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EMIL
FRANZI |
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Conservatives should quit whining about McCain February 13, 2008 |
On Feb. 5 I
voted for John McCain. He was my fifth
choice. I had more horses shot out from
under me than Nathan Bedford Forrest.
In 2000, McCain was my first choice. I knew of his philosophical imperfections then. They grew since with McCain-Feingold, McCain-Kennedy and McCain-Lieberman acts concerning campaign finance, immigration and climate change. Beyond those, he never co-sponsored a major bill with another Republican. I even called him “senator mood ring,” explaining why he dumped on both the GOP and the conservative movement. That was then. It’s now 2008. I’ve petitioned my friends, GOP National Committeeman Bruce Ash and Southern Arizona McCain Chairman Mike Hellon, to reappoint me as National Co-Chairman of Guys With a Bad Temper for McCain. Having had no clue about who was winning the GOP nomination, I request to be called something other than a “pundit.” Much has been made of McCain’s lifetime voting record as measured by the American Conservative Union — 82.3 percent for 25 years. This draws a big “so what?” from many of my senior talk show colleagues who make ludicrous claims that a McCain nomination will turn the party back to the “liberals” and “RINOs” (Republicans in name only). Oh, piffle. There aren’t enough liberal Republicans left to fill the cabinet even if you threw in their spouses. GOP primaries in California were once fought between the liberal north and the conservative south. Republican registration in the Bay area is about 12 percent. Liberal Republicans are now called “Democrats.” While the party suffered statewide, conservatives should note that its primaries are fought on relatively narrow ground. McCain carried all but two of California’s 53 congressional districts. The same purists who bang on McCain who also beat up Huckabee as “too liberal” now claim Huckabee split the conservative vote! Ever since the liberal wing of the GOP dumped on Barry Goldwater in 1964, we on the right have done a pretty good job of tracking them down and killing them off. The average ACU score for a U.S. senator has risen proportionately. McCain’s 82 percent puts him to the left of 44 other GOP senators. That hardly makes him a liberal. That doesn’t make him a “moderate” either. Moderation is a demeanor, not an epistemology. McCain hardly qualifies. It does make him at least as solid a part of the conservative movement as President Bush, who was on the same side as McCain on the very issues over which conservatives object. Yet folks like Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter trash McCain while they continue to excuse Bush. Conservatives should pay attention to Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn. I have few heroes, but he and Arizona’s Jeff Flake are at the top of my list. Coburn supported McCain for two excellent reasons. McCain understands and will continue the fight against Islamo-fascism. McCain also understands that tax cuts are nice but spending must be controlled, something Bush never acted upon. We need a president with the courage to stand up to Congress regardless of what party is robbing the treasury. Character counts. Nowhere was that better exhibited than watching two former House majority leaders, both Texans, at the recent CPAC convention, Dick Armey and Tom DeLay. Armey has always been a solid conservative, whom everyone considered to be of unquestionable integrity and who ran the House on principle. Delay is responsible for tens of thousands of earmarks and presided over a host of indictments. He ran Congress like a plantation, and his quest for pork drove the GOP majority into the ground. Armey supports McCain. DeLay won’t, claiming he’s “not conservative enough.” The first characteristic of a “RINO” is taking a dive on the nominees of your own party. Conservatives must ask themselves whether Armey or DeLay should be their role model.
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BUT WATCH WHAT YOU SAY! |
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