MiamiHerald.com ^ | 01/30/2008 | MARC CAPUTO Hispanics were key to McCain's victory
Posted on 02/02/2008 1:29:05 PM PST by moderate_conservative
Steven Calabresi, Professor of Law at Northwestern University (http://www.law.northwestern.edu/faculty/fulltime/Calabresi/Calabresi.html) and co-founder of the premiere conservative legal organization, The Federalist Society, who previously backed Rudy has now endorsed John McCain. In an e-mail to me he explained:
I have endorsed Senator McCain and think he would be an excellent president because he is tough on foreign policy, committed to spending restraint which is the key to small government, and because he has consistently voted for good judicial nominees in tough fights like Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas. I am not troubled by his role as a member of the gang of 14 because I think the compromise he forged got us cloture on Roberts and Alito and produced three excellent lower court judges: Bill Pryor, Janice Rogers Brown, and Priscilla Owen.
Conservative legal scholar and former Solicitor General Charles Fried, another ex-Rudy supporter, also informed me that he “immediately, readily and enthusiastically switched to McCain” after Rudy dropped out.
Funny. I thought that a member of the Federalist Society would stand on principle; that a member of the Federalist Society would have more regard for the rule of law.
How can a member of the Federalist Society apply blinders when he sees McCain’s so flagrantly calling for non-enforcement of Illegal Immigration Law?
Maybe such a member should resign the Federalist Society so as not to do harm to the integrity of the Federalist Society.
Whaddya mean? If you ain't for putting land mines on the border, blowing up all bridges to Mexico, nuking China, nuking Wal-Mart, running Jorge Bush out of Washington on a rail, cutting off all imports, putting Phyllis Schafly on Mount Rushmore, listening to Michael Savage everyday, you ain't a conservative!
You are definitely off the plantation, buddy.
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_013008/content/01125111.member.html
What Do Conservatives Do Now? (After Romney lost Florida)
January 30, 2008
[huge snip of transcript]
RUSH: Yeah, you know, that’s where a lot of us have been all along here. I mentioned this at the beginning of the program. One of the reasons why the conservative vote is split is not because the Reagan coalition has gone away. You have basically three legs of the conservative stool. There’s subsets of this, but you’ve got the economic, the fiscal; you’ve got the social; and you got the foreign policy conservatives.
Among these foreign policy conservatives — these are the neocon guys — they believe in a big government. They believe in big, active executive, compassionate conservatism. They love this. That’s why they like McCain. He’s a big government guy.
Without anybody in this race that has all three of those legs firmly understood, then the conservatives all over these states and all these primaries are splitting off one of those three legs, the two, three that matter to them most.
Like the social conservatives, a lot of them are going Huckabee because he’s a minister, because of abortion.
The economic conservatives, a lot of people are going to Romney — and those are the small government types.
The foreign policy national security conservatives, those are the most important ones, those are the ones going to McCain.
Of course, he’s picking up independents and moderates as well, and so the reason for this fracture is, the reason you’re a wreck is because there’s not one candidate that incorporates all three legs of the stool.
[another huge snip]
CALLER: Yes. Thank you, Rush, for having me. I just wanted to ask your opinion on what we should do actively if someone like John McCain does get elected. I mean it’s all — you know, a lot of people are talking about what will happen negatively, but what can we do to further conservative principles and actually get something accomplished?
RUSH: That’s impossible to predict because we don’t know what the events from day to day are going to be with the next president. I think that we’ll probably have to stop amnesty again. I think that you’ll get very frustrated. Like, Senator McCain will be going out of his way to make deals with Democrats, reaching out to them. That’s what’s launched him, in his mind, to where he is. He will reach out to the media. I think you’ll get more of the same. The death tax will be coming back. There will be any number of things that we’re on the verge of cleaning out and wiping up. We probably won’t get income tax cuts made permanent if Senator McCain is elected. Because, remember, he forms alliances with Democrats in the Senate, and that’s I think what he will do as president — and that’s going to frustrate you. It’s going to frustrate a lot of us, and there’s not going to be a whole lot we can do about it, other than behave as we did during the first amnesty bill and flood Washington with attention. You have to fight for it.
You have to fight for what you believe. This fight never ends because liberalism is never going away, and there are always going to be Republicans who are not conservative, and there are always going to be Republicans who are moderates and so forth. But all of these things are all part of the mix. I keep saying this. You know, I don’t want to sound like a broken record on this, Cindy, but we talk about that the disappointment of the Republican Party or a large portion of it was palpable when Reagan lost in that convention and Gerald Ford won. Ford was a likable guy. There wasn’t a lot of animus to Ford. He was just an establishment guy. He wasn’t conservative. Reagan was where the future was. Reagan was excitement. Everybody wanted the future now. We had to wait four years — and, arguably, Carter.
You could say that Jimmy Carter played a large role in so wrecking the country, in so destroying it. You talk about being humiliated and embarrassed in the world? Nobody’s done a better job of that for this country than Jimmy Carter! So it may well be that a President McCain or a President Hillary is what it takes to forge a conservative candidate who, as I was saying to the previous caller, incorporates all three legs of our stool.
Don’t give up quite yet.
McCain would not make an "excellent" President.
He may be, however, the best we can do this time around.
I agree.
Don't vote for him. Vote for Mitt or Huck.
What is pitiful is that you think that posting cutesy graphics at FR will somehow influence the outcome. How many undecided voters do you think there are at FR?
At least we still have this Conservative forum. - The GOP forums are somewhere else.
Oh boy, are you going to get it...
See my post #59
The founders of the Federalist Society should have been supporting Fred Thompson. He was the only federalist in the entire crowd of candidates. Many here wondered why the heck Fred put Spencer Abraham in an important campaign position, but it was, I suspect, precisely because Abraham was one of the other founders.
See post #59
Could you lay out for us what the difference is between a moderate conservative and a conservative. Specifically, what political beliefs do moderate conservatives hold that conservatives don’t and vice versa?
I have never posted any graphics at FR, and neither did gitmogrunt in his post. You seem rather confused.
Mccain has consistently voted for SC judicial nominees in tough fights like Bork, Thomas, Alito and Roberts!
Is “immigration” more important than “pro-life” legislation?
No, just a supporter. Thank you for your welcome.
As one great American put it:
“John McCain, you treasonous bastard, … How dare you even think that you are qualified to sit in the oval office! Ronald Reagan’s office! President? Hah! You miserable excuse for a two-bit political hack, you’re not even qualified to shine Ronald Reagan’s boots. If you do run, I’m afraid you’re gonna be at least one vote short. It’ll be a cold day in hell before a traitor like you ever receives my vote. And that’s a campaign promise you can take to the bank.”
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