PHIL "WHINERS" GRAMM IS STILL WITH McCAIN

The WSJ blog "Washington Wire" reports that our strict uncle Phil is still very close to the McCain campaign. This is another indication that McCain supports the wingnuts idiotic notion of "supply-side" economics.

Phil Gramm Attends McCain Campaign Briefing
August 14, 2008, 5:21 pm
Laura Meckler reports from Aspen, Colo., on the presidential race.

Ousted John McCain campaign co-chairman Phil Gramm is back with the campaign’s top advisers this weekend, as the campaign gathers top supporters for a series of briefings in scenic Aspen, Colo.

The former Texas senator stepped down from his position after he said in an interview last month that the country is in a “mental recession” and that we had become a “nation of whiners.”

Gramm was seated in the front row, with other top supporters, this afternoon as McCain addressed the Aspen Institute in a “conversation” with Walter Isaacson, president of the institute and a former editor of Time magazine.

Asked what his role in the campaign is now, Gramm said in an interview, “I’m a supporter.” As for whether he continues to advise McCain, he said, “We’re friends. I haven’t stopped being his friend. If he asks me, I’d give it to him.” He added, “I’m not an official adviser.”

He also defended the comments that got his friend into trouble in the first place, saying there is a technical definition of a recession and the economy does not meet it. “We have leaders who are doing too much whining and not enough leading,” he said. “I never apologize for telling the truth.”

More than 100 top fundraisers and supporters are gathering in Aspen today and tomorrow for briefings with McCain’s top advisers including Rick Davis, Steve Schmidt and Charlie Black.

UPDATE: At a dinner this evening, Sen. McCain singled out Gramm, among others, for particular thanks. “Phil Gramm and I and Wendy (Gramm) and Cindy and I go back many, many years, and I’m always grateful to see my friend, Phil Gramm. Thank you, Phil, for all your friendship and support.”

BTW, Matthew Delong at the Washington Independent misunderstood the blog post. He writes:

McCain carefully backed Gramm up on his controversial statements -- reframing them to cast the leaders as the whiners.

[McCain] also defended the comments that got his friend into trouble in the first place, saying there is a technical definition of a recession and the economy does not meet it. “We have leaders who are doing too much whining and not enough leading,” he said. “I never apologize for telling the truth.”

As I highlighted in RED above, Gramm made that statement, not McCain.