Paul Weyrich, co-founder of the Moral Majority, made a splash last November when he endorsed Mitt Romney for president. Now he's part of an organized campaign urging the man who bested Romney in the Republican primaries and caucuses, John McCain, to not make the former Massachusetts governor his running mate.
There was no love lost -- at all -- between the McCain and Romney forces in the final stages of the GOP contest. But Romney earned some goodwill from his rival when he quickly folded up his campaign after getting waxed in Feb. 5's Super Tuesday round of votes. And warm words the two have exchanged -- as well as a joint appearance last month -- sparked speculation that they could end up as this election season's Republican tag team.
McCain was campaigning in Prescott, Ariz., on Saturday, where a full-page ad planned in the local newspaper declared Romney "utterly unacceptable" as a vice presidential pick to those who signed the open letter -- social conservatives all, including Weyrich.
The ad, which those paying for it say will shadow McCain in papers in various towns in visits to come, expresses skepticism about candidate Romney's sincerity in embracing a host of conservative positions on social issues that previously he had rejected.
Says the ad:
"To be clear, we all welcome anyone who has come around to the cause of life and family. However, Romney's actions as governor flatly contradict both the values widely associated with his faith as well as his pro-life and pro-traditional marriage campaign rhetoric."
Roundball goes political
Two of the remaining three candidates in the presidential race gained a fair amount of press two weeks ago when they made a point of disclosing their picks in the NCAA college basketball tournament.
(Hillary Rodham Clinton did not fill out a bracket sheet -- at least not for public consumption.)
So, now that the Final Four weekend is upon us, how did Barack Obama and McCain fare? Neither foresaw that each of the No. 1 seeds would advance -- and neither picked the teams that will square off in the championship game Monday -- but both picked three of the top dogs to survive. And that includes their mutual selection to win it all: the University of North Carolina, which lost Saturday night to Kansas.
Along with UNC, Obama tabbed UCLA to square off in the championship game. But the Bruins lost Saturday, and it is Memphis who will advance to the final.
