AGINAW, Mich. - Since he landed on Michigan soil, John McCain has minced no words about George W. Bush's visit to Bob Jones University, a fundamentalist institution in South Carolina.
''Bigots,'' he calls the university officials there who forbid interracial dating.
''Stupid,'' he says of their views of the pope, and of Catholicism as something of a cult.
McCain had comparatively little to say about the Bush visit while the Arizona senator campaigned in South Carolina, where fundamentalists make up at least 33 percent of the population and provided Bush with his winning edge in Saturday's primary.
But in Michigan, the Christian conservative community is far less potent and far less radical. Its members make up anywhere from 13 percent to 17 percent of the population compared with Roman Catholics, who constitute about a quarter of the state. And the McCain campaign hopes to energize these Catholic voters, spurring them on to protest Bush's Bob Jones visit with a vote on behalf of McCain today.
Religion and politics are intricately intertwined in the race for the Republican nomination for president this year. Although both Bush and McCain oppose the practice of abortion, the National Right to Life has backed Bush and opposed McCain, informing people in phone calls throughout South Carolina and now Michigan.
Yesterday, the two campaigns volleyed charges about telephone campaigns that turn on accusations of religious intolerance.
First, the McCain camp said it had uncovered evidence - on the answering machine of a McCain voter - that the Rev. Pat Robertson has taped a message that is being played for voters across this state urging them to vote against McCain.
''Protect unborn babies and restore religious freedom once again in America,'' Robertson says. ''Tomorrow's Republican primary may determine whether our dream becomes reality or whether the Republican Party will nominate a man who wants to take First Amendment freedoms from citizens groups while he gives unrestricted power to labor unions.''
Robertson also slams McCain for choosing former New Hampshire senator Warren Rudman as his national chairman, calling him ''a vicious bigot.''
It was a message that drew a sharp rebuke from McCain. ''It's outrageous,'' he said. ''It's disgraceful. Pat Robertson should go back to wherever he came from.''
Meanwhile, two Michigan women reportedly called the Bush campaign to say that they had received taped messages that broadly characterized Bush as anti-Catholic for having made the Bob Jones visit, and McCain as a friend to Catholics.
On Sunday, Bush took umbrage at suggestions that he might be anti-Catholic, when Representative Peter King, a New York Republican, switched allegiances to McCain. King said that as a Roman Catholic he was offended by the governor's visit to Bob Jones University.
''That to me just showed a willingness to take any road to the White House,'' King said.
Bush, who is a Methodist, denounced the inference that he is biased against Catholics, noting that his younger brother practices Catholicism. At his side was Governor John Engler, a Catholic.
Whether Catholic voters in Michigan have been paying close enough attention to the Bob Jones debate in the final 48 hours before the primary remains to be seen.
''The real issue for McCain and Bush is with those moderate Catholics,'' said John C. Green, of the University of Akron. ''Are they going to vote in that Republican primary and how are they going to react to this controversy?''
Joseph A. Schlesinger, a professor emeritus of political science at Michigan State University, said he does not believe Catholic voters are a distinct voting bloc. Many, in fact, are liberal and vote Democratic, while others are more conservative and vote Republican.
''How many of them know anything about Bob Jones University, I don't know,'' Schlesinger said.
But Green warned that while McCain tries to energize Catholics, he may inadvertently fire up the Christian right.
''If I were advising Senator McCain, I would say, be very careful about the rhetoric,'' Green said. ''That 13 to 17 percent in Michigan could be decisive in a close election, and that group could get really irritated by that language.''
