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2008 Cityfolk Festival
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EDITORIAL
Our view: Bill Cunningham? What was Ohio GOP thinking?
Thursday, February 28, 2008
WLW radio talk-show host Bill Cunningham was supposed to warm up the crowd at a Republican campaign rally in Cincinnati for Sen. John McCain on Tuesday.
Mr. Cunningham told CNN that organizers in Cincinnati "told me to fire up the crowd ... give them some red meat."
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Instead, he stunk up the place, degraded the party, demeaned the McCain campaign and embarrassed Cincinnati and Ohio with his sneering use of Democratic Party hopeful Barack Obama's middle name (Hussein) and venomous insinuations about Sen. Obama's integrity and interest in standing up to this country's enemies.
And for good measure, he insulted gays and an older woman's appearance along the way. It was all very classy.
Former U.S. Rep. Rob Portman, there to announce his endorsement of Sen. McCain, followed Mr. Cunningham by saying, "Willie, you're out of control again. So, what else is new? But we love him," and "I've got to tell you, Bill Cunningham lending his voice to this campaign is extremely important."
But Mr. Portman, a man who wants to be seen as a gentleman legislator and public official, surely knows there is nothing to love about Mr. Cunningham's stock in trade.
What's certain is that Sen. McCain was not sanguine.
The senator apologized for "any disparaging remarks" and told the press gaggle: "I absolutely repudiate such comments, and again I will take responsibility — it will never happen again. It will never happen again."
Mr. Cunningham now claims he will endorse Sen. Hillary Clinton, whining that Sen. McCain "threw (him) under the bus to the national media."
Mr. Cunningham fully earned his 15 minutes of national infamy. State and local Republican leaders deserve as much, and more, for dragging Ohio not under the bus, but into the gutter.
Former Sen. Mike DeWine, who is Sen. McCain's Ohio campaign chair, says he is "very comfortable with what (Sen. McCain) did" in denouncing Mr. Cunningham's remarks. He says Sen. McCain set the right tone by stepping forward quickly and making plain that his campaign will not tolerate "personal and degrading" comments about his opponents. Mr. Portman agrees that response was the correct one.
That's the right sentiment, but where were Sen. DeWine, Mr. Portman and party officials when someone had the bright idea of giving Mr. Cunningham a microphone? Didn't it occur to them that he would be his usual self? Or was that the plan?
Of course, they know the kind of "red meat" Mr. Cunningham dishes out.
Political trash-talking to a mass audience is as old as electronic media. Father Charles Coughlin was one of the pioneers, using a weekly radio sermon to call President Franklin D. Roosevelt a "great betrayer and liar" and to blame Jews for the Great Depression.
But the Catholic hierarchy (including the archbishop of the Cincinnati Archdiocese) eventually pulled the plug on Father Coughlin, at least insofar as he purported to speak on behalf of the church.
Ohio GOP leaders need to pull the plug on the likes of Bill Cunningham, making plain his bigoted and hateful comments do not represent them. They should stand up to purveyors of poison and keep them off their political stage.
