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A John McCain adviser has been asked to leave the campaign following inquiries about the consultant’s work with an independent “527″ group that sharply criticized the Democratic presidential candidates, according to a report Thursday night by The Politico.

The adviser, Craig Shirley, was consulting McCain while his firm was also doing public relations work for the group Stop Her Now, according to the article.

The McCain campaign, in response, released a new policy stating that no one on the McCain campaign “may participate in a 527 or other independent entity that makes public communications that support or oppose any presidential candidate.”

The campaign also has launched background checks of its entire staff, including a questionnaire inquiring about previous professional activities, in case any have connections to lobbyists, according to a blog report by Marc Ambinder at TheAtlantic.com.

The Stop Her Now group initially targeted Hillary Clinton — in part through cartoons and animated features on its Web site — but has changed its message to “Stop Him Now,” going after Barack Obama as he’s taken the lead in the Democratic contest. The top of the Web site now declares it is “saving America from the radical leftist agenda of Barack Obama.”

Shirley was ousted after two other high-profile McCain aides resigned their positions following reports that they were working for a firm that did lobbying work with the Burmese military junta in 2002.

Newsweek initially ran a story questioning Doug Goodyear — the man picked by McCain’s campaign to run the 2008 Republican National Convention — and his firm DCI Group’s $348,000 contract with the junta. The article also drew attention to DCI’s work with 527 groups.

Goodyear said he stepped down from his convention role “so as not to become a distraction in this campaign.”

Click here to read the Politico report on McCain’s adviser.

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BATH, S.D. — Hillary Rodham Clinton scolded John McCain Thursday for opposing the farm bill, attempting to maintain the sense that she is already competing against the certain Republican presidential nominee even as her chances for winning the Democratic nomination dim.

As she chatted up rural South Dakotans, Clinton largely ignored Democratic rival Barack Obama, who continued to gain ground in delegates needed to clinch the nomination and picked up a sought-after endorsement from former Sen. John Edwards this week.

Clinton noted that President Bush has said he will veto the farm bill, which Congress passed Thursday. McCain also has said he would veto the bill if he were president.

“They’re like two sides of the same coin, and it doesn’t amount to much change, does it?” the New York senator said. “I believe saying no to the farm bill is saying no to rural America.”

Bush and McCain both say the bill, which boosts farm subsidies and includes more money for food stamps, is fiscally irresponsible and too generous to wealthy corporate farmers.

“When Bear Stearns needed assistance, we stepped in with a $30 billion package. But when our farmers need help, all they get from Senator McCain and President Bush is a veto threat,” Clinton said.

Obama applauded the bill’s passage in a statement released by his campaign, saying the measure was “far from perfect,” but “with so much at stake, we cannot make the perfect the enemy of the good.”

The Illinois senator also chided McCain and Bush for “saying no to America’s farmers and ranchers, no to energy independence, no to the environment, and no to millions of hungry people.”

Clinton chose South Dakota for her first campaign appearance since her West Virginia win earlier this week, signaling that she is sticking around until the final primaries on June 3 despite call from some Democrats to close ranks behind Obama. South Dakota and Montana vote that day — the finish line on the primary calendar.

“There are a lot of people who say, ‘Well we should just wrap this up,”‘ Clinton told several hundred South Dakotans while standing on the porch of a fourth-generation family farmhouse in Bath. “Well I’ve never been impatient with democracy.”

Meanwhile, in Kentucky, husband Bill Clinton urged voters to ignore those who say Obama will be the nominee. Kentucky holds its presidential primary on Tuesday.

“Your voice still counts,” the former president said. “They’ve tried to bury her more times than a cat has lives.”

While chatting briefly with reporters as she flew to South Dakota, Clinton stuck to small talk, like describing the deer she occasionally sees outside her Washington home. She refused to comment on Edwards’ endorsement. Both she and Obama had sought his backing.

Later, in Rapid City, she said she had a “great deal of respect” for Edwards.

“He and I have a lot in common … I imagine that Senator Edwards’ endorsement will be of some help to Senator Obama in Kentucky, but I think that what matters are the people who actually vote,” Clinton said before heading to California for a fundraiser.

Clinton said she had not spoken with Edwards but had spoken with his wife, Elizabeth, about the endorsement. She declined to discuss their conversation.

The former first lady has maintained that her West Virginia triumph over Obama bolsters her argument that she would be the stronger nominee to face McCain in key states in the fall.

Left with an increasingly unrealistic mathematical path to the nomination, Clinton has turned to philosophical arguments in an attempt to appeal to the party leaders and elected officials, known as superdelegates, whose support will likely determine the nominee.

Suffering from money woes of more than $20 million in debt and trailing Obama in fundraising power, Clinton met with her finance team and top fundraisers at her Washington home on Wednesday to rally her forces. The message to the group was to remind them that she now has the lead in votes cast thus far throughout the primary season.

Her campaign continues to site a total, however, that includes results from the Florida and Michigan contests that the national Democratic Party has not recognized.

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COLUMBUS, Ohio — Republican presidential contender John McCain on Thursday listed a series of prospective first-term accomplishments, including winning the war in Iraq, although he said he was not backtracking on his criticism of Democrats for favoring immediate troop withdrawals.

In a mystical speech that also envisioned Osama bin Laden dead or captured and Americans with the choice of paying a simple flat tax or following their standard 1040 form, the Arizona senator for the first time set an outer limit for the war even if he hedged on a specific end date.

“By January 2013, America has welcomed home most of the servicemen and women who have sacrificed terribly so that America might be secure in her freedom. The Iraq War has been won,” he told an audience of several hundred here in the capital city of a general election battleground state.

Later, as he drove to the airport on his “Straight Talk Express” campaign bus, McCain was peppered by reporters with questions about the timetable. He and his aides insisted there was a difference between ending the war and bringing troops home and, as they criticize the Democrats, announcing a withdrawal upfront without regard for the military endgame.

“It’s not a timetable; it’s victory. It’s victory, which I have always predicted. I didn’t know when we were going to win World War II; I just knew we were going to win,” McCain said.

The Vietnam veteran added: “I know from experience, you set a day for surrender — which is basically what you do when you say you are withdrawing — and you will pay a much a heavier price later on.”

Democrats pounced on the comment, led by presidential contender Hillary Rodham Clinton.

In a statement, the New York senator dismissed McCain and said he “promises more of the same Bush policies that have weakened our military, our national security and our standing in the world.”

Other Democrats equated McCain’s comment with President Bush’s May 1, 2003, speech on the deck of an aircraft carrier displaying a “Mission Accomplished” banner.

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said, “The reality behind Senator McCain’s new rhetoric is that his plans either ignore the problems he identifies or actually makes them worse.”

In his remarks, McCain peered through a crystal ball to 2013 and envisioned an era of bipartisanship driven by weekly news conferences and British-style question periods with joint meetings of Congress.

The senator conceded he cannot make the changes alone, but said he wanted to outline a specific governing style to show the accomplishments it can achieve. He backed up his remarks with a Web ad featuring similar content.

“I’m not interested in partisanship that serves no other purpose than to gain a temporary advantage over our opponents. This mindless, paralyzing rancor must come to an end. We belong to different parties, not different countries,” McCain said. “There is a time to campaign, and a time to govern. If I’m elected president, the era of the permanent campaign will end; the era of problem-solving will begin.”

To the disdain of some fellow Republicans, the likely GOP nominee has worked with Democrats on legislation aimed at overhauling campaign finance regulations, redrafting immigration rules and regulations and implementing government spending controls.

While that has cultivated a maverick image for McCain, the Arizona senator has also been accused of exhibiting a nasty temper — swearing even at fellow lawmakers from his own party — and unabashed partisanship.

In particular, McCain has clashed with the leading Democratic presidential contender, Barack Obama. After tangling with the Illinois senator on lobbying reforms, McCain questioned Obama’s integrity in a publicly released 2006 letter.

McCain wrote he had thought Obama’s interest in ethics legislation “was genuine and admirable,” before adding: “Thank you for disabusing me of such notions.” He accused Obama of “partisan posturing.”

In outlining other potential achievements of a first term in his speech, the 71-year-old McCain implicitly was suggesting he would seek a second term, an attempt to mute suggestions he would serve only four years after being the oldest president elected.

In particular, he sees a world in which the Taliban threat in Afghanistan has been greatly reduced.

He added: “The increase in actionable intelligence that the counterinsurgency produced led to the capture or death of Osama bin Laden, and his chief lieutenants. … There still has not been a major terrorist attack in the United States since Sept. 11, 2001.”

McCain also pledged to halt a Bush administration practice of enacting laws with accompanying signing statements that exempt the president from having to enforce parts he finds objectionable.

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WASHINGTON — Cindy McCain, whose husband has been a critic of the violence in Sudan, sold off more than $2 million in mutual funds whose holdings include companies that do business in the African nation.

The sale on Wednesday came after The Associated Press questioned the investments in light of calls by John McCain, the likely Republican presidential nominee, for international financial sanctions against the Sudanese leadership.

Last year, at least four presidential candidates divested themselves of Sudan-related holdings.

According to McCain’s personal financial disclosure, Cindy McCain’s investments include two mutual funds — American Funds Europacific Growth fund and American Funds Capital World Growth and Income fund — that are listed by the Sudan Divestment Task Force as targets for divestment.

“Those have been sold as of today,” said McCain spokesman Brian Rogers.

Both funds have holdings in Oil & Natural Gas Corp., an India-based company that does business in Sudan. The American Funds Capital World Growth & Income Fund also has holdings in Petrochina, a Chinese government-owned oil company with vast investments in Sudan.

Last year, in a speech on energy policy to the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, McCain cited China’s investments in Sudan as an example of regimes that survive off free-flowing petro dollars.

“The politics of oil impede the global progress of our values, and restrains governments from acting on the most basic impulses of human decency,” he said. “There is only one reason China has opposed sanctions to pressure Sudan to stop the killing in Darfur: China needs Sudan’s oil.”

On Wednesday, Rogers said: “Senator and Mrs. McCain remain committed to doing everything possible to end the genocide in Darfur.”

For the McCains, the Sudan-related investments are among scores of different investments listed in his financial disclosure documents. Cindy McCain is heiress to a Phoenix-based beer distributing company whose fortune is in the $100 million range.

Sen. McCain is regularly ranked among the richest lawmakers in Congress, but under the terms of a prenuptial agreement, much of the family’s assets are in Cindy McCain’s name. While the disclosure reports provide the identity of income and assets held by candidates and their spouses, they only offer a range of the amount of the holding. Indeed, the report lists Cindy McCain’s investments in the two mutual funds as simply “over $1,000,0000.”

In tax returns he released last month, the Arizona senator reported a total income of $405,409 in 2007.

But Cindy McCain files separate tax returns which she has not made public. Last week, she said she would never make her returns public even if her husband becomes president.

Later Wednesday, the Democratic National Committee reiterated its call for Cindy McCain to release her tax returns. “The fact the McCain family was holding Sudan-related investments even as John McCain was out on the campaign trail calling for sanctions is a reminder of why the American people expect and deserve full disclosure from their elected officials,” said DNC spokesman Damien LaVera.

The Sudan-related investments illustrate the hazards for wealthy candidates whose vast holdings undergo thorough scrutiny during a presidential campaign.

A year ago, several presidential candidates divested themselves of Sudan-related holdings. Among them were Democrats Barack Obama and John Edwards and Republicans Sam Brownback and Rudy Giuliani.

In 2006, Brownback was among members of Congress who wrote 44 governors to urge them to divest their employee pension funds from businesses linked to Sudan. He is now serving as a top adviser to McCain’s campaign.

At the time, Obama placed the total value of his divestitures at $180,000. The sales of the investments were recorded in their financial disclosures.

According to Giuliani’s financial disclosure, he invested between $500,000 and $1 million in a Vanguard Wellington Fund. Data compiled by the Sudan Divestment Task Force shows that Vanguard Wellington has a small percentage of stock in Schlumberger Ltd., a French oil field services company that does business in Sudan.

Edwards sold stock he and his wife owned in Schlumberger for between $40,000 and $100,000. He also invested $50,000 to $100,000 in Evergreen Equity Income Fund, another fund identified by the divestment task force as having stock in Sudan-related companies.

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NORTH BEND, Wash. — John McCain on Tuesday cast Democratic rivals Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton as latecomers to the environmental battle, saying he would be willing to debate the issue with either of them in the general election to underscore his experience with the issue.

“People will trust my stewardship not only because of my background and knowledge, but also my vision for the future,” he told reporters during a news conference at a nature center in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains.

“They have never, to my knowledge, been involved in legislation nor hearings nor engagement on this issue.”

McCain cited his travels to global warming hotspots, as well as his work in his home state of Arizona with Native Americans, who control broad swaths of property. He also said the Democrats’ plan to auction greenhouse gas emission permits — rather than giving them away, as he proposes — would lead to higher prices for consumers.

“My proposal is doable,” said McCain. On Monday, he had sketched out his action plan for global warming.

“You can dictate a lot of things, but you have to unleash the innovative power and entrepreneurship of America in order to achieve these goals,” he said.

In another nod to the cause, McCain’s campaign office announced it was selling eco-friendly T-shirts and polo shirts made from biodegradable fabric, as well as organic cotton hats and shopping bags.

McCain proposes to cut greenhouse gas emissions 60 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. Obama and Clinton have committed to an 80 percent cut in emissions by 2050, a level favored by many scientists.

“While Barack Obama has brought Republicans and Democrats together around plans to raise our fuel standards and invest in renewable energy, John McCain’s ‘long history’ involves opposing countless measures to invest in renewable fuels and alternative energy technology,” said Obama spokesman Hari Sevugan.

Clinton spokesman Phil Singer said: “Sen. McCain is welcome to rewrite history if he likes, but the reality is that Senator Clinton has been very active on the issue of climate change. She’s even traveled with Sen. McCain a few times on trips that dealt with the issue.”

John Hagee, pastor at San Antonio's Cornerstone Church, has apologized for statements that have offended Catholics. (AP Photo)

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Evangelical leader John Hagee, one of John McCain’s highest-profile supporters from the religious right, has apologized for comments he made that were offensive to Catholics.

In a letter Monday to Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Civil and Religious Rights, Hagee wrote, “I want to express my deep regret for any comments that Catholics have found hurtful.”

Pastor Hagee, leader of San Antonio’s Cornerstone Church, has often made references to “the apostate church” and the “great whore,” terms that Catholics say are slurs aimed at the Roman Catholic Church.

In his letter, Hagee said he now better understands that the Book of Revelation’s reference to the Catholic Church by those two terms are “a rhetorical device long employed in anti-Catholic literature and commentary.”

“Neither of these phrases can be synonymous with the Catholic Church,” he wrote.

Donohue, accepting the apology, said on FOX News Radio: “I’m absolutely delighted … I haven’t seen such a quick turnaround in the 15 years that I have been president of the Catholic League.” He said he plans to meet with Hagee on Thursday.

Likening Hagee to two New York shock jocks who encouraged a pair of listeners to attempt to have sex in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in 2002, Donohue added that he is receptive to honest apologies.

“We’re not in the business of rejecting apologies whether it’s from Opie and Anthony or Pastor Hagee so now when we meet we can understand that this issue is moot and behind us and I think it’s a great moment that we can have some degree of reconciliation.”

Hagee’s endorsement in February had been difficult for McCain, as Democrats, Donohue and others called on the presumptive GOP nominee to reject the pastor’s support.

McCain said Tuesday he didn’t know if the new apology would stifle criticism, but said it was “helpful” and “laudable.”

“I believe the fact that these two individuals came together is a laudable thing and a testimony to both individuals and their principles, which are Judeo-Christian values,” he said, adding that his campaign had nothing to do with brokering the apology.

McCain, who has taken pains to gain the trust of the religious right, has rejected specific statements from Hagee — namely about the Catholic Church and blaming the sinful behavior of New Orleans residents for Hurricane Katrina — but would not denounce the pastor. Hagee apologized for the Katrina statements a couple weeks ago, saying it’s not his place to try to know the mind of God concerning the natural disaster.

Hagee has claimed that his “great whore” remarks were taken out of context, and that he was not directing them at the Roman Catholic Church. A spokesman said via e-mail Tuesday that Hagee “never used this phrase to refer to the Catholic Church.”

Donohue, who in February said that Hagee “has waged an unrelenting war against the Catholic Church,” said in a statement Tuesday that their feud is now history.

“The tone of Hagee’s letter is sincere. He wants reconciliation and he has achieved it,” Donohue said, adding that Hagee has spent “weeks” meeting with Catholic leaders.

“Indeed, the Catholic League welcomes his apology,” he wrote. “What Hagee has done takes courage and quite frankly I never expected him to demonstrate such sensitivity to our concerns. But he has done just that. Now Catholics, along with Jews, can work with Pastor Hagee in making interfaith relations stronger than ever. Whatever problems we had before are now history. This case is closed.”

Hagee is firmly pro-Israel and has praised McCain for sharing his values to that end. But he has condemned Catholics for what he sees as efforts to persecute Jews. In his 2006 book “Jerusalem Countdown,” Hagee wrote that history proves Adolf Hitler and the Catholic Church were linked “in a conspiracy to exterminate the Jews.”

In his letter to Donohue, Hagee indicated he no longer believes in such historical links.

“In my zeal to oppose anti-Semitism and bigotry in all its ugly forms, I have often emphasized the darkest chapters in the history of Catholic and Protestant relations with the Jews,” he wrote. “In the process, I may have contributed to the mistaken impression that the anti-Jewish violence of the Crusades and the Inquisition defines the Catholic Church. It most certainly does not. Likewise, I have not sufficiently expressed my deep appreciation for the efforts of Catholics who opposed the persecution of the Jewish people.”

Reacting to the letter, the Democratic National Committee again called on McCain to renounce Hagee’s endorsement Tuesday.

But McCain gave no sign of doing so. His campaign also rejects any attempts to draw comparisons between Hagee’s controversial remarks and those of Barack Obama’s former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr.

Donohue told FOX News Radio that both McCain and Obama “have both gotten some bad advice on how to handle certain people who are close to them.”

But he said “I don’t really have a stink with McCain per se.”

FOX News’ Shushannah Walshe and Mike Majchrowitz and The Associated Press contributed to this report.