OurFuture.org Blogs: Cliff Schecter

The Toxic Legacy Of Senator Jesse Alexander Helms

Cliff Schecter — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 16:54:42 -0400

It is almost fitting that Senator Jesse Helms - longtime US Senator from North Carolina, onetime right-wing political commentator and a constant conservative voice on both domestic and foreign policy issues in American politics for the past half decade - passed away during an election year that may indeed see the demise of the conservative coalition that he was a key player in building.

Ronald Reagan gets the monuments. Richard Nixon is credited with the "Southern strategy". But no single politician - save perhaps Strom Thurmond - embodied as did Helms the manipulation of race, religion and the overarching set of issues known simply as "family values" to bring the once-solid Democratic South into the GOP fold.

Helms, using resentments as old as the South and as new as the racial tension seething in major American cities in the 1960s, built a coalition of social and foreign policy conservatives in service of the economic agenda completely at odds with the majority of those who ended up voting for him and his colleagues. The foot soldiers in this revolution were rallied to the cause based on a mutual hatred for liberals, "integrationists", homosexuals and most often the easy to apply, one-size-fits-all moniker of "Communist".

Jesse Alexander Helms was born in Monroe, North Carolina, the son of a police chief. While he never did receive a university degree, he discovered he had a talent for anti-establishment political agitation, which he began to utilize as a right-wing commentator for radio and television stations in Raleigh, North Carolina. There he fine-tuned his pitch, calling civil-rights supporters Communists, and otherwise earning himself a place in the race-baiting hall of fame.

Helms possessed tobacco and banking connections (he was the executive director of the North Carolina bankers' association from 1953-1960), and understood the power of an emerging array of New Right organisations that relied upon corporate money and a message decrying social decay at home and Communism abroad. He tapped into both, along with the newer technology of targeted mail, to build a formidable war chest that allowed him to squeak by in a number of divisive campaigns, to win and hold onto his senate seat while never receiving more than 54.5% of the vote.

To pick one of many infamous examples of the Helms campaign method, in his 1990 Senate election Helms ran an ad blaming his African-American opponent, Charlotte city mayor Harvey Gantt, for supporting "racial quotas" which cost whites jobs while giving them to a "less qualified minority".

His overall impact on American politics cannot be overstated. In 1976, when after the former California governor Ronald Reagan had been defeated in a number of primaries by incumbent President Gerald Ford, Helms resurrected Reagan's career by helping engineer a win for Reagan in the North Carolina primary. Ford ultimately received the GOP nomination that year - but when he lost in the general election Reagan became the party's heir apparent.

Legislatively, Helms unsuccessfully filibustered the enactment of a Martin Luther King memorial holiday, because of King's supposed "Communist ties". He fought tooth and nail against federal financing of Aids research and treatment, infamously uttering: "There is not one single case of Aids in this country that cannot be traced in origin to sodomy." As a member of the Senate's foreign relations committee, he fought against the US paying its financial dues to the UN. These and many other acts of legislative obstruction earned him the sobriquet "Senator No."

Jesse Helms may be gone. But if you follow politics, he cannot be forgotten. For every time Republicans win a state in a presidential election by placing a gay marriage ban on the ballot. Every time you hear a member or associate of the McCain campaign question Barack Obama's patriotism. Every time Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell sets a new record for obstruction by filibustering another bill. The presence of Jesse Alexander Helms on the American political stage can still be felt.

Cliff Schecter is the author of The Real McCain: Why Conservatives Don't Trust Him And Why Independents Shouldn't

Angry McCain: He Once Assaulted Sandinista Official During Diplomatic Talks

Cliff Schecter — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 15:54:43 -0400

Just remember, the stories of McCain's calling his wife the c-word and attacking Rick Renzi in 2006 first reported in my book, The Real McCain, they are damn lies as the McCainiacs have claimed (well, actually, McCain called the Renzi incident a lie on Fox, and then his own people backtracked from that falsehood and turned McCain into a liar in The Washington Post).

Because, as you can see, there is simply no pattern of this kind of behavior with McCain:

"McCain was down at the end of the table and we were talking to the head of the guerrilla group here at this end of the table, and I don't know what attracted my attention," Cochran said. "But I saw some kind of quick movement at the bottom of the table and I looked down there and John had reached over and grabbed this guy by the shirt collar and had snatched him up like he was throwing him up out of the chair to tell him what he thought about him or whatever. I don't know what he was telling him but I thought, good grief everybody around here has got guns and we were there on a diplomatic mission. I don't know what had happened to provoke John, but he obviously got mad at the guy and he just reached over there and snatched him."

That's right--McCain lost it and physically assaulted someone at a diplomatic meeting where guns were present. How, um, diplomatic of him.

So, to sum up: I am lying in my book, as is everyone else who has ever reported on the myriad examples of McCain's complete loss of self-control in the presence of others--and McCain is 100% docile and agreeable as his underpaid spokeshacks will tell you. And to elect McCain to a position where he would be attending many of these types of diplomatic meetings--that wouldn't endanger this country and/or its citizens at all.

Any questions?

McCain Losing "Maverick" Brand; Voters Most Likely To See Him As "Old"

Cliff Schecter — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 08:36:34 -0400

According to the Pew Research Center, when asked to describe their views of McCain in a word, the term "maverick" didn't even come up. Nor did "reformer" or "independent." Ruh-roh. It looks like the bear-hug embrace of Bush, 100 years in Iraq and his newfound affection for Bushenomics have all done serious damage to McCain's perceived maverickness:

John McCain once had the most powerful brand in American politics.

He was often called the country's most popular politician and widely admired for his independent streak. It wasn't too many years ago that "maverick" was the cliche of choice in describing him.

But that term didn't even make the list this year when voters were asked by the Pew Research Center to sum up McCain in a single word. "Old" got the most mentions, followed by "honest," "experienced," "patriot," "conservative" and a dozen more. The words "independent," "change" or "reformer" weren't among them.

Voters have notoriously short memories, but it could be argued that McCain cheapened his own brand.

He embraced President Bush and attempted to become, like Bush, the choice of the Republican establishment. In the process, he helped obliterate recollections of his first run for president, when he became the first Republican in a long time with strong crossover appeal to independents and Democrats.

Losing his reputation for independence could prove particularly costly this year.

It turns out that there may be a cost for flip-flopping on tax cuts for the top 1% and wanting to "bomb bomb bomb Iran." Who would have thunk it?

And the cost could be a whole set of voters (independents) who will be very important in determining the outcomes in states such as Colorado, New Mexico and Montana, to name a few. Additionally, being tied to the GOP brand this year is as close as it gets to a political death sentence (ask GOP House candidates in Mississippi, Louisiana and Illinois about that).

John McCain may just have lost his greatest asset.

McCain’s Past Infidelities, Ongoing Sanctimony Haunt Him In Town Hall Meeting

Cliff Schecter — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 17:59:49 -0400

As you'll see in this video above, from a town hall meeting in Nashville, Tennessee Monday, mixed in with platitudes about gay marriage, we get a nice little comment from this questioner on the sanctity of marriage in McCain's life--or more to the point, sanctimony. Here is a rough transcript of her question to The Morally Righteous One, which comes at the beginning of the video (it includes McCain's answer to this question and a previous on on Hillary Clinton):

My second and final question, you talk a lot about the character issue...and...like you, um, I was opposed to gay marriage, I was in always in favor of civil unions but the basic definition of marriage....but, then I get to thinking, that is based on what we consider to be the sanctity of marriage. There is nothing....you see long-term couples splitting up, it's, it's just crazy...I know that you, your own situation, you're going to have to address that in the campaign. Infidelity is just a terrible cancer on this country....and I think if we're going to talk about...gay marriage, it has to be in the context of the preservation of marriage...which I just don't see it, I think we need to make it more difficult for people to get married, or whatever we need to do..if that's...if we're going to be consistent.

McCain ignored that part of the question, of course.

h/t Mike Rogers for providing the video

Update: From The Real McCain:

Arriving back in the United States in 1973, McCain faced not only his own lingering injuries but also those that his wife had sustained in an automobile accident in 1969. After nine months of intensive physical therapy, he was reinstated to flight status. While stationed in Jacksonville, Florida, he was instrumental in turning around the performance of a Corsair squadron.

His marriage did not recover so well. McCain has admitted to “selfishness and immaturity” and has attributed the breakup of his marriage to his own misdeeds. He has even gone out of his way to exempt Vietnam from any blame. “The blame was entirely mine,” he said.

McCain had already met and romanced, while still married to Shepp, the woman who would be his second wife — Cindy Lou Hensley, seventeen years his junior, the only child of a wealthy Anheuser-Busch distributor from Phoenix.10 Cindy’s father, Jim Hensley, had been a World War II pilot, shot down over the English Channel. In 1955 he formed his company, Hensley & Co., now the country’s sixth-largest beer distributorship. Cindy had gone from cheerleader to rodeo queen to graduate student at University of South Carolina by the time she met McCain in 1979. A year later, McCain and his first wife were granted a divorce; six weeks later, McCain married Cindy.

Update II: It just occurred to me, as this was in Tennessee, where the local GOP has been attacking Barack Obama's wife in ads, that perhaps someone might ask McCain to address whether he respected "the sanctity of marriage" enough to demand that his local party stop attacking his opponent's wife.

The Republican National Committee Politicizes The Holocaust

Cliff Schecter — Tue, 27 May 2008 23:58:11 -0400

You'd think with a presidential candidate who sought the endorsement of someone who praised Hitler (yes, you Mr. Hagee), they'd be careful not to get into Holocaust talk.

But then again, this is the RNC we're talking about.

Barack Obama made a statement referencing his great uncle's helping liberate Auschwitz. It turns out it was Ohrduf he helped liberate, which was a subcamp of the infamous Buchenwald. Obama made a mistake, yet the important part of the story was correct.

But leave it to the RNC to even politicize the Holocaust. Even Alex Castellanos, he of the infamous "black hands" Jesse Helms ad, thinks this criticism is beyond the pale:

It's just too bad Joe Lieberman wasn't there with Obama. He could have whispered into Obama's ear, as he does with McCain every time he mixes up Sunni and Shia, Iran and Al Qaeda and the variety of other policies he gets wrong on an almost daily basis.

McCain's Murderers Row

Cliff Schecter — Tue, 13 May 2008 15:49:10 -0400

A new website (firethelobbyists.com) has been created by the pro-campaign finance reform organization Campaign Money Watch, to convince Senator McCain to fire three lobbyists in the top levels of his organization that have lobbied for ruthless dictators. You may recall that over the past two days, two McCain aides have resigned because of their willingness to do public relations work for the Burmese Junta.

Ahh, working for the public good. It must feel so refreshing.

Of course, turn over any stone in The McCain Campaign, and one can only guess what might come crawling out. It turns out that they have even more friends in low places. I contacted David Donnelly, Director of Campaign Money Watch, for a comment. He explained what his group is trying to accomplish:

John McCain ought to immediately fire three lobbyists — Charlie Black, Tom Loeffler, and Peter Madigan -- whose lobbying for brutal dictators and foreign governments is every bit as bad as the two lobbyists who left his campaign over the weekend. Frankly, McCain’s campaign is turning out to be an effort of, by, and for these types of Washington influence peddlers. His credentials as a reformer are gone.

Pretty strong words. Yet, if you read what this triad of McCain lobbyists have been up to, perhaps not strong enough. It ain't pretty:

Charlie Black, McCain’s senior counsel and spokesman, began his lobbying career by representing numerous dictators and repressive regimes

Black’s firm represented the governor of Philippines dictator Ferdinand Marcos. According to a 1985 report, the firm Black, Manafort & Stone earned $950,000 plus expenses for its work to provide “advice and assistance on matters relating to the media, public relations and public affairs interests.”1

Black’s firm lobbied on behalf of Mobuto Sese Seko of Zaire, earning $1 million a year for his efforts.2

Black’s firm lobbied on behalf of Somali dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.3

Black’s firm represented Nigerian dictator Ibrahim Babangida, earning at least $1 million for his efforts.4

Black’s firm has represented Equatorial Guinea, an oil-rich state “best known for the outlandish brutality of its rulers.”5

Black represented Angolan rebel and “classical terrorist” Jonas Savimbi, a job that earned him $600,000.6 “We have to call him Africa’s classical terrorist,” Makau Mutua, a professor of law and Africa specialist told the New York Times. “In the history of the continent, I think he’s unique because of the degree of suffering he caused without showing any remorse.”7

In recent years his client list has also included the Iraqi National Congress8, Friends of Blackwater9, and the China National Off-Shore Oil Corp.10

Since 2005, BKSH has received more than $700,000 in fees from foreign entities.11

Thomas Loeffler, co-chairman of McCain’s campaign, has represented the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia paid the Loeffler Group “a whopping $7.9 million from December 1, 2005, though November 2006 -- the largest fee collected from a foreign government by any lobbying firm in 2006,” according to National Journal.12 The Washington Times reported that “Mr. Loeffler's firm has received more than $10 million since 2006 from the Saudi Embassy and the Ministry of Commerce & Industry of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”13 Much of this work was centered on gaining admission for the Kingdom to the World Trade Organization.14

Since 2005, according to the Washington Times, “the Loeffler Group reported more than $11 million in fees from foreign lobbying clients.”15

Peter Madigan, a leading McCain fundraiser, lobbies on behalf of the king of Dubai

Madigan has earned upwards of $800,000 to improve the United Arab Emirates’ reputation in the face of a class action lawsuit over the enslavement of boy camel jockeys.16

You may also remember a story we broke at Cliff Schecter's Campaign Silo at Firedoglake on Charlie Black the other day--via John Gorenfeld's new book Bad Moon Rising--regarding his involvement in setting up an anti-Christian ceremony for the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, a man who is not only a felon but in league with Kim Jong-Il of North Korea.

Pleasant company to be sure. And it is only the tip of the iceberg. In The Real McCain, I have two chapters outlining McCain's sordid associations with all manner of miscreants that make Jeremiah Wright look like a Red Cross worker.

How I Became a "Soros Operative"

Cliff Schecter — Tue, 06 May 2008 16:45:57 -0400

Fox News personality John Gibson said I was one—which means, of course, it is true. On his radio show the other day, he opined that because I once worked at Brave New Films (which may get some George Soros money) and the publisher of my new book, The Real McCain, is a friend of Soros', well then case closed. I am on Soros' payroll, which is why one of the two cars my wife and I drive is a Subaru with 125,000 miles on it.

But this is a great anecdote to point out a larger virus that infects conservatism, and has for a long time now: Paranoia. For that, Soros is perfect. Jewish, of foreign birth, living in New York and a "financier," he is a fourfer!

If only he were gay too.

One of the books I have found most useful in understanding the modern Right is The Paranoid Style In American Politics, written by one of the preeminent historians and social commentators of the 20th Century, Richard Hofstadter. Hofstadter did not live to see his warnings about the Bircher Wing of the GOP come to fruition to become a full-fledged menace to society (although, in truth, he underestimated their appeal in that he did not realize that having a vast fortune and media megaphone behind these conspiracy theories could do wonders to keep them alive). But he knew what he saw, and related it to our history as a nation better than anyone I have ever come across in prose.

This paranoia is what allows Gibson to write a fantasyland tome called "The War On Christmas," because hordes of Jews and Muslims plan each year—after eating the youngest member of their family for Thanksgiving—how they can cream Santa Claus in the coming month. In reality, as you probably know, Gibson is simply appealing to the worst in people. What Karl Rove has made a career of doing. What Sen. John McCain's friend Pastor John Hagee does on a weekly if not daily basis. (I have a whole chapter on the conspiracy preachers in my book—McCain is knee deep in their influence.)

Tell people that their lot in life has waned because of a conspiracy among some evil group that is holding them back. Liberals. Jews. Muslims. Gays. Blacks. Abortion. People For The American Way. You know, the people Jerry Falwell blamed for 9/11.

If you can do that, then they might never question why CEO salaries have skyrocketed, health care has disappeared and their job is in China. In any case, I am honored to be on Gibson's list. But for the sake of our democracy, we must expose this vile conspiracy-mongering whenever and wherever it rears its ugly head.

Cliff Schecter is the author of The Real McCain: Why Conservatives Don't Trust Him And Why Independents Shouldn't. Buy a copy (for only $10!) and keep both his 18-month old son and John McCain in diapers.

John McCain's Continuing Hypocrisy On Healthcare

Cliff Schecter — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 17:23:59 -0400

Roger Hickey has a great post on the "dangerous fraud" that is John McCain's healthcare plan. As I point out ad nauseam in my recently released book, The Real McCain, if McCain's positions were simply fraudulent that would be bad enough. Yet, They are almost never limited to simple dishonesty. Much much more often, they come buttered up with a nice helping of hypocrisy on the side. And this time is no different.

First read the email The McCain Campaign sent out today on this issue:

My Friends,

Today, there are 47 million uninsured individuals in the U.S., and nearly a quarter of them are children. High costs and limited access are the underlying, fundamental problems in our healthcare system.

As you know, both Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are touting outrageously expensive and unrealistic universal health care plans - a government monopoly over health care.

Unlike my opponents, I do not believe that all of our nation's problems can be solved by turning control over to our government, with all the tax increases, new mandates and government regulation that come with that idea.

Today, our campaign began running a television ad focused on health care - that you can view by following this link - to ensure all Americans hear the truth about how I plan to tackle the challenges facing our nation's health care system. To ensure this important ad is aired in as many markets as possible, I'm asking for your immediate financial assistance.

I believe the key to real reform is to restore control over our health care system to the patients themselves. Americans need new choices beyond those offered in employment-based coverage.

That's why, as president, I will seek to encourage and expand the benefits of Health Savings Accounts, tax-preferred accounts that are used to pay insurance premiums and other health costs. These accounts put the family in charge of what they pay for.

In addition, I will reform the tax code to provide every family the option of receiving a direct, refundable tax deposit - effectively $2,500 for individuals and $5,000 cash for families to offset the cost of insurance.

The reality is that both Senator Clinton and Senator Obama, in their haste to garner support for their so-called "solutions," are promising more than they can deliver. And, once again, they are simply out-of-touch with the real problems facing our health care system and how to solve them.

Here are the facts: Under the Democrats' plan, we will have all the problems, and more, of the current health care system - rigid rules, long waits and lack of choices - and we risk degrading the system's great strengths and advantages, including the innovation and life-saving technology that make American medicine the most advanced in the world.

My friends, this is not my definition of real reform. I hope you will join me in my fight to tackle the real problems facing our nation's health care system by making a contribution of $50, $100, $250, $500, $1,000, or $2,300 to help fund this important ad.

I hope to hear from you soon.

Sincerely,

John McCain

A good rule of thumb is that the moment John McCain says "my friends," you should prepare to dive into a bomb shelter. It usually means he is about to slug you literally or at least figuratively. And this time it's no different.

The man who has been on government healthcare HIS ENTIRE LIFE (daddy was an Admiral)--that would be seven decades--dares deride it by saying, "Unlike my opponents, I do not believe that all of our nation's problems can be solved by turning control over to our government... ."

No, he only believes it in his own life.

Government healthcare is good enough to pay Sir McCain's hospital bills--with your "taxes" to quote him--just not good enough for the rest of us...oh and by the way, can you spare $1000 "my friends?" That is what passes for "straight-talk" and "reform" from a guy who lounges at 8 houses on his wife's dime but calls others elitist.

With straight talk like that, who needs mendacity.

Cliff Schecter is the author of The Real McCain: Why Conservatives Don't Trust Him And Why Independents Shouldn't. Every time you buy a copy (for only $10!), an angel gets their wings.

A Trip Down Memory Lane In North Carolina

Cliff Schecter — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 17:19:07 -0400

One would have to strain to be shocked that a racist ad is finding its way out of the bowels of conservativism in North Carolina. For political observers from the 1980s will remember that Senator Jesse Helms--an early sign of the shift of racially conservative whites in the South from their ancestral home in the Democratic Party to the GOP--was a master of using divisive tactics to undermine his African-American opponent for the U.S. Senate, Mayor of Charlotte North Carolina (not to mention white opponents such as Governor Jim Hunt, too).

Morris Dees of the Southern Poverty Law Center, recalled this unsavory record upon Helms' retirement in 2002:

Hurrah. Jesse Helms has been a vicious racist politician since he defeated the Greek N.C. Rep. Nick Galifanakis with the slogan "Elect one of us" in his first Senate race in 1972. In his 1992 race with Harvey Gannt, the African-American mayor of Charlotte, N.C., he ran an advertisement showing a black hand snatching away a job from a white hand, harking back to Jim Crow politics. He has been against everything good, decent and positive for America.

Yet, it did not go away wiith Helms' retirement from politics, or conservative claims to have gotten beyond their racial animus in North Carolina or the rest of the country. With an African American likely becoming the Democratic nominee for President this year, the old playbook has come in handy. And once again, as in the past when other conservatives sat ildy by and claimed Jesse was just being Jesse, now Republican nominee John McCain throws his hands up in the air as if there is nothing he can do:

ABC NEWS’ Bret Hovell and Russell Goldman report: Sen. John McCain said Thursday that if elected president -- and becomes the de facto head of the GOP -- he would not demand a change in the leadership of the North Carolina Republican Party despite condemning its plan to air an ad attacking Sen. Barack Obama, D- Ill, and his controversial minister.

In my book, The Real McCain: Why Conservatives Don't Trust Him And Why Independents Shouldn't, I recount McCain's questionable past on issues of race. From the many years he rejected a Martin Luther King Jr. holiday to his serial flip-flops on the Confederate Flag (not to mention his association with a known white supremacist, Richard Quinn) .

John McCain and his conservative friends: Much closer to "pandering" than "straight-talk" on race.

No Golden Rule For Conservatives

Cliff Schecter — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:56:16 -0400

I was heartened when George Stephanopoulos, for all the heat he has taken over the ABC debate, asked John McCain a question on This Week this past Sunday that I have been waiting to hear for a long time now. To paraphrase, he wondered why if government health care has been good enough for John McCain to receive his entire life, why it is not good enough for the rest of us?

That's right, John McCain, the son of an Admiral, has been getting taken care of by the government for the last seven decades, at taxpayer expense, yet when asked about it he is only able to muster lame jokes about his time "being taken care of at the Hanoi Hilton" and doesn't feel compelled to explain why he voted against the State Children's Health Insurance Program, so that countless children would lose the very health care to which he seems to feel entitled.

But just remember, it is Barack Obama who is the elitist.

In any case, McCain's rhetoric vs. reality on government health care is important in not only what it says about John McCain, but what it conveys about modern conservatism. Remember, Senator Trent Lott didn't believe in "big government," except when Hurrican Katrina decided to destroy HIS house. Many more examples exist of conservatives who are progressive on an issue where they have been personally affected, but remain steadfastly opposed to government assistance in all other areas of lif e.

Reporter Matt Cooper noted this phenomenon in his New Republic piece "Liberals for a Day" almost 10 years ago. In his work, Cooper established the voting records of Republican Senators Pete Domenici, R-N.M., and Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, as the sine qua non of proving liberalism by close encounter. As Cooper stated, Domenici is "to the left of Ted Kennedy" on mental health issues, because his daughter suffers from mental illness. Meanwhile, former Senator DeWine, whose daughter was tragically killed in an auto accident at only 22 years of age, was an active supporter of related regulations, from speed limits to seatbelt safety laws.

Over the years, these men have remained consistently passionate on these issues, and consistently hostile to government protection of virtually everyone else. In 2004, Domenici supported the American Civil Liberties Union, Human Rights Campaign and American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals a combined 0 percent of the time. DeWine (who lost his reelection race to then-Congressman Sherrod Brown in 2006) was marginally better, standing with the ACLU 22 percent of the time and the Human Rights Campaign for 25 percent of crucial votes.

Meanwhile, back when he was in the House and thankfully could do somewhat less damage, Dick Cheney's voting record was to the right of Newt Gingrich's—he voted against Head Start, Meals on Wheels for seniors and the Department of Education, to name only a few of his more infamous positions. After his daughter came out as a lesbian, however, he began calling for federal protection for gay men and lesbians—including civil unions, a position way to the left of most of his ideological brethren—as if he had begun breaking bread with Barney Frank.

Similarly making the personal political, former Senator Connie Mack and House Member Clay Shaw, both cancer survivors, consistently supported government investment in cancer research, despite supposed "small government" philosophies. And let's not forget African-American former Congressman J.C. Watts, who opposed GOP led efforts to end affirmative action in 1996, because as he told then Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich "in practice we still don't have a level playing field." Yet, the serrated surface of the pitch for women, like the two who became pregnant after teenage dalliances with Watts, did not merit equal concern for the proudly pro-life recipient of the Christian Coalition's Friend of the Family Award.

While it's great to have conservative support on important issues wherever and whenever one can get it, these examples lay bare their supposed conservative philosophy much like the outrageous pork-barrel projects that continue to increase unabated. Broadening one's worldview to see a role for government in protecting regular people is no easy task. But it seems to be no problem for those on the right when personal interest is involved. Just ask Senator McCain, if he's not too busy getting a doctor's check up on your dime.

Cliff Schecter is a guest blogger at Campaign for America's Future and the author of The Real McCain: Why Conservatives Don't Trust Him And Why Independents Shouldn't