Washington group ties Obama to Kilpatrick

WASHINGTON, Sept. 6 (UPI) -- A Washington political group alleges in a new TV commercial that U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama has ties to disgraced Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.

The Freedom's Defense Fund advertisement shows footage of the Democratic senator from Illinois praising Kilpatrick at a May 2007 event, the Detroit Free Press reported Saturday.

The advertisement pairs Obama's verbal praise for Kilpatrick with a copy of the mayor's police mug shot, taken before he pleaded guilty to two obstruction of justice charges.

The group's executive director, Todd Zirkle, told the Free Press the political advertisement will run for at least seven days on cable channels in Macomb County, Mich.

The newspaper said Brent Colburn, Obama's Michigan spokesman, has dismissed the ad as "the same old desperate, cynical Washington-style political attacks."