I held off on this for hours in hopes that there’d be A/V of them on the stump, but wouldn’t you know it, no luck.

No matter. Obama’s radical associations + lefty media conspiracy = crazy delicious.

“Apparently this is a tape with a dinner that Mr. Ayers, the former, and now still, unrepentant terrorist, who was at, and also the, one of the leading spokespersons for the PLO. Now, why that should not be made public is beyond me,” McCain told La Kalle radio.

“I guarantee you, if there was a tape with me and Sarah Palin and some neo-Nazi or one of those, you think that that tape wouldn’t be made public? Of course, Americans need to know, particularly about Ayers, and also about the PLO. So hopefully there will be enough pressure on the L.A. Times that it’ll come out, but its really unfortunate that we have to go through this,” McCain continued…

Palin said she wants to know how Obama responded to derogatory comments said about Israel and America’s support for its ally during the party.

“Israel was described there as the perpetrator of terrorism instead of the victim. What we don’t know, what we don’t know, is how Barack Obama responded to these slurs on a country that he now professes to support, and the reason is the newspaper that has the tape, The Los Angeles Times, refuses to release it,” she said. “It must be nice for a candidate to have major news organizations looking after his best interests like that.”

The “reward” for the tape is up to $150,000 while the RNC has already elevated Khalidi to all-star F.O.B. status. I was skeptical at first that anything useful would come from it even if it was released, but now that Maverick’s made an issue of it to build suspense, a clip showing The One demonstrating that first-class temperament of his by sitting there placidly while some tool recites a poem “accusing the Israeli government of terrorism in its treatment of Palestinians” would be fun viewing during the run-up to Tuesday. Think of it as a proxy for the Wright attack McCain refuses to make: Same basic parameters — Obama cuddling up to a radical whose criticism of America and its allies is a bit more fragrant than voters are accustomed to — but safely stripped of black/white racial politics and ensconced within a defense of Israel. If the tape surfaces, you won’t need to play connect the dots by bringing up Wright and Ayers. Voters will do it themselves.

In lieu of McPalin video, here’s Fox News chatting about the tape with someone from the Media Research Center. FYI, the only source I know of for what he says about babysitting is WND, and their sources were unnamed.

Update: You’ll find the ‘Cuda calling the Times Obama’s “pet newspaper” in the second clip here.