Club For Growth Clubs McCain And Frightened Liddy Dole Decides To Skip GOP Hate Fest This Year

Wouldn't be caught dead at the GOP Convention this year

Last week we listed a number of Republican officials hoping to run away from their own rubber stamp records by avoiding the Republican Hate Fest in the Twin Cities. It's just too risky for reflexive rubber stamps like Gordon Smith, Ted Stevens and Susan Collins to be caught on film with Bush or McCain or even old Twin Cities hand Larry Craig. Today another endangered Republican, North Carolina wingnut Liddy Dole, announced she already had a "busy week scheduled" and she won't be able to make it.

Dole, widely considered a carpetbagger with no current connection to the state she represents, claims she just can't pull herself away from North Carolina to attend the nomination ceremonies for the man she hopes to rubber stamp for the next 6 years.

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole will be a no-show at her party's big bash in St. Paul, Minn.
Dole spokeswoman Katie Hallaway confirmed Monday that Dole won't be at the Republican National Convention in September.

"She's got a busy week scheduled in North Carolina," Hallaway said. "When there are breaks in the Senate schedule, she spends as much time as possible in North Carolina."

Hallaway said nothing should be inferred about Dole's missing the convention-- either about her support for Sen. John McCain or about the security of her re-election in November.

Kay Hagan, the Republican-lite, me-too opportunist that Chuck Schumer saddled North Carolina Democrats with, seems so bent on proving that she is exactly-like-Dole-but-a-tad-better, that she is also toying with the idea of not going to the Democratic Convention. I hope she doesn't go and that the enthusiastic Obama voters in North Carolina remember in November and ignore her.

Meanwhile, Club for Growth isn't waiting for the Republican Convention to start attacking McCain. We weren't the only ones appalled by McCain's performance/trainwreck on Stephanopoulos' show Sunday.

"We listened with concern yesterday to your interview with George Stephanopoulos on Social Security," the club's president Pat Toomey writes in a letter to McCain. "When asked if you would be open to raising the payroll tax, you refused to rule out a tax increase, saying 'There is nothing that’s off the table.' This statement was particularly shocking because you have been adamant in your opposition to raising taxes under any circumstances."

Then, the club pulls out one of McCain's own quotes from February of this year: “No new taxes... In fact, I could see an argument, if our economy continues to deteriorate, for lower interest rates, lower tax rates, and certainly decreasing corporate tax rates, which are the second highest in the world, giving people the ability to write off depreciation in a year, elimination of the AMT.”

"We strongly applaud the above statement and believe further tax cuts would play an important role in stimulating the country’s economy," Toomey continues. "But your comments yesterday send American taxpayers and businesses a mixed message about where you stand on this issue."

The close: "We hope you will clarify where you stand on this important issue and reaffirm your commitment to eschew all tax increases."

Toomey-- and the rest of the country-- needs to come to grips with the fact that McCain has no policies and that his "agenda" is just getting elected. He will say whatever he has to say to whatever audience he's speaking to, even if it's the exact opposite of what he said to another audience 5 minutes ago. And because he has pre-TV instincts, he never seems to remember that whatever he says is on tape. That's why people are starting to go light on the flip-flopper appellation and get right to the "bodacious liar" description.