Here's Who You DON'T Want on Your Fundraising Letter

SFGate's politics blog broke the news yesterday that the disgraced Mel Gibson, who conservative commentators tried to pass off as a liberal in the wake of his anti-Semitic comments during his DUI arrest, has written not one but four fundraising letters over the past year in support of Tom McClintock, the Republican candidate for Lieutenant Governor (on Arnold Schwarzenegger's ticket):

But one thing's clear: the unusually gushy, three-page, single-spaced fundraising letter sent out by the star of "Braveheart," and "Passion of the Christ" to help raise campaign cash for McClintock's effort won't help much now: it could even be a "Lethal Weapon" for the GOP candidate because Gibson, arrested for DUI, is tabloid fodder for making a rash of anti-Semitic comments.

In the good old days before his current troubles, Gibson's letter shows he appeared eager to get into the political mix, detailing what he believed was wrong with California's government -- and how McClintock would set that straight.

"When I find that rare politician who will stand his ground for what is right -- no matter what the pressure or consequences -- I take notice," Gibson wrote in last year's fundraising pitch for McClintock obtained by the Chronicle.

He wrote that he had long conversations with McClintock about the state of the state, and is convinced the senator "stood solidly for principles that might not be politically correct -- but that were right and true."

The California Courage Campaign has one of the letters here.

McClintock is a rock-ribbed conservative from Thousand Oaks who participated in the 2003 recall election and finished in third with 13% of the vote. He's currently backpedaling like a madman and stating that he "disassociate(s) myself completely" from Gibson and his remarks. He says this as if it was a total shock that Gibson held these views, despite controversial statements in the past from both him and his father.

Timothy Noah has picked up this story and writes in Slate:

McClintock has a history of associating with religious intolerants. During the recall election, McClintock's deputy campaign manager and former chief legislative aide was found to have written that "Christians are the only people who can restore the proper biblical understanding of government to our modern system." Gibson's virulent anti-Semitism was, at the very least, a matter of strong suspicion well before his drunk-driving incident. Come to think of it, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose deputy McClintock aspires to become, has an awkward history here too, having defended Kurt Waldheim, secretary general of the United Nations and subsequently president of Austria, after it came to light that Waldheim had participated in Nazi atrocities (for instance, a mass murder in the Kozara region of western Bosnia) during World War Two.

The Governor and Lieutenant Governor may be different races in California, but it is a ticket and they have a symbiotic relationship. It's completely reasonable to ask the Governor if he supports a running mate that gets fundraising help from the likes of Mel Gibson. The Courage Campaign has gone a step further, setting up an online petition asking McClintock to donate any campaign contributions solicited by Gibson to the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles.

This looked to be a one-day story but it's getting bigger and bigger. It's legitimate to wonder if the governor supports a running mate who consistently appeals to a hardcore Christian conservative base which has the potential to breed the kind of intolerance and hate evidenced by Gibson's remarks. It also puts the lie to this "Gibson is really a liberal, he criticized the Iraq war" nonsense that commentators tried to peddle in the wake of the controversy.