John McCain, Barack Obama trade jabs over Iraq again

ORLANDO, Fla. – Victory in Iraq is in sight, but much will need to be done by the next administration, Republican presidential candidate John McCain told fellow military veterans today.

As the major political parties prepare for their conventions beginning at the end of the month and with much of the nation’s attention focused on the Olympics, McCain turned to his familiar attacks on rival Barack Obama over Iraq.

“Though victory in Iraq is finally in sight,” McCain told the 109th convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. “A great deal still depends on the decisions and good judgment of the next president.

“The lasting advantage of a peaceful and democratic ally in the heart of the Middle East could still be squandered by hasty withdrawal and arbitrary timelines. And this is one of many problems in the shifting positions of my opponent, Sen. Obama,” McCain said.

Obama will campaign today on economic issues in New Mexico. His campaign immediately responded to McCain:

“All his bluster, distortions and negative attacks notwithstanding, it is hard to understand how Senator McCain can at once proclaim his support for the sovereign government of Iraq, and then stubbornly defy their expressed support for a timeline to remove our combat brigades from their country,” Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton said in an e-mail.

“The difference in this race is that John McCain is intent on spending $10 billion a month on an open-ended war, while Barack Obama thinks we should bring this war to a responsible end and invest in our pressing needs here at home,” he said.

Iraq is one of the issues that sharply divided the candidates. McCain was a longtime supporter of the surge, a sharp increase in U.S. troops in Iraq, arguing it will bring security. Obama has argued that the main front in the war on terrorism is Afghanistan and called for a staggered withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, depending on conditions on the ground.

McCain today repeated what have become his standard complaints about Obama.

“First, he opposed the surge and confidently predicted that it would fail. Then he tried to prevent funding for the troops who carried out the surge. Not content to merely predict failure in Iraq, my opponent tried to legislate failure,” McCain said.

Then McCain delivered his oft-used tag line.

“Both candidates in this election pledge to end this war and bring our troops home. The great difference is that I intend to win it first,” he told the friendly audience of veterans.

Obama was scheduled to speak to the group on Tuesday. President Bush plans to attend on Wednesday.

The Obama campaign also announced a new group of veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan who back the Illinois senator “because he has the judgment, vision and character to lead this country in the 21st century. These veterans will play a prominent role in Denver at the Democratic National Convention; lead Veterans for Obama efforts in the states; participate in grass-roots fundraising efforts; and serve as surrogates before veterans and general audiences across America,” the campaign said.

Later today, Democratic officials are arranging a news conference outside a McCain fundraiser in Atlanta to criticize the candidate’s ties to Ralph Reed, a conservative political strategist and former leader of the Christian Coalition who was linked to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

The McCain campaign has been on the defensive since an Atlanta newspaper reported that Reed sent out e-mails encouraging donors to attend the Atlanta fundraiser and stating he’d joined McCain’s “Victory 2008 team.”

McCain’s aides insist Reed is not involved in the event, but that has not stopped Democrats from arguing that Reed’s advocacy for McCain is evidence that the Arizona senator is “abandoning his principles” as he pursues the presidency.

McCain’s campaign has cited his investigation into Abramoff’s dealings with Indian tribes as a crowning achievement in what McCain describes as a career of taking on the Washington establishment.

As head of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, McCain uncovered that Abramoff had bilked Indian tribes of millions of dollars. Abramoff plead guilty in 2006 to fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy. Reed never faced criminal charges, but he was tainted by the scandal after a House investigative committee found that he used his ties to Bush advisor Karl Rove to help Abramoff’s clients.

 michael.muskal@latimes.com

 maeve.reston@latimes.com

Reston reported from the McCain campaign in Florida and Muskal from Los Angeles.