(CNN) – Log Cabin Republicans are getting some support from the McCain family.
Cindy and Meghan McCain will make an appearance at the gay rights organization's four day convention in Washington, which kicks off Thursday night.
"Of all the causes I believe in and speak publicly about, this is one of the ones closest to my heart," Meghan McCain, a vocal supporter of same-sex marriage, wrote in the Daily Beast this week. "If the Republican Party has any hope of gaining substantial support from a wider, younger base, we need to get past our anti-gay rhetoric."
Steve Schmidt, former senior strategist for John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign and manager of Arnold Schwarzenegger's gubernatorial reelection campaign in 2006, will also be in attendance. Schmidt will be speaking about the 2008 election and the GOP's comeback agenda.
In an interview Thursday with CNN, LCR Spokesperson Charles Moran said the organization is lobbying New York Republicans to help pass the same-sex marriage law championed by the state's Democratic Gov. David Paterson.
"We have people on the ground, we're identifying our bases of support, looking at our polling, looking at our research, so that we can be ready to assist the marriage coalition in New York with targeting those crucial GOP votes," Moran told CNN.
The group is also working on identifying the Republican players who will serve as the face of their organization's mission.
Moran citied Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, a Mormon Republican who has called for the adoption of civil unions, and Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, who acknowledged that gay Republicans have a place at the party's table.
"These are the types of leaders and luminaries within the Republican party," Moran said. "The party must move forward and regardless of where you are in the conservative spectrum, you definitely can be conservative and an openly gay Republican in this political climate."
"We don't just talk the talk but we actually are providing the boots on the ground, we're making those calls, and we're loyal Republicans," he said.
(CNN) – Meghan McCain may be topping off her recent publicity blitz with a big payday: the daughter of former Republican presidential candidate John McCain has scored a six-figure book deal, according to the New York Observer.
Hyperion, which reportedly inked the deal with McCain, has not responded to a CNN request for comment or details on what would be the 24-year-old's second book. (Her first, released last fall, was a Simon & Schuster children's book about her father's life.)
McCain's attention-grabbing blog posts and television appearances over the past few months have kept her in the post-campaign spotlight, and made her one of the year's hottest young Republican pundits.
She's blamed her languishing love life on her father's presidential run; feuded with conservative commentators Ann Coulter and Laura Ingraham; and raved about the GOP's congressional "hottie," 27-year-old Aaron Schock of Illinois.
Most of her recent blog posts have focused on her feelings on the future direction of the Republican Party. "As someone who has been personally attacked when I invited political discourse, I firmly believe that talking about our differences – instead of mudslinging – can only bring people closer to the Republican Party and force them to take a second look at their candidates," she wrote for the Daily Beast last month.
There is no word yet on a possible release date.
(CNN) - She's become decidedly more outspoken since her father lost his bid for the presidency last November, but there's one question Meghan McCain refuses to answer: whether she sees herself supporting Sarah Palin should the Alaska governor run for president.
In an interview on CNN's "No Bias, No Bull" Wednesday night, the daughter of Arizona Sen. John McCain said she couldn't "possibly make a prediction about 2012 right now."
"I honestly don't think that's a relevant question," McCain said when asked if she would support her father's running mate. "I have to find out who is running in 2012, I mean, what - there's broad personalities that happen. And it's four years from now. A lot of things can happen. A lot of things can change.
"...I have to see who else is on the table."
It's not the first time the usually blunt McCain daughter has gone silent on the issue of the former vice presidential candidate. McCain told an interviewer in January, "Sarah Palin is the only part of the campaign that I won't comment on publicly."
WASHINGTON (CNN) - At 27 years old, Illinois Republican Rep. Aaron Schock is the youngest member of Congress. He's also possessed of washboard abs and has, as of late, become a favorite target of celebrity gossip outlet TMZ. And the daughter of the last Republican presidential candidate thinks he might just be the answer to the GOP's troubles.
Related: TMZ focuses on Illinois Republican
"The first time I ever heard of Congressman Aaron Schock, I was hanging out with some friends during a girls' night in, and one of my friends yelled to me from the other room: 'Meghan, there's a congressman on TMZ,'" Meghan McCain writes Tuesday in her latest blog post for the Daily Beast. "To which I answered: 'Twenty bucks he's a Democrat.' Well, I was wrong."
"...At the end of the day, Congressman Schock is only three years older than me. Which means he can relay a message in ways my father never could," she says.
(CNN) - Meghan McCain, a contributor to TheDailyBeast.com, is the daughter of Sen. John McCain and Cindy McCain. But it's her recent verbal sparring with conservative Republicans that's put her in the spotlight.
In a wide-ranging interview on Monday on CNN's "Larry King Live," McCain discussed her thoughts on President Obama, her recent heated exchange with radio host Laura Ingraham, her tattoos and more.
The following transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity:
Larry King: [President Obama] is taking some criticism for smiling and laughing [during his "60 Minutes" interview.] Are you one of those critics?
Meghan McCain: You know, I actually am not. I think anyone that would possibly think that the president is not taking the economy seriously - I just think it's ridiculous. ...
King: [Is President Obama getting overexposed]?
McCain: I think he is on the verge of it. I do think you have to be careful. But it is a different generation. [My] generation ... we like our celebrities. And I think that he realizes that because he is very much a Generation Y president. However, he is on the risk of alienating his older followers.
King: Does Obama seem like the same guy who ran against your dad? How do you view him?
McCain: He's our president and when the election was over and when President Obama won, all negative feelings were gone. I support the president.
(CNN) – Supriya Jindal, the wife of Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, is flattered by speculation that her husband could be the Republican Party's standard-bearer in 2012. But, she said, the party and the country need "to focus on solutions right now and not focus on who the next candidate's going to be."
In an interview with Meghan McCain on The Daily Beast, Jindal said her husband's focus "always has been and should stay" on Louisiana. She said he plans to seek re-election as governor in 2011, a timetable that would seemingly complicate any aspirations top run a national campaign for president the following year.
"So all this talk is just talk going around," she said of the presidential chatter. "You know, we will see what happens but he is focused on his re-election here in Louisiana and making a difference in our state."
She defended the governor's poorly-received rebuttal of the president's national address in February, suggesting that he got some bad advice in his speech prep.
"Everyone is entitled to their opinions and it's funny because everyone always tells him he speaks too fast and that night he tried to slow it down," she said. "And the criticism was that he talked too slow."
Jindal also recalled the tale of how the couple met in high school, explaining that she had no clue the future governor had a crush on her at the time. He was apparently a shy kid.
(CNN) -- Laura Ingraham is calling Meghan McCain a "useful idiot" and a "flavor of the month" - the latest salvo in the war of words between the conservative radio host and the daughter of former Republican presidential candidate John McCain.
"Memo to Meghan McCain: Enjoy the media coverage while it lasts, but know you're being used," writes Ingraham, in a blog post titled "'USEFUL IDIOT' WATCH." "You are the flavor of the month in left-wing media land because you are a Republican bashing the GOP. Likewise, your dad is most popular among the same people when he is slamming his Republican brethren in full-blown 'maverick' fashion. At least he backs up his views with a lifetime of sacrifice and public service.
Ingraham says liberals are taking a single satirical comment out of context "to paint Meghan as the victim of a right-wing hate crime" and "malign outspoken conservatives."
The radio host mocked McCain on her show last week over comments urging Republicans to seek compromise with Democrats. She referred to McCain “a Valley Girl gone awry” and a “plus-sized model.”
Ingraham calls the furor over her remark "manufactured and totally phony."
"This comes from the same playbook responsible for the ongoing demonization of Rush Limbaugh," she writes.
"If any off-the-cuff remark about a woman's size was condemnable, then where was the outrage when President Obama made a passing reference to Jessica Simpson's 'weight battle' during his Super Bowl interview with Matt Lauer?" she asked, referring to a headline the president noted on a magazine cover during his interview with the NBC anchor.
Ingraham pointed to digs Rush Limbaugh has gotten over his weight, and references to herself and Ann Coulter as "peroxide blondes."
(Update: John McCain responds after the jump)
FULL POST
(CNN) – John McCain’s daughter Meghan has a message for conservative talk-show host Laura Ingraham: “Kiss my fat ass.”
Last week, Ingraham mocked McCain on her radio show after the daughter of former GOP presidential nominee John McCain urged Republicans to seek compromise with Democrats. Ingraham called McCain “a Valley Girl gone awry” and a “plus-sized model.”
McCain, who writes about politics and her personal life for The Daily Beast, went on The View on Monday to fight back.
“What do young women think when I speak my mind about politics and I want to have a political discussion about the ideological future of the Republican Party, and the answer is, ‘She’s fat, she shouldn’t have an opinion.’ What kind of message are we sending young women?” she asked.
“It infuriates me,” she said. “I’m a political writer on a blog, and all of a sudden I’m too fat to write?”
The View’s conservative co-host, Elizabeth Hasselbeck, called Ingraham’s remarks “a low blow.”
McCain said she felt like Tyra Banks when the model “went on her show in her bathing suit and said, ‘Kiss my fat ass.’”
“That’s what I feel right now,” McCain said. “I’m like, ‘Kiss my fat ass!’”
Ingraham quickly responded to McCain once again on her show, telling McCain that she needs to learn to deal with satire and “teasing.”
“Can I say ‘lighten up,’ or is that offensive too?” Ingraham asked.
(CNN) – Fresh off public complaints about her own love life, Meghan McCain has a new target for her most recent gripes: conservative commentator Ann Coulter.
In a new blog post for the Daily Beast as Ann Coulter and HBO host Bill Maher are kicking off a week-long debate tour today in New York, McCain calls President Obama “the hippest politician around” and says being a Republican is “about as edgy as Donny Osmond.”
And she blasts Coulter for helping to “perpetuate negative stereotypes” about Republican women. “I straight up don’t understand this woman or her popularity,” says McCain. “I find her offensive, radical, insulting, and confusing all at the same time.”
She concedes that Coulter seems to be followed by a “cult that cannot be denied,” and was a popular headliner at the recent Conservative Political Action Conference, but adds that “when your competition is a teenager who has a dream about the Republican Party and Stephen Baldwin, it’s not really saying that much.”
WASHINGTON (CNN) – Sen. John McCain is laughing off daughter Meghan’s claim that his presidential campaign has taken a toll on her love life.
"I have to say I have a beautiful daughter and I have bright prospects for her professionally and socially," he said on Fox News Sunday.
"I'm proud of all my children. Sometimes they say things that I would not do or say - that's what young people are all about."
In a recent blog post on the Daily Beast, Meghan McCain listed the exclusion of “obsessive supporters of my dad" as one of the campaign-related developments that had reduced her romantic prospects.
From CNN Politics
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