Flashback: McCain Labels Bush a "Pat Robertson Republican" [View All]

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

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McCain was careful to not distance himself from his party's religious conservatives, taking to task only "a few of their self-appointed leaders." He accused the Bush campaign of misrepresenting his stand on abortion "because I don't pander to them." He also labeled Bush a "Pat Robertson Republican" who could not defeat Al Gore if the vice president succeeds in becoming the Democratic nominee.

"Neither party should be defined as pandering to the outer reaches of American politics and the agents of intolerance, whether they be Lewis Farrakhan or Al Sharpton, on the left, or Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell on the right," McCain told the campaign rally.

¶ McCain was specifically responding to a last-minute telephone campaign conducted by Pat Robertson's supporters in Michigan. Voters were warned that McCain's campaign cochairman, former Sen. Warren Rudman, had made disparaging remarks about Christian conservatives and was a "vicious bigot." In a political autobiography, Rudman had warned against "antiabortion zealots, would-be censors, homophobes, bigots and latter-day Elmer Gantrys to discredit any party that is unwise enough to embrace such a group."

Robertson's Christian Coalition issued a statement demanding that McCain repudiate Rudman, calling the statements "a direct assault on people of faith."

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More: http://www.atheists.org/flash.line/elec8.htm