Realise that he could have worked really hard for Alito’s confirmation, and STILL said that he wouldn’t have picked the guy if HE was in charge.
As a Senator, McCain had to work with what he was given. He in fact probably loved Alito. I don’t think the quote was about not liking Alito.
But look what he said here about him — how he had to work so hard, how he only got 57 votes.
To McCain, that’s a bad thing. He likes the Senate to be able to confirm with wide margins, to “get along”.
His quote indicates that he saw Alito as being so obviously conservative that it made it really hard to get him through the Senate. And that becuase of that, he might not pick such an obvious conservative.
That is perfectly in line with what we know about McCain, AND still perfectly in line with his personal feelings about Alito and how hard he worked to get him through.
But it plays to MY fears — that on judges it won’t matter what McCain wants, he’ll work with the senate democrats to find candidates that will get wide bipartisan support.