Romney Consultant: McCain Supports Legal Protections for Terrorists

By Ken Silverstein

South Carolina GOP campaign percolating nicely

I just posted an item in which I wrote that I thought it would be tough for Mitt Romney to replicate his success in Michigan to win the South Carolina primary. Drew McKissick, a consultant for Romney in South Carolina, argues the contrary in a post at a website he created called Christian Conservatives for Romney. “Take a look at the exit polls,” he writes…

Among self-identified “Born-again/Evangelical” voters, Romney won 34%, Huckabee 29% and McCain 23%. In other words, Romney out-polled Huckabee among the very conservative group Huckabee’s been counting on so far, proving that this group cannot be pigeon holed as being resistant to Romney on the religion question… So what does this tell us? It demonstrates that Romney’s the most acceptable to all types of conservatives within the party and, if those conservatives unite behind his candidacy, we can achieve what most conservatives agree on–stopping John McCain.

McKissick says conservatives need to keep a few things in mind about McCain, among them that he is the “candidate of amnesty for illegal aliens” and “supports legislation to grant due-process rights to terrorists.”

Yes, I’d say that South Carolina, never known for its genteel politics, is about to get a lot nastier with the G.O.P. primary set for Saturday. McCain, whose chief consultant in the state is Richard Quinn, not exactly a shrinking violet himself, probably won’t be shy about hitting back.