Isn’t that a little hypocritical?

So I’ve got a question.

Why is it perfectly okay for a Republican candidate like Sen. John McCain to attack the Democratic candidate – in this case Barack Obama – but if Obama attacks back, that’s suddenly not acceptable?

I ask that question because that seems to be the mentality of some on the right – that it’s perfectly okay to question Barack Obama’s patriotism – as Gov. Palin has been doing out on the campaign trail – and to bring up his association with folks like William Ayers, no matter how loose that association may be, yet if Obama and liberals dare question John McCain’s associations with corrupt convicted felons like Charles Keating (of Keating 5 fame), then they’re attacked as being part of a “liberal slime machine.” Cindy Kilkenny over at Fairly Conservative seems to think Barack Obama’s latest move highlighting John McCain’s connection to the Keating Five savings and loan scandal is a “smokescreen defense filled with lies,” but I think if John McCain & Co. are going to shine light on supposed questionable associations of Sen. Obama, then Sen. Obama and his folks ought to shed a little light on Sen. McCain’s own questionable associations with some shady characters. Chief among those associations is Sen. McCain’s close personal relationship with convicted felon Charles Keating, who bilked more than 21,000 investors out of their life savings, totalling about 285 million dollars.

Now considering the current economic crisis and McCain’s own close ties to Freddie Mac through McCain campaign manager Rick Davis, it’s worth talking about McCain’s questionable judgment regarding who he associates with, because his track record leaves a lot to be desired.

What’s more, it strikes me as just a little hypocritical for conservatives to complain about a “liberal slime machine,” considering how negative attacks, mudslinging, and the politics of personal destruction have been such an integral part of the Republican political machine for the past 20 years or so.