Castro Backer Raitt to Sing for Shaheen

Former Governor Jeanne Shaheen will bring celebritihood to Concord when she hosts Emmy Award winning singer Bonnie Raitt for a fundraiser at the Capitol Center for the Arts on August 12th. There’s only one problem: Bonnie Raitt’s previous dalliances in politics have tended to be of the radical, sometimes anti-American, variety.

For example, Shaheen isn’t the first politician Raitt will have sung to. In 1999 she traveled to Havana and sang for Stalinist dictator Fidel Castro at the Karl Marx Theater. She even composed a song in Castro’s honor titled, “Cuba Is Way Too Cool!”

The next year Raitt joined other celebrities in signing an advertisement in the New York Times that claimed United States policy was responsible for “killing … over one million Iraqis, mostly children under five.”

Raitt’s comments on Iraq appear to condemn Shaheen’s own past policy positions. Shaheen supported the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, though she now supports a troop withdrawal plan.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee believes Gov. Shaheen’s and Raitt’s views are compatible, however. Spokesman John Randall said, “Raitt’s concert is not a surprise considering she and Shaheen share an affinity for oppressive, extremist national leaders - Raitt with her concert for Fidel Castro in Havana and Shaheen inviting Mohammed Khatami, the former President of Iran, to speak at Harvard.”

The Shaheen campaign did not have an immediate comment.

http://www.nowhampshire.com/content/castro-backer-raitt-sing-shaheen