Obama next to their names, though that could change. And Terry has stuck by an early endorsement of McCain.

But that Nebraska district matters beyond any symbolic meaning. It’s the Omaha district where Obama’s hoping to steal an electoral vote. And the ad is a sign of the broader Democratic strength that runs up and down the ballot, and threatens to reinforce itself. Terry is favored, but faces a real challenge from from an Iraq vet and serious candidate whose prospects are bolstered by Obama’s turnout operation, which is presumably why Terry’s aiming to pick up some of those Obama voters.

Compare that to the district’s mirror image, Maine’s second, where McCain is hoping, similarly, to steal a vote. There, the down-ballot prospects for Republicans are dismal, with a challenger who isn’t being taken seriously by the national GOP. (The Republican’s official portrait is below.) The incumbent Democrat endorsed Obama late, but doesn’t seem to have been putting McCain’s name on his lit.

Not that the congressional race would be expected to drive turnout or preference at presidential level. But it’s a yet another gust of the tailwind Obama has behind him, and the headwind McCain faces.

But while this particular accusation may be new, the group in question, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, is one of the oldest political targets around.

The latest wave of ACORN investigations has provided Republicans with both an opening to assail an old foe, and a new line of criticism to use against the Democratic presidential nominee, who represented ACORN in a lawsuit in the 1990s.

Nevada authorities raided the group’s state headquarters Tuesday in connection with a voter-fraud probe. The branch had submitted voter registration forms carrying the names of celebrities such as Tony Romo and Terrell Owens, both members of the Dallas Cowboys, and other voters have come forward to say that they were asked by ACORN employees to submit multiple registration forms.

“Given ACORN’s recent efforts to engage in voter fraud and to disrupt our political system, Obama’s affiliation with this group raises serious questions about his judgment and ability to lead this nation,” Sen. John McCain’s campaign wrote in a memo Friday.

During the Democratic primaries, Obama was endorsed by ACORN’s political action committee. And in the early 1990s, according to the McCain campaign, Obama was involved in teaching community organizing classes for the organization.

Obama’s campaign has also shelled out about $800,000 to an ACORN subsidiary, Citizens Services Inc., to help with voter registration efforts. Although ACORN says it is nonpartisan, its registration efforts tend to be focused among groups friendly to Democratic candidates.

“Sen. Obama’s ties with ACORN go back a long way,” Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt said on a McCain campaign conference call Friday. “Before he launched his political career in the home of Bill Ayers, he was fighting alongside ACORN. He acted as their lawyer. He has taught classes to ACORN liberal community organizers.”

Republicans have also attempted to link the organization to the current financial crisis. On Friday the McCain campaign posted a Web video that accused ACORN of “bullying banks” and “forc[ing them] to issue risky home loans. The same types of loans that caused the financial crisis we’re in today.”

House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), whose home state also turned up improper ACORN registration forms, said Thursday that the federal government should investigate the group’s registration activities. 

“I believe we are witnessing a national trend that must be fully investigated to protect the sanctity of our elections,” Blunt said in a statement.

But Republicans have clashed with ACORN for decades, regularly arguing that the group engages in questionable voter registration practices and pointing to the group’s activities as a reason for concern about voter fraud.

The organization, founded in Arkansas in 1970, describes itself as a coalition of local groups advocating for issues related to economic and social equity. But it’s also known for supporting Democratic candidates, and employing a confrontational political style that has often put it at odds with conservative leaders.

In 1984, for example, ACORN decided to hold its annual meeting in Dallas, opposite the Republican National Convention there. Planning to protest the GOP convention, ACORN sued the city of Dallas for financial support, arguing that many of its members could not afford hotel rooms and demanding that the city extend to them some of the same resources they were providing for convention-goers.

As ACORN and other liberal groups geared up to demonstrate against President Ronald Reagan’s reelection, Texas Republican Party Chairman George Strake groused: “If we can just keep the hippies, yippies and ‘Dykes on Bikes’ and the other Mondale supporters at bay, then we’ll be in good shape.”

The group has been a reliable — and unfriendly — presence at Republican conventions since then, demonstrating outside then-Vice President George H.W. Bush’s hotel in 1988 and helping stage a mock-unemployment line at the 2004 convention.

In just the past few weeks, even before the latest wave of registration-fraud allegations, conservatives cited ACORN as one reason for opposing the initial bailout plan in the House, asserting that one provision of the bailout package would have steered money toward housing-related organizations such as ACORN.

One Republican memo called the provision “a left-wing giveaway that would force taxpayers to bankroll a slush fund for a discredited ally of the Democratic Party.”

Bailout supporters countered that the provision in question would have steered funds to local governments, not any particular organization, but conservatives worried that the money could end up in ACORN’s hands, anyway.

It’s not just the GOP that’s had a rocky relationship with ACORN: In 1991, the Democratic-controlled Congress became the site of extensive ACORN protests when the House Banking Committee attempted to scale back certain provisions of the Community Reinvestment Act. ACORN packed the hearing room to pressure lawmakers against the proposed changes.

But Republicans have consistently shown far more concern about ACORN’s voter-registration work, and the Bush administration has pursued indictments against ACORN workers alleged to have broken voter-registration laws. In November 2006, the Justice Department indicted four ex-ACORN employees for fraudulent voter registrations.

Later, during the 2007 congressional hearings into the abrupt firings of several U.S. attorneys, former New Mexico prosecutor David Iglesias said he had come under pressure to pursue charges against ACORN employees for “systemic election fraud.”

“I was aware that the Justice Department was interested in having U.S. attorneys investigate and prosecute voter fraud going back to 2002,” Iglesias told PBS. “Upon reviewing the evidence and looking at the FBI reports, I concluded, as did the public integrity section at main Justice and at the local FBI office, that we didn’t have any prosecutable cases.”

Rick Hasen, a professor specializing in election law at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, agreed that criticism of ACORN’s registration activities was overblown, noting that there is a crucial difference between voter registration fraud, which merely involves submitting dishonest registration papers, but not actually casting a bogus ballot, and voter impersonation fraud.

“I think experienced election lawyers recognize that, after the airing of these claims over the past few years, that these claims of voter impersonation fraud are just not credible,” Hasen said.

The Obama campaign rejected the McCain camp’s charges as an attempt to “‘turn the page from the issues that matter to American families.”

“Barack Obama strongly condemns voter registration fraud or any other breach of election law by any party or group,” Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor said in a statement. “The McCain campaign’s allegations about Sen. Obama are completely transparent and false.”

ACORN directors Bertha Lewis and Steve Kest weighed in Thursday to defend the organization’s registration efforts, circulating a memo that touted “the largest, most successful nonpartisan voter registration drive in history” and took issue with assertions that the organization was in legal trouble.

“No charges have ever been brought against ACORN itself. Convictions against individual former ACORN workers have been accomplished with our full cooperation,” the memo read.

Meanwhile, some Democrats have charged that the McCain campaign and Republican leaders are simply hostile to the group’s political agenda.

“They’re scared of too many poor people preparing to vote this year,” Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.), a national co-chairman of Obama’s campaign, wrote on the Huffington Post.

“Obviously it’s not right for a fake ‘Tony Romo’ to be registered in Las Vegas,” Jackson continued, referring to the professional football player whose name turned up on a Nevada voter registration list. “But remember the basic point — it’s not voter fraud unless someone shows up at the voting booth on Election Day and tries to pass himself off as ‘Tony Romo.’ And who would try to do that?”

The new ad takes a faintly mocking and even bemused tone.

McCain told ABC’s Charles Gibson this week: “He launched his political career in his living room, in Mr. Ayers’ living room.”

The 30-second Obama ad, called “Lose,” airing in key states, says: “John McCain admits if the election is about the economy, he’s going to lose. Now as Americans lose their jobs and saving, McCain’s resorting to smears and false attacks. Barack Obama launched his first campaign here, not in anyone’s living room. And Bill Daley? He was confirmed as commerce secretary and praised for his great work … by none other than John McCain. It’s clear … with no plan to fix our economy, smears are all McCain has left.”

The “going to lose” quote is from a “top McCain strategist” to Thomas M. DeFrank, Washington bureau chief of the New York Daily News: “If we keep talking about the economic crisis, we’re going to lose.”

A Republican National Committee ad on Friday whacked Obama for associating with “William Daley: Heir to the Chicago machine. A top Obama adviser.”

McCain praised — and twice voted to confirm — Daley as secretary of commerce under President Bill Clinton. Daley, a Chicago businessman and Obama adviser, is brother of Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley and son of the late Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley. He was chairman of Vice President Al Gore’s presidential campaign in 2000.

The new Obama ad shows a grip-and-grin photo of McCain and Daley together, signed by McCain.

McCain should use the third and final debate next week to pledge that he’ll find and punish some of the culprits responsible for what has become the dominant issue of the campaign, Griffin writes on his blog.

By tapping a career prosecutor to investigate such Republican bogeymen as Sen. Chris Dodd and Rep. Barney Frank as well as probing the CEOs of some of the major financial firms that have collapsed, Griffin contends McCain could appeal to both the GOP base and swing voters — both of whom are taking major hits in the market right now:

If McCain were to make such a proposal, it would demonstrate that he is a man of action, not just words.
It would demonstrate that he understands someone must be held accountable for the mortgage meltdown if criminal laws were broken. (I understand that greed in and of itself is not criminal.)

It would demonstrate that we are a nation of laws, even for the wealthy and well connected.

It would send a signal to the markets that we are determined to find out precisely what happened, and we won’t let it happen again. The facts uncovered in a criminal investigation could certainly inform whatever regulatory or legislative fixes are required down the road. Confidence in the market needs to be restored and this couldn’t hurt.

It would send a signal to Americans who are scared, angry and hurt as a result of the stock market meltdown.

He should also remind the American people that any funds recovered as a result of a criminal probe would be returned to the U.S. Treasury, including any recovered from CEOs who are found to have committed crimes.

And ask Sen. Obama to join him in this proposal. He won’t.

The Special Prosecutor would report to the Deputy Attorney General as has been the case with other Special Prosecutors. The Independent Counsel statute is no more, so I am not suggesting a big spending, never ending IC.

A Special Prosecutor. For action. For accountability. For confidence.

"Sen. Obama does not believe that John McCain or his policy criticism is in any way comparable to George Wallace or his segregationist policies.

But John Lewis was right to condemn some of the hateful rhetoric that John McCain himself personally rebuked just last night, as well as the baseless and profoundly irresponsible charges from his own running mate that the Democratic nominee for president of the United States ‘pals around with terrorists.’

As Barack Obama has said himself, the last thing we need from either party is the kind of angry, divisive rhetoric that tears us apart at a time of crisis when we desperately need to come together. That is the kind of campaign Sen. Obama will continue to run in the weeks ahead."

Burton also sent over several comments from Republicans (after the jump), including former top McCain aide John Weaver, expressing discomfort with McCain’s and Palin’s rhetoric.

Last time McCain voiced outrage at the suggestion, from Obama himself, that he would use race against the Democrat, Obama quickly backed down. But the terrain has changed, and it seems to be a fight Obama is now comfortable having, perhaps in the hopes of amplifying a backlash against McCain.

Continue reading post…

Just days ago, on the stump and in ads, the question was "Who is Barack Obama?" For the moment, that question was shelved.

"Which candidate’s experience in government and in life makes him a more reliable leader for our country and commander in chief for our troops?" McCain asked. "In short: Who’s ready to lead?"

McCain’s most serious criticism of Obama on Saturday was over health care, not character.

President Bush endorsed the decision Friday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice signed the declaration Saturday, and State Department spokesman Sean McCormack announced it to reporters shortly thereafter.

McCormack said in a statement: "The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) has agreed to a series of verification measures that represents significant cooperation concerning the verification of North Korea’s denuclearization actions. … Based upon the cooperation and agreements North Korea has recently provided, and the fact that the DPRK has met the statutory criteria for rescission, the Secretary of State has rescinded the designation of the DPRK as a State Sponsor of Terrorism, effective immediately.

"North Korea has stated it will resume disablement of its nuclear facilities. … The United States will continue to work toward the verifiable end to all North Korean nuclear programs and activities. We will not stop until this work is done."

Here is McCain’s statement, released before the announcement: "Reports indicate that the administration may soon remove North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism. I have previously said that I would not support the easing of sanctions North Korea unless the United States is able to fully verify the nuclear declaration Pyongyang submitted on June 26. It is not clear that the latest verification arrangement will enable us to do so.

"I am also concerned that this latest agreement appears to have been reached between Washington and Pyongyang and only then discussed with our Asian allies in an effort to garner their support. Diplomacy is a critical tool in ending the North Korean nuclear weapons program, and it must involve our closest partners in Northeast Asia. While we conduct this diplomacy, we must keep our goal in sight — the verifiable denuclearization of North Korea — and avoid reaching for agreement for its own sake, particularly if it leaves critical verification issues unaddressed. I am also concerned that recent negotiations appear not to have addressed the issue of North Korean abductions of Japanese citizens, a serious omission and directly relevant to any decision about North Korea’s support for terrorist activities.

"As this process moves forward, I expect the administration to explain exactly how this new verification agreement advances American interests and those of our allies before I will be able to support any decision to remove North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism."

Congressman John Lewis’ comments represent a character attack against Governor Sarah Palin and me that is shocking and beyond the pale. The notion that legitimate criticism of Senator Obama’s record and positions could be compared to Governor George Wallace, his segregationist policies and the violence he provoked is unacceptable and has no place in this campaign. I am saddened that John Lewis, a man I’ve always admired, would make such a brazen and baseless attack on my character and the character of the thousands of hardworking Americans who come to our events to cheer for the kind of reform that will put America on the right track.

I call on Senator Obama to immediately and personally repudiate these outrageous and divisive comments that are so clearly designed to shut down debate 24 days before the election. Our country must return to the important debate about the path forward for America.

Lewis, a Democratic congressman from Georgia who has endorsed Obama, pointed in his posting to “the negative tone of the McCain-Palin campaign,” and said the senator and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, “are sowing the seeds of hatred and division.”

McCain, in a book he wrote with aide Mark Salter called “Why Courage Matters: The Way to a Braver Life,” had lauded the leadership of Lewis in the non-violent civil-rights movement.

McCain called the accusation “shocking and beyond the pale” and called on Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) to repudiate it."

Brad Woodhouse of the Democratic National Committee said on Fox News: "I don’t think Senator Obama would agree with that. … I don’t think we would agree with those comments."

Lewis didn’t accuse McCain of imitating Wallace, but suggested there were similarities. His sharp words may be dismissed as those of a partisan Democrat in a campaign season. But the former head of SNCC and hero of Selma is somebody who McCain has lavished praise upon over the years, including in his book on courage and bravery and repeatedly invoking Lewis’s name in public appearances.

Appearing with Obama at a forum at Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church in August, McCain included Lewis as one of "three wise men" he would consult as president. "He can teach us all a lot about the meaning of courage and commitment to causes greater than our self-interest," McCain said of Lewis.

Now, Lewis is castigating McCain in the harshest of terms. "George Wallace never threw a bomb," Lewis noted. "He never fired a gun, but he created the climate and the conditions that encouraged vicious attacks against innocent Americans who were simply trying to exercise their constitutional rights. Because of this atmosphere of hate, four little girls were killed on Sunday morning when a church was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama."

McCain quickly fired back hard, calling the comments “a character attack against Governor Sarah Palin and me that is shocking and beyond the pale.”

“The notion that legitimate criticism of Senator Obama’s record and positions could be compared to Governor George Wallace, his segregationist policies and the violence he provoked is unacceptable and has no place in this campaign,” McCain said in the statement. “I am saddened that John Lewis, a man I’ve always admired, would make such a brazen and baseless attack on my character and the character of the thousands of hardworking Americans who come to our events to cheer for the kind of reform that will put America on the right track.

McCain also put the onus on Obama to distance himself from the remarks: "I call on Senator Obama to immediately and personally repudiate these outrageous and divisive comments that are so clearly designed to shut down debate 24 days before the election. Our country must return to the important debate about the path forward for America.”

The full Lewis posting, sent to Politico’s Fred Barbash, referee of "The Arena," with the heading “Rep. John Lewis On Hostility of McCain-Palin Campaign": “As one who was a victim of violence and hate during the height of the Civil Rights Movement, I am deeply disturbed by the negative tone of the McCain-Palin campaign. What I am seeing reminds me too much of another destructive period in American history. Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there is no need for this hostility in our political discourse.

“During another period, in the not too distant past, there was a governor of the state of Alabama named George Wallace who also became a presidential candidate. George Wallace never threw a bomb. He never fired a gun, but he created the climate and the conditions that encouraged vicious attacks against innocent Americans who were simply trying to exercise their constitutional rights. Because of this atmosphere of hate, four little girls were killed on Sunday morning when a church was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama.

"As public figures with the power to influence and persuade, Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are playing with fire, and if they are not careful, that fire will consume us all. They are playing a very dangerous game that disregards the value of the political process and cheapens our entire democracy. We can do better. The American people deserve better.” 

Politico has asked the Obama campaign for comment.

Acorn attacks break through — to ESPN.

Gail Collins conjures the Lord of the Rings.

Sheldon Adelson’s net worth plummets.

Dickerson says Obama’s not being candid on Ayers, but within the expected margin for deceit.

Gatemouth hates Ayers, but doesn’t think the relationship means much.

That’s Dawn Eden’s SAT scoresheet (with photoshopped grades) not Sarah Palin’s.

And Palin hits Obama on "punished with a baby."

ALSO: New heights in shark-jumping: A Corner blogger suggests Bill Ayers wrote "Dreams for my Father." A kind of grand unified theory of Obama conspiracy. Based on, well, nothing.