7/12/06 - Hugh Hewitt wrote the following memo (7/12/06) to Senator John McCain:
I have read with interest your interview in Esquire. (HT: Race42008.)
I thought these comments of yours to be particularly striking:
I would never say this publicly, but some of these talk-show hosts—and I'm not saying they should be taken off the air; they have the right to do what they want to do—I don't think they're good for America....I urge my friends who complain about the influence of the religious Right, get out there and get busy. That's what they do! Now, if we believe in the Republican party of Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt, the big-tent party, then we have to get out there and show that. The fact is, some of us have sat idly by while those very active people have basically set the agenda for our party. I get attacked every day because I'm working with Ted Kennedy. How can I work with Kennedy? Because I want to get something done!
Senator, I have said this on the air
and in print many times: You are a great American, a lousy senator, and
a terrible Republican.
You are a great American, and I will
stand up in any room you enter, and applaud as long as anyone because
of the service you have rendered and sacrifices you have made.
But
you are a lousy senator, and I offer up McCain-Feingold,
McCain-Kennedy, the Gang of 14 and your vote on the Marriage Amendment
as four evidences for my judgment. The legislation was not bad because
you worked with Senator Kennedy, by the way, but because it was lousy
legislation.
You are a terrible Republican because of personal
attacks on your opponents like this latest one on talk radio hosts and
the "religious Right." You repeatedly refuse to debate your Republican
critics or answer their questions. You are a regular on Hardball where
only softballs are pitched underhand, but you are as rare as rain in
California in August when it comes to appearing on center-right
programs. While I understand your reluctance to engage anyone who has
made personal attacks on you, most of the criticism you receive --and
all of it when it comes from me-- is about your policy choices and your
political decisions. You confuse such criticisms with personal
attacks, and lash out at other Republicans . . . (More)