Obama Claims to be in the Banking Commitee. He's not. [Speechgaff] (1)

1 Name: Unverified Source : 2008-07-24 14:22 ID:SVa3QK+8

Barack Obama today boasted about a bill in "my committee,'' a committee on which he has no seat.

While speaking to the press in the Israeli town of Sderot, Obama mistakenly put the U.S. Senate banking committee on his resume, although the Illinois senator does not serve on the committee and Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) is the chairman.

The Republican National Committee distributed an e-mail pointing out Obama's mistake with a subject line of "Obama's Gaffe Machine Rolls Into Israel."

During the press conference, Obama said, "Just this past -- this past week, we passed out of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, which is my committee, a bill to call for divestment from Iran as a way of ratcheting up the pressure to ensure that they don't obtain a nuclear weapon."

Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt said Obama was referring to an Iran divestment bill he introduced in 2007 with U.S. Reps. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and Tom Lantos (D-Calif.). Last week, the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs passed the the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act of 2008, which included provisions Obama offered in his 2007 legislation.

"The Obama provisions clarify that state and local governments can divest from companies that invest $20 million or more in Iran's energy sector and provide safe harbor for private fund managers who divest from such companies," according to a July 17 statement from Obama's Senate office.

In a separate statement July 17, Dodd thanked Obama for his work on the 2007 legislation.

"[Obama] meant to say 'my bill,'" LaBolt said.

The McCain campaign asserted that Obama had nothing to do with the passage of the bill.

"Not only is it not his committee, but he's not even on the committee, he didn't vote on the bill, and he had nothing to do with it's passage," the McCain campaign said in a statement. "Neither has Barack busied himself with work on the committees to which he does belong, such as the Subcommittee on European Affairs, which he chairs and has only convened once.

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