Bill Maher talked last night on Real Time about the fact that many who routinely pledge allegiance to the Republican party thereby vote against their own interests under the impression (still? still?) that theirs is the party of Truth, Justice, and the American Way.
But did the Iowa farming couple who were the subject of this article get a wake-up call after being yanked all around by the Giuliani campaign or did they ultimately conclude that either they WEREN'T worthy of entertaining the party's wealthier donors or else that it was just a Giuliani thing and not a Republican thing?
Maybe it's just a New York thing.
John McCain has done his best to prove that not all Republicans are from New York (whether actually, spiritually, or emotionally) and to respond to the pain of the snubbed VonSprecken couple with something more than a shrug and the equivalent of "Toto-you're-not-in-Iowa-anymore."
[quote begins from Talking Points Memo: The Horse's Mouth. Sargent, McCain Personally Called Iowa Woman Snubbed by Rudy Campaign]
Senator John McCain put in a personal call today to an Iowa woman that was snubbed by Rudy Giuliani's campaign, asking to meet with her and apologizing to her on "behalf of all politicians," the woman told me this evening."John McCain personally called me -- today, this afternoon," the woman, Deb VonSprecken, told me. "Wow. He said, `I want to come and meet you.'"... In his call to Deb, McCain apologized to her on the Rudy campaign's behalf and asked if he could come see her, the woman says. "He apologized on behalf of all politicians," she told me. "He just apologized in general. He was really sweet. I recognized his voice from TV. He was very, very polite, funny."
In asking to come visit with her, "He started teasing me and saying, `We're doing a security check. I'm homing in on satellite,'" Deb tells me. "I said, `No, no, don't do it.' We were laughing. It was incredibly nice.".... Apparently, Deb's experience with the Rudy campaign -- her giddy anticipation of his visit, followed by the harsh letdown that followed -- was so jarring that she turned down McCain's request for a visit. For now, anyway.
"I said, `No go, I'm not doing it again,'" she told me. "He can call me if he's in the area, but no go as far as any kind of meeting goes. I'm not doing it again."
After she spoke to McCain, "his people called me and asked if he called and I confirmed Yes," she said. "They wanted to let me know that they were not going to do anything to stress me out further." They suggested the possibility of a private meeting in the future, she says.
Her overall take on McCain's call: "I found it incredible."
[quote ends]
I'll be interested to see the effect of this little incident on the Giuliani campaign. I'm guessing that it's going to be less than some of the pundits are punditing. But I'm the cynical sort. Ana Marie Cox's comment at Swampland is here.
Can you imagine the bafflement of the Guiliani campaign? Who knew a couple of Iowa farmers had such an unexpectedly high sense of dignity and self-worth? Who knew they wouldn't be willing to cooperate in their dismissal and humiliation? Who would have guessed they think themselves every bit as entitled to decent and civil treatment as donors who can pay $1000 for a plate of food to listen to a speech about the federal estate tax (in Republican, "the death tax") ?
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