Greetings from Woodbridge, Virginia, where Joseph Biden has just appeared at Veterans Memorial Park Community Center and, near as I can tell, committed no gaffes. But he did accuse John McCain of taking a bribe.
In a speech before about 200 people, Biden highlighted the Obama campaign’s new attack on John McCain, an attack debuting today in a TV ad entitled “Destination.” The ad accuses McCain of promising continued special tax breaks to corporations in exchange for $50,000 in campaign donations. This deal, Obama alleges, took place in Bermuda, where McCain had traveled to meet executives of insurance companies that maintain sham headquarters on the island so they can avoid paying U.S. taxes. “[McCain] pledged to protect tax breaks for American corporations that hide their profits offshore, and in return, the grateful insurance company executives and their lobbyists who benefited gave McCain $50,000,” an Obama press release said this morning.
Here in Woodbridge, Biden portrayed McCain’s actions as a straight quid pro quo. “On the floor of the United States Senate, John spoke out against these offshore tax breaks,” Biden said. “Then, while he was in Bermuda, according to the Bermuda Royal Gazette newspaper, he started singing a very, very different tune. He told local business leaders…that he would oppose any efforts to close this loophole that exists allowing insurance companies to evade $4 billion to $7 billion in taxes a year. And now, we learn that shortly after he made these statements to these leaders and executives from those very companies, they held a fundraiser and contributed $50,000 to his campaign.”
Sounds like a corrupt deal. But Biden was quick to add: “Now look, folks. There’s nothing illegal about any of that. But this is the same old Washington game.”
Who knows? Maybe there could be something illegal in that, at least as Biden described it. I asked the McCain team for reaction — will post it when I get it.
UPDATE: OK, I finally have the response from the McCain campaign, from spokesman Tucker Bounds, and it is not exactly a denial:
Joe Biden’s argument ignores one key fact: John McCain is committed to reforming the overall tax code in order to incentivize companies to do business in this country by lowering the tax rate so America is more competitive with the rest of the world – his longstanding record and commitment is to making the tax rate in Bermuda irrelevant.