Posted on 02/11/2008 8:42:59 PM PST by Dane
GOP goon squad can’t rattle McCain DL-Online Published Saturday, February 09, 2008 It’s been a kind of perverse pleasure to watch Sen. John McCain overcome the vitriol of talk radio’s conservative goon squad. Despite vicious daily broadsides from Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham (and their sycophants on regional and local talk radio), McCain emerged Tuesday as the front-runner among Republican candidates for president.
On Thursday, the senator’s only credible competition, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, suspended his campaign, effectively handing the nomination to McCain.
So much for the influence of the talkers with the base of Republican voters.
In responding to questions about the attacks from talk radio’s allegedly conservative voices, the senator was gracious and even extended an olive branch.
But why should he? Limbaugh, Coulter, Hannity, Ingraham and small-fry talkers taking their agenda from the big-time four have been so unflinchingly critical of McCain that the senator owes them nothing. His campaign, which a few months ago seemed ready for last rites, has been a resurrection story for the political history books. After his multi-state win in every part of the nation on Tuesday, he all but secured the Republican nomination.
And he did it without the help of the right-wing talkers. Indeed, he accomplished his comeback while fighting the blowhards’ headwind.
The radio attacks on McCain were not merely disagreements about policy. They went after him personally and politically. They charged that his conservative credentials are phony, although a perusal of his long Senate record reveals McCain is one of the most consistently conservative senators ever to serve. They ripped him up and down because he’s had the courage to stake out his own positions on immigration and campaign finance reform. Because of those apostasies, and the fact that he has refused to kiss their rings, the talkers tried to do him in.
And failed.
Ingraham went so far as to say that if McCain is the Republican nominee, she will vote for the Democrat, even if it’s Hillary Clinton. Well, she apparently made a decision that’s akin to packing up her Barbie dolls and going home because she didn’t get her way.
What seems to be going on here is a serious nationwide repudiation of the far right — at least as it’s represented by talk radio’s bile. The righty bloviators can’t stomach a candidate who is independent of their dogma — who doesn’t dance when they play the tune. They can’t accept that maybe their time as high priests and priestesses of the conservative agenda is coming to an end.
Whether liberal Democrat, conservative Republican or independent thinker, one can admire McCain’s genuine maverick status. The Vietnam War hero has cultivated a streak of contrariness that has served him well in the U.S. Senate and now is serving him admirably as he seeks the presidency. The fact that he won’t be intimidated by the overblown, self-important egos on talk radio makes him all the more attractive to American voters. — The Forum
he was a libertarian. Libertarians are open border on principle.
After the McCain Kennedy debacle, everything changed:
Twenty-one years ago, seeking the Libertarian Party nomination for president, Ron Paul filled out a CNN questionnaire with unashamed open borders answers. Asked whether “the new immigration bill” was “solving the problem,” he wrote “no” and that the way to fix it was “open all borders.” Paul opposed strengthening the U.S. border patrol and making English “the official U.S. language.” But in April 2006, just as the current immigration maelstrom starting churning, Paul demanded that the government “allocate far more resources, both in terms of money and manpower, to securing our borders” as the only way to solve “immigration problems and the threat of foreign terrorists.” And Paul ran hard on immigration this year. An ad that saturated New Hampshire’s TV screens showed Mexicans climbing over the border as a narrator intoned the ways Paul would stop the immigration mess. One piece of direct mail showed a work boot trampling the Constitution and promised the voter that “Ron Paul will end birthright citizenship.”
http://reason.com/news/show/124838.html
Now reason.com and Drew Carey won’t change. but the mood of the country has clearly shifted to the right on illegals. Maybe that was mccain’s intention all along but that is speculation. Let’s see what he comes up with next.
Free Republic Opinion Poll:
Would you be for or against McCain?
Member Opinion
against 92.4% 2,989
for 7.6% 247
McCain: Hillary Would Be Good President Feb. 2005
More YOUTUBE - McCain On Abortion (UH OH! YouTube Has a Video of Him in 1999)
McCain and Stem Cell Research Round-up
John McCain: "My Conservative Record" YouTube VIDEO
John McCain, Jack Kemp and Hugo Chavez.
Gun Owners of America on McCain's Record.
GUNS AND SCHOOLS: THE POLITICS (McCain tries to grab guns, 1999)
John McCain Losing His Cool YouTube video
Vietnam Veterans Against McCain YouTube video
McCain Argues for U.S. Troop Withdrawl from Somalia Mr. Blackhawk Down (YouTube VIDEO)
McCain Group Got Big Cable Donation Breath taking corruption, Senator!
McCain gives nod to Kerry campaign (MAJOR RINO ALERT!) June 2003
MAFIA, EMPRISE, DELAWARE NORTH, DON BOLLES, BRUCE BABBITT, BILL CLINTON...AND JOHN McCAIN?
McCain married into the mob.
SEN. JOHN McCAIN: THE ULTIMATE "RHINESTONE HERO"
SEN. JOHN McCAIN: THE ULTIMATE "RHINESTONE HERO" Part II
John McCain: The Manchurian Candidate
The War Secrets Sen. John McCain Hides
A number of articles on McCain. (some the same as above)
McCain Seeks to Change California Primary
John McCain funded by Soros since 2001
McCain/Soros by Rabbi Areyh Spero
Soros' "Reform" (an article about Soros‘ instrumental hand in McCain/Feingold)
McCain's Letter (McCain aligns with Global Enviro activists)
The Turning Point on Global Warming (McCain and Lieberman Op-Ed Alert)
Climate bill sets stage for debate (Sens. McCain, Obama, and Lieberman join forces)
McCain: Global warming is fact, must be addressed [hurl alert]
McCain Sides With Leading Dems on Global Warming (NH voter reminder ALERT
EIA's Analysis of the Lieberman-McCain Climate Change Bill Human Events
McCain's Nose-Under-the-Tent Strategy - McCain's "Climate Stewardship Act" (S. 139), co-sponsored with Senator Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.)
Kyoto Through the Back Door? A Debate on the Lieberman –McCain Climate Stewardship Act - Heritage Foundation
Promising Vote on Global Warming - "But Mr. McCain, as we know, does not give up easily. ... He promises to be just as tenacious on this issue."
McCain Is Booed by Labor Activists
Captains of Industry Could Populate McCain Cabinet ( Lieberman Potential Cabinet Member)
McCain Still Disliked by Fiscal Conservatives (Club For Growth)
McCain Looked into Caucusing with Democrats
John McCain Goes Left for Money
McCain, Obama Make Deal on Financing
Sens. Snowe, Collins to head Maine exploratory committee for McCain
John Kerry: McCain Approached Me About Joining Dem Ticket in 2004
Democrats say McCain nearly abandoned GOP
McCain denies he was close to quitting GOP
Double Talk Express. McCain in his own words. VIDEO
John McCain's Newt Problem (Infidelity to first wife.)
How Cindy McCain was outed for drug addiction(stole drugs from the American Voluntary Medical Team) (McCain used his influence to cover it up.)
McCain and his Chicom Connections: Posts #17 and #18 by Calpernia
TEN REASONS NOT TO SUPPORT MCCAIN (Free Republic thread from 2000)
McCain Ties to Lobbyists Troublesome - Newsmax Staff
McCain Blames Bush For Osama's Escape
McCain Rides to Kerry's Rescue: "John Kerry is Not Weak on Defense" (Today Show alert)
The Real McCain Record Obstacles in the way of conservative support.
McCain Is the Amnesty Candidate
John McCain SCREAMS AT 9/11 FSA MEMBERS FOR OPPOSING HIS BILL TO GIVE AMNESTY FOR ILLEGALS
It depends on the meaning of “never” (McCain's Convenient Memory)
UN Double Talk from Straight Talker McCain (Law of the Sea Treaty)
The Conservative Case Against John McCain In 2008
John McCain: Hypocrite by Mark R. Levin
This Man is Not a Republican (re: McCain) (FR thread - Jan. 2000)
Freeper Alert: Sen. KERRY / Communist Vietnamese Killing Off Christains in Central Highlands... (...with Senator McCAIN (R) in complete agreement with him, is because "Engagement" with Communist Vietnam is better for the people of Vietnam in the long run.)
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McCain says:
"Why don't you shut your political pie hole?"
Stifling the www? Online Freedom of Speech Act (H.R. 1606)
"1606 is needed because federal courts have ordered the Federal Election Commission to regulate "electioneering communications" on the Internet because of the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act (McCain-Feingold). If H.R. 1606 fails to become law, your Web site or blog could be shut down for the 30 days prior to a primary election and the 60 days prior to a general election should you express "electioneering communications."
John McCain, enemy of free speech
mccain is not Jerry Ford or Olympia Snowe. He really is conservative on many things. He is the kind of guy who would tell seniors in florida that he will cut their medicare because we can’t afford it.
You call that a RINO? If that’s a RINO then show me a real conservative that can do that and win.
He may have to cut Medicare for the seniors. Otherwise, how can we pay for the free medical care for twenty million amnestied immigrants and their extended families, who will soon be added via chain migration?
Dane and his ilk are ushering in another Bob Michel era, though they know it not.
A decade as mush-mouthed, handwringing wingmen to their Democrat masters in the house and the senate will perhaps cure them of their disdain for conservatives.
well, you’d have to explain why he proposed it right before he wanted to get the GOP nomination. Why was he so upset at Cornyn for trying to amend it to make it more reasonable? Why did he have to go to CPAC and bring it up, knowing he would be booed and face a skeptical reaction?
maybe this is a wild idea but who knows. Maybe he knew it wouldn’t pass and brought it up in order to push the GOP towards the right on this issue. That was the actual result and maybe it was the intended result.
You’re not the only one thinking those thoughts..
hmm plenty of people called reagan and bush fascists.
You’re wasting you’re time.
Dane is immune to facts.
And it’s impossible to insult him. Simply cannot be done. What’s the sound of one hand......?
Sometimes I look at McCain and I think he’s actually still in a P.O.W. camp—peeved and yearning to be sitting on the throne at the top of the world—in a place where he answers to no one and everyone answers to him. This burning desire, in company with the fact that he appears to have lost his soul along the way, is a very, very bad combination. Only Bob Michel types will be able to survive in a McCain presidency. Anyone else will be treated like the P.O.W. families McCain belittled in the select committee.
he said the amnesty idea failed and understood the argument against it.
“Surely, I have held other positions that have not met with widespread agreement from conservatives. I won’t pretend otherwise nor would you permit me to forget it. On the issue of illegal immigration, a position which provoked the outspoken opposition of many conservatives, I stood my ground aware that my position would imperil my campaign. I respect your opposition for I know that the vast majority of critics to the bill based their opposition in a principled defense of the rule of law. And while I and other Republican supporters of the bill were genuine in our intention to restore control of our borders, we failed, for various and understandable reasons, to convince Americans that we were. I accept that, and have pledged that it would be among my highest priorities to secure our borders first, and only after we achieved widespread consensus that our borders are secure, would we address other aspects of the problem in a way that defends the rule of law and does not encourage another wave of illegal immigration.”
Translation: McCain and the Democrats will pass some token provisions to secure the border. Then, they’ll give amnesty to millions and millions of illegals. Then, they’ll notice how expensive those token border enforcement provisions are, and not fund them. In a decade, we’ll have another ten million or so illegals here and the process will start all over again.
Hmmm.
Finally something to sink one’s teeth into.
Sounds like McCain needs to tell what he told his POW captors.
Though even if he made “promises” to the KGB as Oleg Kalugin inferred, even if he gave out the names of other POWs for his own survival, even if he used his father’s name in order to get better treatment, I’m not sure I’d hold it against him.
It is a Donner Party kind of stink, though. We need to hear the truth about it.
Such a misbegotten attempt to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear... But I'll give you credit for trying. Maybe now would be a good time to put down your bong and go flush your pills down the toilet. ;)
There is so much more there to prove his unfitness for command.
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