February 19, 2008 

(Manassas, Virginia)  In its efforts to deal with John McCain’s “conservative problem,” the McCain campaign is showing how bad that problem is, Richard A. Viguerie said. 

“The latest evidence of that is bringing out George H.W. Bush to criticize conservatives who have problems with the Senator. Believe it or not, this was touted by some in the McCain camp as something that would establish the Senator’s conservative bona fides and improve his standing with conservatives.

“Bush 41 is the personification of a Republican Establishment that is out of touch with conservatives. In 1988, he was elected to continue the policies of Ronald Reagan – to serve, in effect ‘Reagan’s third term – yet he repudiated those policies as fast as he could. He lost his re-election in 1992, receiving 38% of the vote, because so many conservatives stayed home or voted for Ross Perot. Is that the kind of example the McCain campaign wants to put forth?” 

Viguerie noted that, in 1992, he wrote a book, Lip Service: George Bush’s 30-Year Battle With Conservatives, detailing the elder Bush’s longstanding conflict with the group that is dominant among GOP activists.  

“No one who knows anything about grassroots conservatives would think that George H.W. Bush’s testimony would be worth anything to conservatives. Rather than establish a connection with conservatives, this blunder reconfirms the fact that McCain doesn’t understand them, doesn’t understand why they have a problem with him, and isn’t taking the steps he needs to fix his problems.

“With conservatives, John McCain is in a hole. He needs to quit digging.”

NOTE TO EDITORS: Richard A. Viguerie pioneered ideological and political direct mail and has been called “the funding father of the conservative movement” for his role in helping to build dozens of conservative organizations. He is the author of Conservatives Betrayed—How George W. Bush and Other Big-Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause (Bonus Books, 2006).