White House hopeful John McCain's campaign said on Wednesday that the indictment of fellow Republican Sen. Ted Stevens was a "sad reminder" the next president will face a tough task rebuilding the public trust.
McCain senior adviser Nicolle Wallace said in a statement that McCain believed Stevens was entitled to a presumption of innocence in the face of charges that Stevens concealed more than $250,000 in gifts from an oil services company. The longtime Alaska senator denied the charges.
She noted past battles between McCain and Stevens over government spending, which McCain considers out of control and has vowed to cut back if he is elected on Nov. 4.
"Sen. McCain and Sen. Stevens have clashed famously over the appropriations process which Sen. McCain views as broken and subject to the type of corruption that has caused voters to lose faith with Washington, and as he mentions near daily on the campaign trail, has resulted in former members of Congress residing in federal prison," Wallace said.
"Sen. McCain has fought loudly and often alone against corruption and wasteful spending and this is a sad reminder that the next president will have his work cut out for him in rebuilding public trust by ending once and for all pork barrel spending and by reforming the federal government from top to bottom," she said.
At a town hall meeting in Aurora, Colo., McCain did not directly address the Stevens indictment but said Americans' gas taxes funded "things like a bridge in Alaska to an island with 50 people on it. That's $233 million, by the way."
Funding for the "Bridge to Nowhere," which became a symbol of government waste, was included in appropriations legislation at the request of Stevens.
Last September, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin announced the state would abandon the federally financed project and focus on other needs.
