Sen. John McCain yesterday distanced himself from President Bush by saying he would boycott the Summer Olympics’ opening ceremonies in Beijing and delved into relatively unfamiliar domestic territory by proposing a new federal program to help distressed homeowners.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee joined his potential Democratic opponents in saying China has not earned leaders’ attendance because of its human rights record, thus answering a question that has become a major test for world leaders.
“I believe President Bush should evaluate his participation in the ceremonies surrounding the Olympics and, based on Chinese actions, decide whether it is appropriate to attend,” the Arizona Republican said in a statement issued after he discussed the boycott on ABC’s “The View” program.
“If Chinese policies and practices do not change, I would not attend the opening ceremonies.”
In taking the stance, Mr. McCain found common ground with conservative Republicans critical of coddling a dangerous and oppressive regime, and at the same time gets to distance himself from Mr. Bush, whose unpopularity is expected to be a drag on Republicans’ fortunes in November.
The White House said the president will attend the Olympics but has not said whether that will include the opening ceremonies. Press secretary Dana Perino said it was too early to know his specific schedule.
Mr. McCain took his second swipe at the housing downturn yesterday, calling for more active role than just two weeks ago, when he first laid out his principles.
He said his program — up to $10 billion to help certain homeowners restructure loans — will be targeted to those who appeared to have entered into sensible mortgages but who the economic downturn has left unable to pay. It would exclude investors and speculators who were in the market strictly for profit.
He also called for the Justice Department to look into whether mortgage companies defrauded customers into taking out bad loans, and said the government should stop filling its own petroleum reserves, which he said would bring down gas prices by increasing the supply of oil available to consumers.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton called his housing plan “a warmed over, half-hearted version of the very plan he criticized” just two weeks ago, when Mr. McCain said it was up to lenders to take the lead in trying to rework mortgages.
On China, Mr. McCain waded into more familiar territory of security and foreign relations in calling on Mr. Bush to think carefully before lending his authority to the opening ceremonies.
Both of his potential Democratic opponents, Mrs. Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama, have already said they would boycott the opening ceremonies if the Chinese government’s behavior doesn’t improve.
No president in U.S. history has attended Olympic Games not on U.S. soil, and many conservatives are coalescing around a call for him not to attend any part of the Olympics.
“He should not go — that’s my personal view, not my organization’s,” said Pat Toomey, president of the Club for Growth, a conservative pro-free trade organization. “For the Chinese government, hosting the Olympics is all about establishing their place among the community of advanced, civilized countries of the world.”
“Their denial of human rights to their own people and some of their behavior toward other people should disqualify them from being a member in good standing of the community,” said Mr. Toomey. “The president could convey that message by choosing not to attend.
Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, Michigan Republican and chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee, wrote an op-ed in Human Events this week saying Mr. Bush’s attendance amounts to “watching a wobbling discus with the wanton butchers of Tiananmen Square.”
Erick Erickson, founder of the conservative Web site RedState.com, has enlisted readers of his site to sign a petition urging Mr. Bush to personally boycott the Olympics.
“We have people from every state of the union signing the petition,” Mr. Erickson said.
But Oliver North, founder of Freedom Alliance and a Fox News analyst, said it was too late for conservatives to raise the idea of a boycott, calling it “too little too late.”
He said when China was being considered as an Olympics host, he wrote a column saying conservatives should have acted then to boycott the Olympics Committee that was considering China as a possible host.
Last month, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told The Washington Times that a complete boycott, as American athletes did to the Soviet Union in 1980, would be an ineffective way to deal with that nation.
“I do not see the benefit of boycotting,” she said. “I do not think the boycott of the 1980 Olympics was very effective. In fact, I think it looked feckless.”
Miss Rice said Mr. Bush will use his visit to raise the regime’s “troublesome policies” such as its human rights record and its close ties to the Sudanese government, which Washington has accused of committing genocide in the Darfur region.
“This is a moment of international recognition for the Chinese people, too, and I would hate to do anything that is insulting to them as well — the people, not the regime,” she said.
But Mr. McCotter said his goal isn’t to help China have a good show for the world.
“My job is not to support a nuclear-armed communist regime onto the world stage, it is to usher it into the ashcan of history,” he said.
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