McCain gives Freedom Award to Cheney???

I'm sure you all have noticed Google is celebrating its 10 year anniversary this year and they are digging up a lot of fun ways to celebrate. The newest one today is they opened up their search index from 2001. So if you type in a search term it shows you exactly what you would have gotten back then. Since I discovered this while watching the Obama/McCain town hall debate tonight, I typed in John McCain to see what the news was about him in '01. I came across this interesting picture showing McCain's old buddy Dick Cheney. In fact, McCain was presenting Cheney the 2001 Freedom Award. The Freedom Award???? Freedom for who? Lobbyist? This just shows the poor judgment of John McCain who chaired the committee that doled out the award. I came across this great New York Times link while trying to figure out what this was all about. It turns out that the International Republican Institute that gave out this award is heavily backed by lobbyists. This award was also handed out to Condoleezza Rice and Bush himself.


Vice President Dick Cheney, right, receives the 2001 Freedom Award by the International Republican Institute present to him by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., at a dinner in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2001. McCain, who serves as the chairman for a group that promotes democracy around the world, presented award to both Cheney and his wife Lynne Cheney. Photo by Pablo Martinez Monsivais (AP)