 
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Tuesday, May 09, 2000
By Dennis B. Roddy, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
"Endorsement is not a big deal. ... Maybe, maybe not."
John McCain, the unpredictable senator from Arizona, came to Pittsburgh yesterday to praise Texas Gov. George W. Bush, but not too much.
He could end up endorsing him.
"Endorsement is not a big deal," McCain said yesterday after 90 minutes of signing books at a suburban shopping mall. "Endorsement is not a huge thing."
Would he endorse Bush today?
"Maybe, maybe not. I don't know what's going to happen," he said.
The minor commotion began at Waldenbooks in the Ross Park Mall in the North Hills. McCain was there to autograph copies of his autobiography, "Faith of My Fathers", but held a brief news conference beforehand.
"Sure," he replied.
In an instant, the senator was surrounded by a wall of reporters pressing for details. Aides scrambled to figure out what to do next.
As McCain was signing books, Bush, who earlier in the day had attended the funeral of New York's John Cardinal O'Connor, was landing, arriving in Pittsburgh shortly after 6.
"Of course I'd like his help," Bush told reporters."I'm confident we're going to have a good visit. I'm sure we're going to find a lot of ground for agreement," citing Social Security and education as two prospects for accord. "I want him involved in my campaign."
Word of a possible McCain endorsement was welcome in the Bush camp, although Bush aides played down the reports until they knew more. "Sen. McCain has previously indicated he would support Gov. Bush's candidacy," said Bush spokesman Scott McClellan.
According to Elsie Hillman, the former Republican national committeewoman and longtime friend of the Bush family, Gov. Ridge was instrumental in bringing Bush and McCain together.
"We made the climate inviting, but if I have to credit anyone, it's our governor. I think he's been very helpful," she said. "I have great high hopes that [the meeting] will go well for both of them. I'm sure they will come to an accommodation. I would expect that John McCain will endorse Gov. Bush."
Hillman was among fewer than two dozen people, including Ridge, who gathered with Bush for cocktails and supper last night at the Westin William Penn hotel Downtown, site of today's meeting.
The supper event was an opportunity for key GOP donors and friends of Bush to spend an intimate evening with the candidate, Hillman said. "When the campaign heats up, it's hard for us to spend any personal time," she said.
Also among invitees were Jim Broadhurst, chairman and chief executive officer of Eat 'N Park Restaurants; Chris Donahue, president and chief executive officer of Federated Investors; Jack Donahue, co-founder of Federated Investors; and developer Stanley Gumberg of J.J. Gumberg Co.
Today's meeting follows a Bush phone call to McCain over the weekend.
The Westin William Penn Hotel session wasn't supposed to produce an endorsement by McCain, who dropped out of the running for the GOP nomination after an often-acrimonious primary battle with Bush. But aides said yesterday that McCain has grown weary of the back-and-forth negotiations with the Bush camp and was now seriously considering an endorsement to put some closure on the race.
"I wouldn't be surprised if it happened," one staff member said of a possible endorsement today. "But it's not a done deal. The whole purpose of having this meeting is to see what happens in the meeting."
On the way to The Carlton restaurant, Downtown, where McCain dined last night with traveling members of the press, the senator said he really doesn't know Bush: "He seems to be a good man from a good family."
Today's meeting, preceded by weeks of sometimes-bitter haggling between the Bush and McCain staffs, is likely to be the final encounter between the men before this summer's Republican National Convention in Philadelphia. The Pittsburgh gathering has become a very public "private" meeting, with the national press corps converging on the town to see whether the one-time rivals would settle grievances built up during the primaries.
McCain said he didn't want the spectacle, but agreed at the insistence of Bush. "One thing I'd like to avoid in the future is some huge event like this," the senator said.
In other remarks yesterday, McCain laced into television evangelist and onetime Republican presidential hopeful Pat Robertson for weekend comments painting him as "very dangerous" and suggesting that he was unbalanced.
"You're defined by your friends and your enemies, and I'm proud to be an enemy of Pat Robertson," McCain said. "I hope a lot of Americans saw the kind of comments this so-called Christian makes."
In a related development, Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., yesterday criticized Robertson for saying Sunday that religious conservatives would not support Gov. Ridge or McCain as potential vice presidential running mates for Bush.
In a letter to Bush, Specter wrote that Robertson is "entitled to his opinion but not to threaten or, in effect, seek to exercise a 'veto' on your choice for the Republican nominee for vice president."
Specter wrote that Ridge "demonstrated political courage" in urging that the Republican Party drop from its platform a call for a constitutional amendment outlawing abortion. He said that "although some may say that Senator McCain comes on a little strong at times, no one would deny his effectiveness in office nor his public appeal as a prospective vice presidential candidate."
McCain has repeatedly ruled out any chance that he would accept his party's vice presidential nomination.
Post-Gazette Staff Writers Johnna Pro and Jack Torry contributed to this report.
McCain, who came close to derailing Bush's express train to the Republican presidential nomination earlier this year, surprised aides and rivals alike by holding out the possibility that he'll endorse Bush today following what could be the most public closed-door meeting of the 2000 campaign. 
Robin Breidenbach of Columbus, Ohio, meets with Arizona Sen. John McCain last night at a book signing at Ross Park Mall. (Annie O'Neill, Post-Gazette)
At the conference's end, McCain was asked if he would consider endorsing Bush immediately if he liked what he heard from the governor during today's meeting at a hotel Downtown.
Texas Gov. George W. Bush arrives at Pittsburgh International Airport yesterday. (Gabor Degre, Post-Gazette)