McCain Robo-Calls
Florida With Antigay Message

The campaign of leading Republican presidential hopeful and U.S. senator John McCain launched an automatic mass-telephone call in Florida that the Human Rights Campaign is calling offensive, according to an HRC press release.

The Arizona senator's campaign has set up a call targeting his main rival, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, on social issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage.

The call, featuring a woman's voice, claims Romney has treated "social issues voters as fools," according to Politico.com.

"Mitt Romney thinks he can fool us," says the voice. "He supported abortion on demand, even allowed a law mandating taxpayer-funding for abortion. He says he changed his mind, but he still hasn't changed the law. He told gay organizers in Massachusetts he would be a stronger advocate for special rights than even Ted Kennedy. Now it's something different."

"It's ironic that Sen. John McCain is using the same tactics that George Bush used against him in 2000," HRC's executive director Joe Solomonese said in the release, "surreptitiously trying to exploit anti-gay prejudice for voters.... So much for John McCain being above that."

McCain spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker told Politico.com that the calls were a response to a call that Romney sent out this weekend, which mentioned McCain's perceived similarities with Democrats Ted Kennedy and Hillary Clinton. (The Advocate)