McCain, Graham camps refute Internet rumor

Spokesmen for Billy Graham and his son Franklin deny ever initiating a meeting with McCain staffers or talking about holding one.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (MCT) - A half-baked Internet news "story" that said Sen. John McCain had declined a meeting with Billy Graham dominated the Christian blogosphere Monday.

It sent McCain staffers scurrying to deny the rumor and insist they've been working behind the scenes to set up such a meeting with the evangelist.

But spokesmen for Graham and his son, Franklin, insist neither of the evangelists have initiated a McCain sit-down or have talked with McCain staffers about holding one.

The chain of events began Sunday night with a startling online headline:

"McCain Campaign Declines to Meet with Billy Graham," read the headline atop a story on Newsmax.com, a conservative site that claims to report news.

By Monday morning, Christian and conservative blogs were all over the story. The author: Doug Wead, a one-time White House staffer who dealt with religious groups during the George H.W. Bush administration. In the first-person article, he claimed that he and a Texas pastor, Brian Jacobs, had offered to broker a meeting between McCain and Graham.

Wead even produced a form letter from a McCain scheduler declining the offer _ proof, Wead wrote, that McCain "has little interest in reaching out to his conservative base, including evangelical Christian voters."

McCain recently repudiated the endorsements of two other evangelical ministers _ the Rev. John Hagee and the Rev. Rod Parsley - because of their controversial statements.

Was he now distancing himself from Graham, too?

By Monday afternoon, the Newsmax story began to crack.

Its first problem: Wead and Jacobs have no connection with the Graham organization and were never authorized to speak for Billy Graham, according to spokesmen for Billy and Franklin Graham.

"We don't know who this Brian Jacobs is _ we had to Google him to find out," said Jeremy Blume, a spokesman for Franklin Graham.

The second problem with the story: McCain campaign staffers were claiming that they were working with Franklin Graham to set up a meeting between Billy Graham and McCain, the presumptive GOP nominee for president.

That assertion surprised the Graham organization. Spokesmen for Franklin Graham said he has never negotiated or even discussed with the McCain campaign such a meeting with his dad.

Mark DeMoss, another spokesman for Franklin Graham, did acknowledge that Brett O'Donnell, a senior McCain staffer, had called Franklin Graham's office months ago, and left a message. But that message, Blume said, asked Franklin Graham to call McCain's office if he wanted to sit down with the candidate.

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Franklin Graham never returned the call.

McCain staffer O'Donnell "assumed that by calling Franklin, he was covering all the bases and getting to (Billy Graham)," said DeMoss. "That's technically incorrect, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt."

For the record, Billy Graham spokesman Larry Ross said the McCain campaign has never called him or Billy Graham's Montreat, N.C., office about such a meeting.

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© 2008, The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.). Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.