Apparently, McCain was for Khalidi before he was against him ...

In their latest attempt to smear Obama by association, the McCain/Palin ticket is criticizing the LA Times for their refusal to release video of a dinner at which Obama apparently praised Palestinian scholar Rashid Khalidi, currently the Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies and former Director of the Middle East Institute at Columbia University.

As reported on the Huffington Post (here), however, McCain has his own history with Khalidi:

In regards to Khalidi ... the guilt-by-association game burns John McCain as well.

During the 1990s, while he served as chairman of the International Republican Institute (IRI), McCain distributed several grants to the Palestinian research center co-founded by Khalidi, including one worth half a million dollars.

A 1998 tax filing for the McCain-led group shows a $448,873 grant to Khalidi's Center for Palestine Research and Studies for work in the West Bank. (See grant number 5180, "West Bank: CPRS" on page 14 of this PDF.)