Steve Schmidt

McCain strategist Steve Schmidt thinks that the GOP risks becoming the religious party (as if it isn't already.)

Fox News reports:

John McCain’s top adviser from the presidential campaign urged fellow Republicans on Friday to warm up to gay rights and warned that the GOP risks becoming the “religious party” with its opposition to same-sex marriage.

Steve Schmidt, in his first political appearance since the election, spoke at the Washington, D.C., convention for the Log Cabin Republicans — a grassroots group for gay and lesbian Republicans.

He urged Republicans, in the near-term, to endorse civil unions and stop using the Bible as rationale for gay-marriage opposition.

“If you put public policy issues to a religious test, you risk becoming a religious party,” he said. “And in a free country a political party cannot be viable in the long-term if it is seen as a sectarian party.”

Schmidt, whose sister is a lesbian and who supports same-sex marriage, said he understands the Republican Party probably won’t reverse its resistance to same-sex marriage anytime soon.

But he suggested that the party will be increasingly marginalized if it sustains that opposition long-term.

The idea: A web based daily news review show openly challenging and refuting the "facts" presented to the American people by the Obamaphile MSM. Upload each show on YouTube, LiveLeak, GoogleVideo, etc. and have downloadable versions in all audiovisual formats (mpg, mp4, avi, wmv, etc.) hosted on johnmccain.com and mirror sites.

The concept is simple; for the next 40 to 50 days, selected members of the McCain/Palin campaign would present the "2008 Campaign News Review" where they would turn a brutally critical eye on the MSM campaign reportage and commentary that went on in the past twenty four hours (and beyond), naming names, issuing forceful corrections/refutations and putting the bias in the limelight; from misleading headlines and ledes to the citing of partisan "experts" posing as disinterested observers, omissions, "careless errors", etc.

At the end, of course, "brought to you by McCain/Palin 2008."

Without spending much more than what it would cost for a set of cameras and teleprompter, a fast internet connection and video/graphics editing software, and, at most, a few additional campaign (if even required) staff, the "Campaign News Review" would be a practical avenue to neutralize Obama and the Democrats' main advantage against McCain and the GOP.

I guarantee that there would be millions of views within hours of the first broadcast being uploaded to YouTube. And no, the Press Corps would not be able to ignore it.

My confidence in the McCain operation just increased substantially:

Steve Schmidt is taking over the day-to-day operation of John McCain’s campaign, according to multiple campaign sources.

At a staff meeting in the campaign's Arlington, Va., headquarters this morning, campaign manager Rick Davis made the announcement about Schmidt's new role. 

Schmidt, a bald and barrel-chested operative known for his aggressive brand of political combat, responded by exhorting campaign aides with a speech that one staffer likened to a locker room pep talk out of the football movie "Rudy."

I'm not completely impartial here, but this is the guy who took Arnold from less than a sure thing to a 20-point winner in 2006, who ran the confirmation processes for Justices Roberts and Alito, and and who was the Bush operative most responsible for defining John Kerry. So this is a big deal.