McCain passes on Stevens' money

WASHINGTON, Aug. 7 (UPI) -- Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, has sent a $5,000 gift to a memorial for terrorism victims in western Pennsylvania.

Paul Lindsay, a spokesman for the McCain campaign, said the donation was originally a gift to McCain's campaign from a political action committee associated with U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported. Stevens was recently indicted on charges involving gifts from an oil company.

The Flight 93 memorial in Stonycreek, near Shanksville, commemorates the crash of a United plane bound from Newark, N.J., to San Francisco on Sept. 11, 2001. After the plane was hijacked, the passengers attempted to retake it.

Lindsay said that passing on money for a good cause is "not out of the ordinary." Massie Ritsch of the Center for Responsive Politics described the gift as "a political decision, not an ethical one."

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