Republicans Still Have Disdain For McCain

National Review Online: Some Conservatives Still Refuse To Fall In Line For Their Front-Runner

(National Review Online)  This column was written by Mona Charen

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I posted a squib on National Review Online about a robo call I received from John McCain (Virginia’s primary is Tuesday). The call stressed that he would, if elected, be a down-the-line limited-government conservative who would never raise taxes, would defend life, would enforce immigration laws, and would win the war on terror. The candidate is trying, I said, to meet conservatives “more than halfway.”

The response of readers was, shall we say, emphatic. One lady wrote that she would never vote for him as “he is the most disloyal, ill-tempered man and he brings out the worse [sic] in all of us.” Several readers made the point that after decades of suffering abuse at McCain’s hands, conservatives are not going to fall into line for him now no matter what blandishments he offers.

I know how they feel. The problem with John McCain is not just that he strays. George Bush has strayed from conservatism too. So has Fred Thompson, and certainly, Mitt Romney has as well. But Senator McCain has a knack for saying things in just the tones and accents that liberals prefer.

In 2000, he condemned the late Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson as “agents of intolerance.” In 2004, when Sen. John Kerry was getting his comeuppance from the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, vets whom he had known during the war and who couldn’t remain silent as the Democratic nominee distorted his war record, John McCain weighed in by calling them “dishonorable and dishonest.” When the Bush Administration was being vilified as a nest of Torquemadas for using waterboarding on three occasions, McCain came forward to condemn waterboarding as torture.

Senator McCain was a Vietnam hero. Conservatives, in particular, revere him for this. Indeed, his return from the political grave can probably be traced to the moment (October 22) when he joshingly referred to having missed the Woodstock music festival in 1969 because “I was tied up at the time.” In that instant he came to personify (for many) the conservative side of the great 1960s chasm that, (Obama’s irenic rhetoric notwithstanding) continues to divide our society. Not only was he not smoking pot and lolling in the mud with his girlfriend, you could almost hear Republicans telling themselves that he was standing up to torture at the hands of America’s enemies.

And yet, a better man would not stoop to suggesting that military service is the only way to show love of country and sneer that - unlike Mitt Romney - he served for “patriotism not profit.” Profit is a four letter word in the McCain vocabulary, whether applied to “Big Pharma” or other businesses.

McCain reaches too hard and too transparently to turn everything into a contest about military service. When Romney observed that Bob Dole wouldn’t necessarily be the one he’d want an endorsement from, McCain pronounced himself “very sad and disappointed to see that kind of comment about a person who was an American war hero” and demanded that Romney apologize.

There is a strutting self-righteousness about McCain that goes hand-in-hand with a nitroglycerin temper. He flatters himself that his colleagues in the Senate dislike him because he stands up for principle, while they sell their souls for pork. Not exactly. He is disliked because on many, many occasions he has been disrespectful, belligerent, and vulgar to those who differ with him.

Bradley Smith, former commissioner of the Federal Election Commission and the leading legal scholar on campaign-finance issues, experienced the McCain treatment firsthand. Because Smith opposed limits on political speech, he was denounced as “corrupt” by the senator (as was Commissioner Ellen Weintraub). Smith, who lives modestly, jokes that his wife has complained about the absence of jewels and furs. Though he served on the commission for five years and made several attempts to meet with McCain to discuss the issues, Smith was rebuffed.

The two did accidentally meet outside a hearing room in 2004 when they were both scheduled to testify before the Senate rules committee. At first, McCain grasped Smith’s outstretched hand (Smith was in a wheelchair recovering from surgery), but when he recognized his campaign finance opponent he snatched his hand back, snarling “I’m not going to shake your hand. You’re a bully. You have no regard for the Constitution. You’re corrupt.”

Smith, a soft-spoken scholar, ardent patriot, and lifelong conservative Republican, cannot pull the lever for McCain. He is far from alone, and that is the Republican Party’s heartbreak in 2008.

[newz4i]

"Senator Obama" - if elected: immediately begin to remove our troops from Iraq. He will remove one to two combat brigades each month, and have all of our combat brigades out of Iraq within 16 months. "Senator Clinton" - if elected: will start pulling troops out of Iraq 60 days after her inauguration. "Senator McCain" - hopefully not elected: 100 more years of war. War in Iraq could cost up to $9 billion monthly, says Congressional Budget Office. Nine billion dollars per month TIMES 12 + TIMES 100 years = George W. Bush''s legacy.

[tibu987]

McCain''''s two views with which I do not agree.
Democrat Issue:
Amnesty for illegals. How do you think the people who have tried to immigrate legally, waiting many years to do so, would feel?
Is that fair?

Republican Issue:
And, McCains plan to continue the Bush policy and stay the course in Iraq. Do we want what is clearly a civil war, to be the dying fields for more
young Americans?
I don''t.
Think about it before you vote.

I am an independent voter, voting for some members of both parties. McCain is just more of the same from Washington, one of the "good ole boys" club.
I believe many changes are neccessary in Washington, getting rid of the corrupt regimes that have led us in the past and I include th Clinton''s in that group.
I want change in Washington and McCain is certainly not a person for change.
Add to that, McCain''s mistaken ideas to continue the war in Iraq and to give amnesty to illegal immigrants.
Gimme a break.

[quatrops]

"True conservatives don''t compromise. Ever"

Gce65 offers this bit of macho posturing, apparently believing that image is more important than striving towards your goal. The end result of such stubbornness is that the landscape moves AWAY from conservative principles. How absurd!

[newz4i]

If the nation follows in the footsteps of Bush via McCain, we''ve got a guarantee of 100 more years of war

[gce65]

pdbarick:
Right you are! No matter who the GOP nominates as its candidate this fall, you and your family and all your friends go right ahead and write in Huckabee on the ballot. And all the others who wanted Romney to say in should do the same and vote their conscience. Don''t compromise! True conservatives don''t compromise. Ever.

[neobrian-2009]

Insanity=Electing a Shrubbie like McCant !!!
NO MORE GOP ! No MORE GOP !! NO MORE GOP !!!
War-Mongering= $10 buys a gallon of milk,a gallon of gas and a cup of coffee,...Wake Up USA !
The GOP is Killing Our Country !
The Greedy Oil Perverts ( GOP ) have destroyed the moral and economic integrity of Our Once Proud nation.
Accountability must be a mainstay !
Do Your Part !!! "Friends Don`t let Friends Vote republicon "
NO MORE GOP !! NO MORE GOP !!!! NO MORE GOP !!!!!!

[puritan9]

You are a conservative if: you believe that making rich people richer is better, you believe that we should be the most violent country in the world, you believe that the boogey-man is going to come and take away your religion, you are afraid of ***, you believe everyone does not deserve health care, you believe that banks need more profits from 30% credit card interest rates, you believe that our government should be setting the global standard for torture and "rendition" treatments, you are uneducated but will not listen to anyone and think you know everything.

[user168-2009]

Yes, at the end, only TRUTH stands - for peace, harmony, and hope...

%u201CWithout truth I know not how man can live.%u201D

Now let''s see how much TRUTH America wants...

Clinton stands for SELF, self-pity, self-absorption, narcissism, %u201Cme%u201D-winning...

McCain stands for LOYALTY, his belief, his people, his ideals, %u201Cus%u201D-winning...

Obama stands for TRUTH, intellectual truth, compassion truth, UNIVERSAL TRUTH, truth for all...

So be it that the youth sees HOPE in TRUTH...

"Live the change you want to see in the world."
"Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed."
"A nation''s culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people."

GO! OBAMA, TRUTH IS THE NATION, THE WORLD, THE HOPE!

[rowdytexan2]

Find their REAGAN????

Reagan is a really big part of the mess we''re in!!! It all started with him and his vice president! Actually it start with Nixon and deregulation! When they sold us that krap, we lost all participation in our industrial and corporate economy.

Reagan''s trickle down debacle is still eating away at us!

[ubrew12]

Mona Charen: "In 2004, when Sen. John Kerry was getting his comeuppance from the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, vets whom he had known during the war and who couldn%u2019t remain silent as the Democratic nominee distorted his war record"

The truth:
One of the accusers says he was on another boat "a few yards" away during the incident which won Kerry the Bronze Star, but the former Army lieutenant whom Kerry plucked from the water that day backs Kerry''s account. In an Aug. 10 opinion piece in the conservative Wall Street Journal, Rassmann (a Republican himself) wrote that the ad was "launched by people without decency" who are "lying" and "should hang their heads in shame."

Mona Charen wrote ''Useful Idiots: how liberals got it wrong on the cold war''. I''m a liberal, Charen, and you, GW, and the Swift Boat Veterans have got our foreign policy so bass-ackwards wrong in the last few years, one could be excused for thinking you are traitors to your nation.