Lugar: American arms-length stance on Iran proper

WASHINGTON — Sen. John McCain charged Tuesday that President Barack Obama is not talking tough enough on the disputed presidential election in Iran.

McCain, who lost to Obama in last year’s presidential election, said the president “should speak out that this is a corrupt, flawed, sham of an election and that the Iranian people have been deprived of their rights.”

Obama has spoken more cautiously, reiterating Monday that he is concerned about how the process went there and is worried about the unrest in the Persian Gulf nation. Obama said he believes all Iranians should have their voices heard in the election.

But McCain, interviewed on NBC’s “Today” show Tuesday, said the United States should support the Iranian people “in their struggle against an oppressive, repressive regime.” The Arizona Republican said they “should not be subjected to four more years of (President Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad and the radical Muslim clerics.”

Earlier, Sen. Richard Lugar, the senior GOP member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he thought it would be unwise for the United States to get any more involved than it is.

Interviewed on CBS’s “The Early Show,” Lugar said the clerical leadership undoubtedly would use pent up ill will toward the United States in Iran to cling to power in the event Washington got more actively involved in trying to resolve the electoral dispute.

The Indiana Republican said the clerics governing Iraq “are in charge. They are the government. The election is interesting, but not decisive.”

The Obama administration has been closely watching the election, but its rhetoric has been somewhat muted.