Deroy Murdock, writing for Scripps Howard News Service, takes a look at John McCain's "legislative rap sheet" and decides that the maverick Senator isn't all that "right" on the issues.There is plenty to admire about Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. His torturous Vietnam experience demands the deepest respect. His eternal vigilance against absurd and costly government boondoggles is unsurpassed. And he forcefully backed President Bush's military surge, such that a largely pacified and increasingly functional Iraq lately has drifted from the front pages.
But plenty more about McCain argues against his presidential bid. McCain diligently has stymied conservative, free-market policies. While he generally is appropriately hawkish overseas, he is dangerously soft on captured terrorists. And, thanks to the McCain Uncertainty Principle, it often is anyone's guess whether he will support the Right or sandbag its efforts.
McCain famously opposed President Bush's 2001 and 2003 tax cuts. "No," he told Fox News' Rich Lowry last Dec. 28, those votes were not mistakes. Rather than simply disinfect Washington's cash-for-favors culture, McCain-Feingold muzzles free speech within two months of Election Day -- precisely when speech should be freest. Last summer's permissive McCain-Kennedy bill turbocharged conservative rage over illegal immigration.
But McCain's legislative rap sheet is longer and laden with lesser-known apostasies...
And he then describes a few. So, if you're thinking that John McCain is the most electable conservative in the pack, you may want to reconsider your choice. Because electable though McCain may be with his attraction to so-called independent voters, his standing on several key conservative issues is awfully shaky.
