8/28/2004
Sold out by the righties
I hate to say this about a House impeachment manager, but I feel sorry for Bill McCallum.
The guy spends a career quietly doing the bidding the of the Christian right and voting in lockstep with the Republican leadership. He racks up a 93 percent scorecard rating with the Christian Coalition and a 100 percent voting record with National Right to Life in his last year in the House. But it isn't good enough.
Because he backs a modest loosening of stem-cell research restrictions and voted for hate-crime bills (on the theory that attacking people because of race, religion or sexual orientation is, you know, a bad thing) the Christian right turned on him with a vengeance. This is not a turn-the-other-cheek crowd.
For his minor deviations from conservative dogma, the groups he served for years suddenly attack him as "anti-family" and part of "the gay agenda."
And this happens after the Bushes already had dissed him by recruiting Mel Martinez to run against him and supporting him early and openly. The national Republicans needed somebody else to run because they worried about McCollum's electability. Why? Because he's seen as too far right after too many years of voting along with the House Republican leadership, NRA and Right to Life folks.
I'd feel sold out by my party if I were him.
No surprise then that the final TV debate among the GOP Senate candidates got harsh.
That's right, Mel, deniablity. You have learned Mr. Rove's lessons well.
The guy spends a career quietly doing the bidding the of the Christian right and voting in lockstep with the Republican leadership. He racks up a 93 percent scorecard rating with the Christian Coalition and a 100 percent voting record with National Right to Life in his last year in the House. But it isn't good enough.
Because he backs a modest loosening of stem-cell research restrictions and voted for hate-crime bills (on the theory that attacking people because of race, religion or sexual orientation is, you know, a bad thing) the Christian right turned on him with a vengeance. This is not a turn-the-other-cheek crowd.
For his minor deviations from conservative dogma, the groups he served for years suddenly attack him as "anti-family" and part of "the gay agenda."
And this happens after the Bushes already had dissed him by recruiting Mel Martinez to run against him and supporting him early and openly. The national Republicans needed somebody else to run because they worried about McCollum's electability. Why? Because he's seen as too far right after too many years of voting along with the House Republican leadership, NRA and Right to Life folks.
I'd feel sold out by my party if I were him.
No surprise then that the final TV debate among the GOP Senate candidates got harsh.
During the debate, McCallum dramatically pulled a new Martinez flier out of his suit coat pocket, saying it "accuses me of catering to the radical homosexual lobby."
"That is just despicable," he told Martinez. "It's nasty. It's not true. It's absolutely incorrect."
McCallum demanded that Martinez condemn the flier and apologize, but Martinez did neither. Instead, President Bush's former housing secretary said: "Words were used that were not mine, and were not of my choosing. Those words were spoken by others."
That's right, Mel, deniablity. You have learned Mr. Rove's lessons well.
