As one of our commenters noted re: the post on McCain's gay chief of staff, it doesn't seem like a coincidence that on the same day the story broke we get the news that the McCain campaign, contrary to a previous report, is not returning the donation from the Manhunt co-owner, Johnathan Crutchley:
Indeed, while the contribution caused a bitter backlash against Crutchley inside the gay political world (and a backlash against that backlash), there was never any indication of a backlash from the Republican side. McCain has never been well suited to the role of culture warrior, and his aides declined at the time to comment on Crutchley or the contribution.
Indeed, Crutchley gave one of the cycle's clearer statements of McCain's own approach to divisive social issues.
"If we have an experienced, seasoned person defending the country in this dangerous age, we will be able to argue about the gay agenda later," he wrote.
That seems to be a line right from the campaign, a way of saying we, and our base, don't care about these things -- like the hypocrisy of being antigay but having gay chief of staff -- and won't respond to them. But I have a feeling that they're hearing from the religious conservatives on the Buse story.
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