McCain event in Atlanta not a hot GOP ticket

One called John McCain “no friend of the family.” Another said McCain “lets Kennedy write the bills and puts his name on it.”

That was six months ago.

Now, Lynn Westmoreland and Jack Kingston, the two Republican Georgia congressmen who respectively uttered those remarks, say they enthusiastically support the likely GOP presidential nominee.

So do Georgia’s five other Republican congressmen, none of whom backed McCain before the state’s Feb. 5 presidential primary elections.

McCain is scheduled to be in Atlanta Monday to attend a fund-raiser on his behalf.

Two of his Republican colleagues in the U.S. Senate, Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss, both of whom were early supporters of the Arizona Republican’s presidential campaign, will be there.

But only one of Georgia’s GOP congressmen, Roswell Republican Tom Price, has confirmed he will attend.

Aides to Nathan Deal of Gainesville and Paul Broun of Athens said Friday they didn’t know if the two Republican congressmen will attend.

Marietta Republican Phil Gingrey said he wants to remain in Washington. Aides said Gingrey wants to continue to protest Democratic U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s refusal to hold a vote on a pro-offshore drilling bill.

Kingston said he can’t attend because he’s recovering from back surgery at his home in Savannah.

Westmoreland, who lives in Grantville, said he’ll be vacationing with his family this week.

John Linder has a scheduling conflict, an aide said. The Duluth Republican is the featured speaker at the Greater Gwinnett Republican Women annual supper this evening.

Linder spokesman Derick Corbett said, “His absence is certainly not to be confused as a lack of support, because there is 100 percent support for John McCain.”

Price, Westmoreland, Kingston and Gingrey endorsed Mitt Romney for president prior to the Georgia primary. Linder first endorsed Romney and later switched to Mike Huckabee. Deal and Broun did not endorse any candidate before the Feb. 5 primary.

Westmoreland called his current support of McCain “a no-brainer.”

Kingston acknowledged he has “been concerned about McCain as being a true conservative.”

“But consider the alternative,” Kingston said. “I think [Barack] Obama has unified the Republican Party.”

University of Georgia political scientist Charles Bullock said the decision by some GOP congressmen to skip the fund-raiser suggests they “may only be partly along the conversion process. They at least give him [McCain] verbal support, but they aren’t rushing to get photographs with him,” Bullock said. “If this were Ronald Reagan, they would all somehow manage to be there.”