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By Kendra Gahagan Feb. 28 — Texas Gov. George Bush is taking a beating from all sides for his visit to South Carolina’s Bob Jones University — particularly from his rival, Arizona Sen. John McCain. But did McCain consider scheduling his own visit to the controversial school? McCain has joined others in criticizing Bush for not having used his visit, the first stop of his South Carolina campaign, to denounce past anti-Catholic statements by the school’s founder and a ban on interracial dating that remains in place. While he upbraids Bush, ABCNEWS has learned the McCain campaign was also in discussions with the university about a possible visit by the senator just days after the New Hampshire primary. Negotiations took place around the same time Bush delivered his address at the school on February 2, with the controversy surrounding that speech already underway. Terry Haskins, speaker pro-tem of the South Carolina House of Representatives and McCain’s former co-chairman in the state, confirmed that McCain aides had spoken to Bob Jones University officials about a possible campaign stop there. Haskins, also a graduate of Bob Jones, resigned from the campaign today saying that both Bush and McCain have been engaging in unacceptable “religion baiting” in the campaign. Haskins said the contact was initiated out of McCain’s South Carolina offices and that the national headquarters in Virginia tentatively signed off on the idea, schedule permitting. South Carolina Rep. Lindsey Graham, a key McCain aide who holds an honorable degree from the school, led the discussions. McCain’s state campaign had hoped to get him to the campus because “there are a lot of primary voters up there and we thought it would be good to be seen and heard,” Haskins said. The visit was never to provide a backdrop for a bold statement on race or tolerance, according to Haskins, but was proposed simply as a way for McCain to meet voters in the area. Talks only lasted a few days before the national office said the schedule wouldn’t allow for a McCain appearance there. Bob Jones University officials refused to respond to ABCNEWS inquiries about a potential McCain visit. But while McCain campaign aides may have vetoed the visit due to scheduling conflicts, the senator spent a marathon 14 days in the state of South Carolina leading up to the primary on Feb. 19. He also held other campaign events not far from the Bob Jones campus. McCain has repeatedly said he would have given a more courageous speech on tolerance in contrast to George Bush’s, if only given the opportunity. But in over two weeks campaigning in the state, he did not find the time to hold such an event. Appearing on ABCNEWS’ This Week on Sunday morning, McCain was asked whether his campaign had any such discussions with Bob Jones University. McCain said, “None serious, because there was no invitation extended.” But Haskins told ABCNEWS that the university does not “invite” candidates, rather is approached with visit requests. McCain reiterated on This Week what he would have said at Bob Jones if given the chance, implying again that he would willingly go much further than George Bush did in telling school officials what he thinks of their policies: “The fact is, I don’t mind going anyplace where people have views that I find hateful or antithetical to my views. I’ll be glad to go there, but when I go there, I’m going to tell them exactly what I think of them.” It wasn’t the first time McCain claimed he couldn’t speak his mind at Bob Jones about the injustices he perceives there because he wasn’t invited. In the Republican presidential debate held in Columbia, S.C., on February 15, McCain told host Larry King, “If I had been invited, I would have gone and I would have started by saying, as I have gone to other places that people are not in favor of me, and I would have said, ‘Look, what you’re doing in this ban on interracial dating is stupid, it’s idiotic and it is incredibly cruel to many people.’” The McCain campaign has been capitalizing for days on Bush’s Bob Jones appearance, which Bush acknowledged on Sunday was a “missed opportunity” to speak out on racial and religious equality. But the episode is costing the McCain campaign political points as well. McCain has now admitted his staff orchestrated phone calls in Michigan which linked Bush to the anti-Catholic views of Bob Jones — involvement which he and aides previously denied.  |
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