McCAIN GETS A TEST OF LEADERSHIP-- FAILS IN NORTH CAROLINA

McCain can't control KKK faction of North Carolina GOP-- or doesn't want to

I was so relieved to read yesterday evening that some of the top lobbyists running the Double Talk Express had called the head of the North Carolina Republican Party and told her flat out that McCain doesn't want her running the racist ad they put together about Obama's former minister.

McCain senior campaign adviser Charlie Black has told Steve Holland of Reuters that he has been informed by the Republican National Committee's representative in North Carolina that the state party has agreed to withdraw the ad. McCain personally had called on the state GOP to can the ad.

But then, when I drove to visit a friend I heard an interview with Republican Party Chairman Linda Daves. No doubt she will soon be fired from her job-- McCain has never had any patience for backtalk from Republican women as he has demonstrated over and over throughout her career-- and at that point she can start a career as an actress, playing character roles: Nazi dominatrix, organizer of women's auxiliary for KKK groups, sadistic nun... things that come naturally to her. I listened in stunned silence to the pinched and vicious uptight hack mouthing right-wing platitudes about why she didn't care what McCain claims he wants.

“Contrary to any media reports, the ‘Extreme’ ad will run as scheduled next week. There has never been any intention to pull the ad and it will air.

The ‘Extreme’ ad has garnered attention around the country. I want to thank the people across North Carolina and across the country who have shown overwhelming support for us. Our aim is to tell the truth and ask difficult questions. We will continue to do so.

She also claims McCain never called her personally-- not that it would matter, she added. Racists, bigots and reactionaries of all stripes are pouring money into the state GOP to signal their approval. One major Raleigh TV station, WRAL, said they had rejected the ad and another, WTVD,
said they might do the same if the GOP asked them to run it. [UPDATE: Charlotte powerhouse WSOC turns down the GOP/KKK ad.]

Howard Dean made a good point today: "This is a test of leadership for John McCain. If he can't pick up the phone and make members of his own party stop airing a television ad he claims to oppose, how can he lead our country through an economic crisis or the war in Iraq?" I think an Obama campaign staffer, Hari Sevugan, came closer to what's going on with this ad though: "The fact that Senator McCain can't get his own party to take down this misleading, personal attack ad raises serious questions about his promise to the American people that he will run a civil, respectful campaign."

This might not actually be a matter of McCain not being able to control his own party, as bad as that is. Far more serious is the possibility-- very distinct possibility when you look around at who's on the Double Talk Express with him-- that the long planned gutter attacks on Obama, the ones one of McCain's top advisors, Mark McKinnon, warned us to expect will be ostensibly denounced by the campaign while put into operation by "naughty" surrogates. Expect lots of gutter attacks from the right-- and lots of posturing and hand-wringing from Gramps.


UPDATE: McCAIN CLAIMS NORTH CAROLINA RIGHT WING GOP IS OUT OF TOUCH

McCain was on Today this morning and he came off all grumpy with the North Carolina Republicans. "They're not listening to me because they're out of touch with reality and the Republican Party. We are the party of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan and this kind of campaigning is unacceptable." But asked if the NC GOP's decision to air the spot anyway raised questions about his leadership, McCain didn't have quite as sure-footed an answer:  "I don't know exactly how to respond to that."