Presidential Candidates in Balancing Act over Controversial Supporters

WASHINGTON — The 2008 presidential campaign is suddenly ripe with candidates distancing themselves from controversial supporters. But this year's field of White House contenders isn't the first to encounter such problems, and experts say these challenges require political dexterity and often become tests of character.

The issue bubbled up this week in both parties. And with the increasing role of independent "527" organizations in American politics, it is all but certain that more controversies lie ahead, especially with the historic nature of the 2008 campaign.

"You have a woman or an African-American on the Democratic side versus a former POW as the GOP nominee, and the potential for deep cultural and political conflict is quite high," said Darrell West, a professor at Brown University. "The 527 groups will fuel the divisiveness because they will focus on each candidate's friends and engage in guilt by association ... (and) candidates will have little control over what their supporters do in their name."

John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, distanced himself earlier this week from remarks Cincinnati radio host Bill Cunningham made about Democratic front-runner Barack Obama. Obama rejected the support of Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan, who has a history of making anti-Semitic remarks. And Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton denounced what some considered racist remarks by Adelfa Callejo, one of her Hispanic supporters in Texas.

McCain did not, however, put that much distance between himself and San Antonio mega-church pastor John Hagee, an important anchor of evangelical Texas but also a controversial figure who has called the Catholic Church "the Great Whore." Accepting Hagee's endorsement, McCain adopted the approach most used by politicians when confronted with support from a controversial figure: "When he endorses me, it does not mean that I embrace everything that he stands for and believes."

There's nothing new about politicians, especially presidential candidates, forced into such balancing acts, weighing the advantages against the disadvantages of support from controversial figures or groups, either in terms of endorsements and organizational backing or financial support.

Indeed, during the early 1980's, before the Rev. Jerry Falwell became an icon in Republican political circles, the late evangelical Christian minister was viewed as "a liability" within the Reagan administration," noted John Pitney, a one-time Republican political operative who now teaches political science at Claremont McKenna College in California. "At the time, Falwell did have a following ... and the GOP never had a good way of dealing with the problem," Pitney added.

Eventually, Falwell became a kingmaker within the GOP, influential enough that McCain, who denounced him as an agent of "intolerance" during his 2000 campaign for the GOP nomination, courted him before embarking on his current campaign for the White House.

Similarly, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Rev. Al Sharpton "are usually kept at length on the left" of the Democratic Party, much as the late George C. Wallace, the arch segregationist from Alabama, was on the right of the party in the 1970's after his independent runs for the presidency, said Larry Sabato, founder and director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.

The rise of the 527 groups, which are required by law to operate separately from campaigns, has made it even more difficult for candidates to control the political environment of a presidential campaign.

In 2004, for example, Vietnam veterans calling themselves "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" organized under section 527 of the federal tax code challenged the war record of Democratic nominee John Kerry, a much decorated veteran of the Vietnam War. President Bush eventually denounced the organization, many of whose claims against Kerry unraveled, but the damage had been done to the Kerry campaign.

"In 2008, Swift Boat will become a verb and not just a noun," said West.

"Campaigns always face these issues," said Chris Lehane, a veteran Democratic consultant who worked in the presidential campaigns of Bill Clinton and Al Gore. But they may be more visible these days because, he said, "the substantive differences between the candidates is so slight that people are looking for other ways to distinguish the campaigns from one another."

However, what drives much of the media and voter interest in controversial supporters of a candidate is "the fact that these races, in part, are up and down votes on character and one of the great insights into someone's character is who they associate with and how a candidate responds when asked about a controversial figure," Lehane added.

This week, the news cycles barely advanced before McCain, Obama and Clinton distanced themselves from controversial supporters, with the exception of Hagee backing McCain. And that controversy threatened to dog McCain into the final weekend before the Texas and Ohio primaries, with Catholic League President Bill Donohue on Friday denouncing the likely GOP nominee's refusal to repudiate Hagee.

"Just this week, McCain repudiated the remarks of talk radio host Bill Cunningham," Donohue noted in a written statement. "He should now repudiate Hagee's long record of bashing Catholicism. After all, George W. Bush apologized for speaking at Bob Jones University, and Hagee makes Jones look like a lightweight in the ring of bigotry."

In response, McCain issued a written statement Friday, emphasizing that "in no way did I intend for his (Hagee's) endorsement to suggest that I in turn agree with all of Pastor Hagee's views, which I obviously do not." He added, "I am hopeful that Catholics, Protestants and all people of faith who share my vision for the future of America will respond to our message of defending innocent life, traditional marriage, and compassion for the most vulnerable in our society."

MCCAIN AND CUNNINGHAM

At a rally in Cincinnati on Tuesday, local conservative talk show host Bill Cunningham ridiculed Democratic front-runner Barack Obama for his intentions to meet with "world leaders who want to kill us" and pointedly referred to the Illinois senator using his middle name "Hussein." He also described Obama as "a hack Chicago, Daley-style politician who is picturing himself as change." Cunningham added, "When he gets done with you, all you're going to have in your pocket is change."

After the rally, McCain condemned Cunningham's remarks and apologized to Obama. "Whatever suggestion was made that was in any way disparaging to the integrity, character (or) honesty of either Senator Obama or Senator Clinton was wrong, and I condemn it," he said. "It will never happen again," he added.

Asked whether Obama's middle name was an appropriate topic for discussion during the campaign, McCain replied, "No, it is not."

MCCAIN AND HAGEE

On Wednesday, John McCain got the endorsement of the Rev. John Hagee, pastor of the Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, a nondenominational church with 19,000 members, with a television and radio ministry with ties to 160 TV stations and 50 radio stations across the country. Hagee praised McCain's "solid, pro-life voting record" and his pro-Israel views. McCain has pledged that he will "not permit Iran to have nuclear weapons to fulfill the evil dreams of President Ahmadinejad to wipe Israel off the map."

Hagee has long argued that the United States must join Israel in a preemptive, biblically prophesied military strike against Iran that will lead to the second coming of Christ. He also has called the Catholic Church "the Great Whore," and in his book "Jerusalem Countdown" he maintains that Adolf Hitler was Catholic and that the Vatican turned a blind eye to the Holocaust because of his religion.

McCain said he was "very honored" by Hagee's endorsement. When asked about Hagee's extensive writings on Armageddon, the GOP candidate responded that "all I can tell you is that I am very proud to have John Hagee's support." But on Friday, he issued a written statement emphasizing that he does not agree with all of Hagee's views.

OBAMA AND FARRAKHAN

At a Nation of Islam gathering last Sunday, Minister Louis Farrakhan praised Barack Obama, even comparing him to the religion's founder, W. Fard Muhammad, who, like the Democratic presidential candidate, had a white mother and a black father. "A black man with a white mother became a savior to us," Farrakhan said. "A black man with a white mother could turn out to be one who can lift America from her fall."

Obama's campaign initially distanced itself from Farrakhan with a statement saying Obama had objected to the minister's past pronouncements - which included a reference to Judaism as a "gutter religion" - and that the campaign had not solicited his support. At Tuesday's debate in Austin, Texas, Hillary Clinton challenged Obama to go a step further and also reject Farrakhan's support. Obama did so, saying, "There's no formal offer of help from Minister Farrakhan that would involve me rejecting it. But if the word 'reject' Senator Clinton feels is stronger than the word 'denounce,' then I'm happy to concede the point, and I would reject and denounce."

CLINTON AND CALLEJO

A day after Hillary Clinton pressed Barack Obama regarding Louis Farrakhan, Adelfa Callejo, 84, a lawyer and civil rights activist who supports Clinton, told a Dallas TV station that "Obama simply has a problem that he happens to be black." And in an interview the same day with The Dallas Morning News, Callejo said many Hispanics have told her they have reservations about voting for a black politician because of long standings feuds over Dallas school district funding. "What I hear is that they do not trust that Obama will do something for Hispanics," she said.

Asked whether she rejected or denounced the comments, Clinton said, "People have every reason to express their opinions. I just don't agree with that. You know, this is a free country. People get to express their opinions."

Later, the campaign issued this statement: "After confirming that (Callejo's comments) were accurately portrayed, Senator Clinton, of course, denounces and rejects them."