How long will everyone love the senator from Arizona? Based on this Franklin Foer post from TNR’s blog The Plank, not long:
Earlier this week Hotline excerpted a dispatch on a forthcoming John McCain visit to South Carolina. Buried inside there was a stunning revelation. It quoted McCain’s spokesman, one Richard Quinn. He described McCain as a “strong advocate for the [Martin Luther] King Day” in Arizona. What makes this so stunning? In the 2000 race, McCain took heat for working with Quinn, who once edited the neo-Confederate journal The Southern Partisan. You may recall that this journal published apologias for slavery and that Quinn once advocated voting for David Duke. During McCain’s contentious primary race with Bush, McCain declined to distance himself from Quinn. He claimed no knowledge of Quinn’s writings. But a lot of time has passed since then. By now, McCain should have taken the opportunity to thumb through Quinn’s work. I’m sure that McCain very badly wants the presidency. Does he really want it this badly? (Here’s a People for the American Way dossier on Quinn’s revanchist politics that McCain might want to check out.)
Endorsing George Wallace, Jr., praising Trent Lott and now employing Richard Quinn? The requirements for winning southern GOP primaries are taking McCain backward on race. As The Hotline pointed out, this is going to endanger his “straight talk” reputation.