Franken-Lies-And-the-Lying-Liars-Who-Tell

Other rumors about McCain that began circulating around this time were that he was
gay (he's not); that he was pro-abortion (he isn't); that his wife had outstanding arrest warrants
for giving al cohol to minors (she didn't); that he had voted for the largest tax increase
ever (he hadn't); that he had been reprimanded by the Senate Ethics Committee (he hadn't);
and that he had fathered an illegitimate child with a North Vietnamese woman, which was
why he'd gotten special treatment from the Viet Cong. (This one's true. McCain's illegitimate
child John McCain Vu Khaon is currently Minister of Bicycles of the Socialist Republic of
Vietnam.)
The Heartwarming Story of the Very First Push Poll
Lee Atwater, a mentor to both Karl Rove and George Jr., ran the first push poll in 1978 against
a friend of mine, Max Heller. I met Max and his wife, Millie, in Hilton Head in 1994. His intelli-
gence, good humor, and obvious decency reminded me of my father, who had recently died.
Max told me his story.
In the late 1930s, Millie and her family left South Carolina for a vacation in Austria where
she met Max and fell in love. Millie and her family went back to South Carolina and the two
lovebirds kept in touch. When Hitler invaded Austria, Max decided it might be time for him to
become an American.
Arriving in Charleston, Max was greeted by Millie and her dad, who offered him room and
board. Max refused to accept a handout and insisted on doing a day's work, sweeping out Mil-
lie's dad's warehouse before he would sleep in their guest room and eat at their table. Max and
Millie married and prospered. Eventually he became the beloved mayor of Greenville, and in
1978 ran for Congress against an Atwater client, Republican Carole Campbell.
Heller was ahead until Atwater commissioned a series of polls to discover how voters in the
district would feel about "a foreign-born Jew who did not believe in Jesus Christ as the Savior."
(The polls revealed a certain antipathy to such a person.)
Max lost.
Despite the fact that the sliming of McCain could have benefited no one but Bush
(and possibly the distant also-ran Alan Keyes, who himself was facing allegations of having
fathered three black children), the Bush campaign repeatedly protested its innocence.
However, in a candid moment captured by C-SPAN on February 12, Dubya tipped his
hand to South Carolina State Senator Mike Fair. They didn't know the camera was on them as
they spoke about McCain.