More Republicans Abandoning McCain For Obama

Mike Huckabee sent out a fundraising letter today smearing Barack Obama-- hey, Huckabee may be a Christian minister but, let's be real: he's a Republican through and through and we see what comes first in his world-- and trying to raise money for GOP extremists John Cornyn (R-TX), James Inhofe (R-OK), Sam Graves (R-MO). He neglected to mention that Cornyn, Inhofe and Graves don't really need any money from working folks. They get all they need from Big Oil. All three have voted for every single bill Big Oil has pushed to lower its taxes and raise the price of gasoline and each has been very well-rewarded. Cornyn to the tune of $1,313,825; Inhofe $1,076,573; and Graves $63,983. But less dishonest Republicans, including many who know and have worked with John McCain are taking a very different approach than Huckabee-- forgetting partisan politics and putting their country first.

Led by a former Bush fund-raiser and a former U.S. Senator who bolted the G.O.P. several years ago, a group of current and former Republicans disenchanted with Senator John McCain and supportive of Senator Barack Obama are banding together to start a “Republicans for Obama” effort.

Rita Hauser, a New York philanthropist who raised money for both George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, is helping to organize the push to draw Republicans away from Mr. McCain and will serve as a spokeswoman for the group, alongside former U.S. Senator Lincoln Chafee, of Rhode Island, who was one of the most moderate Republicans in the Senate and became an independent after he lost his seat in 2006.

...About 20 current and former Republicans make up the group’s leadership committee, including Douglas Kmiec, a Republican who served in the Justice Department under President Ronald Reagan and was a supporter of Mitt Romney during the Republican primary [and was denied Roman Catholic communion after he endorsed Obama], and Dorothy Danforth Burlin, a Washington lawyer who is the daughter of former U.S. Senator John Danforth, another moderate Republican.

Later this afternoon the NY Times also reported that former Republican Congressman Jim Leach of Iowa endorsed Obama. Leach worked closely with McCain in Congress and is well aware about how catastrophic a McCain presidency would be for America.

''I'm convinced that the national interest demands a new approach to our interaction with the world,'' Leach, a foreign service officer before being elected to Congress, said in a conference call with reporters.

Leach predicted that many Republicans and independents would be attracted by Obama's campaign but said his decision to endorse a Democratic presidential candidate for the first time wasn't easy.

''Part of it is political parties are a distant analog to families and you really hate to step outside a family environment,'' Leach told The Associated Press in an interview.

..."For me, the national interest comes before party concerns, particularly internationally,'' said Leach, who has long been an opponent of the war in Iraq.

''We do need a new direction in American policy, and Obama has a sense of that,'' he said. ''He recognizes that a long-term occupation of Iraq is not only expensive, it's extremely dangerous to the American interests.''

Leach said he was attracted to Obama's call for a dialogue with nations such as Iran that have long been seen as U.S. adversaries.

''He also recognizes that it's preferable to speak with potential adversaries rather than simply shun them,'' Leach said.

And McCain isn't the only Republican under attack by other Republicans today. Right-wing activists in Ohio are reacting against McCain's inevitable choice of empty suit Mitt Romney as his running mate.

WASHINGTON -- Some Ohio social conservatives say they know whom they don't want John McCain to pick as his running mate: former Republican presidential rival Mitt Romney.

In a move that may say as much about their continuing uneasiness regarding McCain as it does about their mistrust of Romney, an alliance of Buckeye State social conservatives is trying to form a group: Social Conservatives Against Romney.

Although McCain is keeping his potential vice-presidential choices a tightly held secret, Romney is said to be on the short list.

"Christians are praying earnestly for the right person," said Diane Stover, a Parma resident who was a delegate for GOP candidate Mike Huckabee, a favorite of many social conservatives, in the Ohio primary. "McCain wouldn't have been our person. But we definitely feel like it would be a huge help to John McCain to pick someone we can be confident will represent the value-voter position. I don't think it helps him (McCain) at all in Ohio if he picks Romney."

...She said she doesn't consider the anti-Romney effort to be anti-McCain, despite saying McCain is not a "real conservative." She said she and other conservatives will support McCain in November, noting that he has had a consistent anti-abortion voting record as a senator from Arizona.

Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, is too inconsistent on issues such as abortion and gay rights "for someone who calls himself a conservative," Maines said.

Other Republicans for Obama include Tom Bernstein who went to Yale University with Bush and co-owned the Texas Rangers baseball team with him, Reagan policy advisor Bruce Bartlett, Delbert Spurlock, who was Assistant Secretary of the Army under Reagan, ex-Senator (and Governor) Lowell Weicker of Connecticut, Tony Campell, a former GOP congressional candidate from Maryland... and a whole slew of daughters of prominent Republican figures-- from Presidents Eisenhower and Nixon to Rudy Giuliani and Rupert Murdoch. As I've posted before, one of my neighbors, the daughter of New York Republican congressional candidate Sandy Treadwell has Obama signs all over the mansion he bought her. Of course, the real question is, how many traditional GOP voters will found their way out of the Darkness in November?

Meanwhile McCain has former Democrats who have gone over to the Dark Side, Joe Lieberman and Zell Miller, currently recuperating from another attack of paranoid schizophrenia, on his team. I wonder what Collin Powell and Chuck Hagel are gonna do.



UPDATE: COLIN POWEL

Bill Kristol rarely knows what he's talking about and usually gets everything wrong. But he claimed to have inside knowledge on Fox today that Colin Powell would be endorsing Obama at the Democratic National Convention. I wonder if he'll apologize to the country for all the lies he told when he was on the team ginning up the war hysteria.