The Other McCain

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Candidates in the three-way GOP primary in Alabama’s 5th District traded sharp jabs Monday night in a candidate forum at the University of Alabama-Huntsville, with ex-Democrat Rep. Parker Griffith trying to establish his conservative bona fides against Mo Brooks and Les Phillip.

At one point, Griffith offered a “unity” pledge that he asked the other candidates to sign. As Challen Stephens of the Huntsville Times reports this morning, he got no takers:

“Can I it read first?” replied Madison businessman Les Phillip to a round of applause and laughter from a packed auditorium of about 400. As Phillip read the document aloud, a few audience members yelled out: “Don’t sign that,” and “sleep on it.”

Several people on Twitter asked me afterwards how I thought Les Phillip did in the debate. My basic answer was that he did not lose. Phillip is a first-time candidate up against two experienced politicians, and this was the first GOP forum since Griffith switched parties. Insofar as there were any objective metrics, according to a count made by Alabama political operative Stephen Gordon, Les got more applause lines than any other candidate, and after the forum, Les was surrounded by more audience members.

It’s hard for me to be objective about Les — honestly, he had me at “hello” — and if I were asked to criticize his performance, I’d say he seemed too cautious, in sort of a “prevent defense” mode. Yet he got in some witty lines and, as actors say, he “hit his marks,” outlining his conservative positions on all the issues, and made no major gaffes.

Mo Brooks evidently came into the forum with a strategy of attacking Griffith, which he did repeatedly. In one of the strangest exchanges of the night, Brooks said “politics makes strange bedfellows” in reference to his willingness to work with Democrats like Nancy Pelosi on legislation of importance to the 5th District, which has a large military and aerospace industry dependent on federal spending. Griffith replied by joking, “I’m having a hard time imagining Mo and Nancy Pelosi in the same bed, what about y’all?”

Brooks responded, “I noticed that my wife just walked out. And I think it’s unfortunate that that kind of barb, even in jest, could be made. My wife and I, we’ve been faithful to each other for 34 years. You may not have noticed it, but I was looking at her.”

Brooks’s response shocked me because, the way he said it, he seemed to be insinuating something about Griffith’s own marital fidelity. I immediately called Gordon out of the room and asked him if Brooks was alluding to some known scandal: Had Griffith ever been divorced or anything like that? Gordon knew of no such scandal, nor even any rumor to that effect, so maybe I misunderstood.

Still, the tone of Brooks’s remark struck me as odd. He had been the one to introduce the “strange bedfellows” metaphor, and Griffith’s joke was to the effect that a less-than-metaphorical meaning would be unthinkable. So why did Brooks get angry? I recorded the debate, and shared the audio with Huntsville talk-radio host Ladd Ehlinger Jr., who has a clip of the exchange where you can hear some audience members groan with dismay.

This kind of personal stuff in a Republican primary is unfortunate, but local residents here tell me that there’s been all kinds of craziness behind the scenes, mostly ignored by the mainstream press. Several different whisper campaigns seem to be afoot, including misunderstanding of Les Phillip’s position on public-housing issues and accusations that supporters of Brooks’ opponents have sought to make an issue of Brooks’ Mormon faith, reminiscent of the problems Mitt Romney had with Southern evangelical voters in the 2008 presidential primaries.

It’s hard to tell if any of this will matter in the primary result, or whether the Republican infighting will have any impact on the GOP nominee’s fortunes in the general election. Given the current political climate, whoever wins the Republican nomination in AL-5 will be overwhelmingly favored to win Nov. 2.

UPDATE: A few photos from my Huntsville visit:

Left to right: Mo Brooks, Rep. Parker Griffith, Les Phillip.

Les talks with a Republican voter after the debate.

Merle Phillip greets her husband’s supporters after the debate. Merle is a chef and a New Jersey native whose frank, down-to-earth humor makes her a favorite of my Twitter friend Victoria, who is Les’s most enthusiastic advocate.

Huntsville talk-radio host Ladd Ehlinger Jr., who is also an independent film producer.

Ladd in the studio at WTKI, doing the “after-show” of his multimedia program. You can download a podcast of my appearance on his show Monday.

UPDATE II: Here’s video of Ladd producing the after-show: