Honorable John Edwards
Edwards for President
PO Box 300034
Raleigh, NC 27622

Dear Senator Edwards:

I'm simply astounded that you have retained General Hugh Shelton as an adviser to your presidential campaign. This choice undermines the spirit of civility that you have urged your fellow candidates to uphold. Just this September, you said: "We need to be really careful that our anger is not directed at each other." Maybe you should share that advice with your own campaign team.

General Shelton has engaged in precisely the type of politics as usual mud-slinging that you profess to abhor: he initiated what has become a smear campaign that the Republicans have gleefully taken up. And his character assassination was the worst type: General Shelton leveled charges about "integrity" and "character," and then refused to back up his charge with an ounce of evidence or a shred of substantiation. Attacks like these have no place in campaigns, or in any public discourse. You should insist that General Shelton either repudiate his attacks or come forward and provide proof for what he said.

Your association with General Shelton is also curious given your position of support for the war in Kosovo. As you know, by waging war against Slobodan Milosevic in Kosovo, we saved 1.5 million Albanians from ethnic cleansing, all without losing a single American life. Have you changed your mind about this operation? Do you now think we should have refused to stop the genocide and given Milosevic free reign in the region, as your adviser apparently believes?

By associating with General Shelton on this campaign, you seem to have given in to the negative politics that you say you have risen above. I hope that throughout the campaign you will maintain the high level of dialogue that you have insisted on for others and that you will address this matter promptly.

Sincerely,

Matt Bennett
Communications Director
Clark for President