In Tuesday’s Washington Post, reporter Howard Kurtz focused on how talk show hosts from Limbaugh to Laura (and ahem, Levin!), from Hannity to Hewitt, are opposing John McCain on air. One McCain adviser, a Democrat signed up by George W. Bush in the 2000 campaign, lectured Limbaugh on party loyalty:
Mark McKinnon, a top McCain adviser, called the criticism from Limbaugh and the other hosts "frustrating," saying: "Our question is, 'Isn't it better to get behind a Republican you may disagree with from time to time than work for an outcome that puts a Democrat in the White House with whom you will disagree all of the time?'
But in the latest edition of Newsweek, reporter Richard Wolffe reports that inside the McCain campaign, McKinnon was making pledges not to make any ads disparaging Barack Obama. And he’s lecturing Limbaugh? The article ends:
Even if Republicans don't convert in more significant numbers, the friendly outreach may blunt the ferocity of GOP attacks. One senior aide to John McCain has already said he's reluctant to attack Obama: last year, McCain's adman Mark McKinnon wrote an internal memo promising not to tape ads against the Illinois Democrat if he becomes the nominee.
