McCain's Log Cabin Surrogate: Schwarzenegger

Though John McCain won't attend this weekend's "national conversation" convention of Log Cabin Republicans in San Diego, he has asked Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a gay rights supporter, to be his surrogate.

"We were scheduled to speak at the convention and were asked by McCain campaign to speak on their behalf since they can't attend, and we said no problem," a senior aide to Schwarzenegger said last night. "So Governor Schwarzenegger will talk about the future of the Republican Party and will also talk about McCain."

And, in a further sign that McCain does not consider gay Republicans to be an expendable part of the Republican coalition, he plans to meet soon with executives of the Log Cabin Republicans, people with knowledge of the meetings said.

Patrick Sammon, the Log Cabin’s President, would not speak about his group’s plans. “Throughout the primaries, we have had the attitude that we're not going to speak to the media about contacts we’ve had or haven’t had with the different campaigns.”

McCain opposes gay marriage, is against relaxing the ban on gays in the military and campaigned against a ballot measure that would have permitted civil unions in Arizona.

But he has expressed support for allowing gays to hold “ceremonies” expressing their partnerships, opposes a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and has displayed his irritation with Republicans efforts to stir up anti-homosexual resentments for politically expedient purposes.

A self-described Goldwater Republican, McCain has also expressed sympathy for legislation that would allow gay partners hospital visitation rights and other reciprocal benefits generally reserved for straight couples. In 2001, McCain movingly eulogized the life of Mark Bingham, a hero of United flight 93, who was gay.

In 2000, McCain was willing to meet with the Log Cabin Republicans at the height of his primary battle with George W. Bush. At the same time, he supported California’s Prop 7 – the Knight initiative, which codified in law the definition of marriage as a contract between one man and one woman.

What this all means depends largely on the identity of the immanent McCain. Since he is somewhat of an ideological hybrid, who he takes with meetings with and who he refuses to meet with allow voters, by process of elimination, to discover his true disposition.

McCain has said, for example, that he sees no reason to meet with James Dobson, the president of Focus on the Family (although Dobson has said he has no intention of voting for McCain and has privately told associates that he personally dislikes him), or with Rush Limbaugh (although that may change.)

His campaign is setting up an advisory Committee of 50, which is reported to include social conservative activists and evangelicals concerned with economic justice.

At the request of the late Jerry Falwell, McCain visited Liberty University to mend fences after McCain accused him, in 2000, of being an agent of intolerance. He has met with Family Research President Tony Perkins to talk about embryonic stem cell research, which McCain supports and Perkins opposes.

The FRC has invited McCain, along with the eventual Democratic nominee, to its 2008 values voters summit this September. The group considers McCain’s attendance there a test of whether his commitment to social conservatism is cosmetic or real.

As for his meeting with the Log Cabin Republicans, “he has an association with them that goes back to the 2000 campaign,” said Brian Rogers, a McCain spokesperson.