McCain may continue 'anti-Catholic' phone campaign

Straight Talker Kept Name Off-Attack Calls, Initially Denied He Made Them

Republican presidential candidate John McCain is leaving open the possibility that his campaign will continue to make phone calls to potential Republican primary voters that imply George W. Bush is anti-Catholic, even though McCain's campaign acknowledges that Bush is not antiCatholic.

In a letter sent February 25 to John Cardinal O'Connor, the archbishop of New York, the Texas governor formally apologized for not speaking out-when he spoke at South Carolina's Bob Jones University (BJU) a week before the South Carolina primary-against anti-Catholic statements made by the founder of BJU.

Nevertheless, Dan McLagan, a spokesman for McCain, told HUMAN EVENTS on March 1 that the campaign was keeping open the option of making more phone calls in other states. So far, he said, the McCain campaign has made the so-called Catholic Voter Alert calls in Michigan and Washington. The Bush campaign claims calls were made in Virginia as well.

"Me calls do not say George W. Bush is anti-Catholic," said McLagan. "George W. Bush is trying to run a Jekyll and Hyde campaign, using tactics appealing to anti-- Catholics in one state and running as a compassionate conservative in another state. We're not letting him get away with it."

The script for the calls made in Washington last week says, 'This is a Catholic Voter Alert. Gov. George Bush has campaigned against Sen. John McCain by seeking the support of fundamentalists who have expressed antiCatholic views. Several weeks ago, Gov. Bush spoke at Bob Jones University in South Carolina. Bob Jones has made strong anti-Catholic statements, including calling the Pope the Antichrist and the Catholic Church a satanic cult. John McCain, a pro-life senator, has strongly criticized this anti-Catholic bigotry, while Gov. Bush has stayed silent while gaining the support of Bob Jones University."

Jeb Bush, Catholic

Bush noted in his letter to Cardinal O'Connor that his brother, Florida's Republican Gov. Jeb Bush, is Catholic.

"A few weeks ago I visited Bob Jones University in South Carolina to address its students and outline the reasons I am seeking the presidency," wrote Bush. "Some have taken--and mistaken-this visit as a sign that I approve of the anti-Catholic and racially divisive views associated with that school. As you know from a long friendship with my family-and our own meeting last year-this criticism is unfair and unfounded....

"On reflection, I should have been more clear in disassociating myself from anti-Catholic sentiments and racial prejudice. It was a missed opportunity, causing needless offense, which I deeply regret."

Bob Jones University also forbids interracial dating. McCain himself and a spokesman both initially denied that the calls came from the McCain campaign. At a news conference the day of the Michigan primary, February 22, McCain was asked, "Have you ordered that those phone calls be stopped?" McCain said, I didn't have anything to do with them to start with."

McCain spokesman Howard Opinsky said the saw day that the campaign had nothing to do with the calls, but later that day, as the polls closed, campaign manager Rick Davis admitted that the campaign paid for the calls.

The New York Times reported that Conquest Communications of Richmond, Va., made calls to 24,000 Catholic households in Michigan the day before the primary, and spent $8,000 on them.

On Sunday, February 27, the New York Times reported, "In an interview on Friday night on a flight from California to Ohio, where he campaigned today, Mr. McCain said he had personally approved the calls, which aides said were inspired by an earlier ad hoc effort by volunteers."

The McCain campaign later explained this contradiction by saying that when McCain said, "I didn't have anything to do with them to start with," he was talking about an initial round of calls made spontaneously by McCain supporters, who did refer directly to Bush as anti-Catholic. The calls that McCain then personally reviewed, approved and paid for did not directly label Bush anti-Catholic, but attacked him for "seeking the support of fundamentalists who have expressed antiCatholic views." The campaign said that McCain spokesman Opinsky had not been informed of the calls at the time he made the misleading statement to the press.

Asked if the calls violated McCain's famous "no negative campaigning" pledge, McLagan said, "Absolutely not. The phone calls are completely factual."

Bush spokesman Scott McClellan accused the McCain campaign of inventing a "phony group" called "Catholic Voter Alert." The voice on the prerecorded phone message never reveals that the call is being paid for by the McCain campaign.

"It's fairly well publicized that they're from us," said McLagan. "This is a Catholic Voter Alert. There's no group called that. We didn't say there was."

McClellan said that to his knowledge, there was nothing illegal about the calls and that the Bush campaign did not plan to lodge a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission about them.

Copyright Human Events Publishing, Inc. Mar 10, 2000
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