February 18, 2000

Bush Draws The Line At Hiring Gays

FLORENCE, S.C. -- Republican George W. Bush yesterday stopped just short of saying he wouldn't appoint anyone who is openly gay to his administration -- as polls showed him in a dead heat with John McCain.

Bush appeared to take a harder line as he courted the religious right before tomorrow's GOP primary. He is billing himself as the more conservative candidate in a bid to stop McCain's momentum.

Asked if he would appoint someone who is openly gay, Bush told Christian radio station WMHK in Charleston: "An openly known homosexual is somebody who probably wouldn't share my philosophy."

Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer later said the Texas governor didn't mean to suggest a ban on gay appointees, but interpreted the question to mean homosexual "activists" who wouldn't likely be conservatives.

Polls now show the two candidates in a dead heat here, and some analysts say McCain will be hard to stop if he wins. The senator from Arizona appears to be edging ahead in Michigan, which holds its primary Tuesday, the same day McCain's home state votes.

Bush yesterday said: "My spirits are up" but added, "I actually thought I was going to win New Hampshire, which means I'm not a very good forecaster."

McCain beat Bush by 18 points in New Hampshire's primary on Feb. 1.

"If we win here, I don't see how we can be stopped," McCain crowed at a VFW pancake breakfast in Spartanburg.

In a sign of how high the stakes are here, both camps are going all-out to get their voters to the polls tomorrow.

The Bush camp plans two calls to every voter identified as pro-Bush, plus a third call to those identified as social conservatives -- those who listen to Christian radio.

He's also sending out a mailing that accuses McCain of waffling, and he's using thousands of taped phone calls plus letters from his mother and Elizabeth Dole to women.

The National Right to Life Committee, which backed Bush, has sent out a mailing with a baby in diapers on the front that says: "This little guy wants you to vote for George Bush."

The McCain camp is promising 500,000 phone calls plus postcards and has posted the locations of polling places on its Web site.

Democrats and independents, as Republicans, can vote.

Bush's comment on gays came at a time when the "compassionate conservative" has taken a right turn on issues like abortion and taken flak for his stop at anti-Catholic Bob Jones University.

Yesterday, he suggested he didn't know the university bans interracial dating: "I wasn't very aware of the interracial dating policy."

Both Bush and McCain support the "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays in the military, but McCain says he would appoint people who are openly gay to civilian posts.

McCain raised some eyebrows aboard his campaign bus last month when he said he can tell who's gay "by behavior and attitudes" -- a remark he seemed to regret instantly, saying it was "private."

He also surprised some reporters yesterday by saying President Clinton did a "marvelous job" of broadening his party -- and that he'd like to do the same.