Charen: McCain Disdain

National Review Online ^ | 2-8-08 | Mona Charen

[cgk]

February 08, 2008, 0:00 a.m.

McCain Disdain
Why some Republicans won't vote for the senator.

By Mona Charen

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.

— Mona Charen is a syndicated columnist and political commentator.

[CMAC51]

The damage from Hillary O’bama would be transient and can be fixed. If you stand in the Republican breadline and vote for McCain, the party will never be fixed and the damage to the country will be irrevocable.

Write in Ronald Wilson Reagan. Even the ghost of Reagan would be a better president than any of the triplets. That way you can vote for deserving Republicans down ballot while sending a message to the party.

[cgk]

Perhaps while we are regrouping in the desert for at least the next four years, which seems inevitable, we can come up a better plan.

Meet you there.

[MassExodus]

She's got McLame pegged.
Great article.

[truthkeeper]

LOL...we’ll do lunch.

[steadfastconservative]

We do need to find what it was that propelled conservatism into leadership but we aren’t going to find that conservative leadership in John McCain. We will only find defeat.

[steadfastconservative]

I am going to vote in November and I will vote for as many conservatives and good Republicans as I can but I am not sure if I am going to vote for McCain if he is the nominee.

[steadfastconservative]

I am going to vote in November and I will vote for as many conservatives and good Republicans as I can but I am not sure if I am going to vote for McCain if he is the nominee.

[Oatka]

But if I vote for McCain, aren't I just encouraging the party to offer up more just like him?
IMHO, you would be. Those of us who feel this way should single out a particular third party and vote for their candidate. The resultant percentage jump should cause some media comment along the lines of "that's where the conservatives went." If it's big enough, MAYBE the Republican Party begin to listen.

If I don't vote at all, then I am unreachable, and thus written off by both parties, I suppose.
Vote as above, and vote conservative for the House and Senate and try to keep/restore their seats in the hope they can apply some brakes to the runaway liberalism that is going to take place, no matter which party gets the presidency..

[Major Matt Mason]

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.”

Apparantly, the irony of this statement is lost on the good senator. If this is true, there is absolutely no way that I can vote for this man.

[DPMD]

Hearing both sides of the issue, I still wonder if I’m the only who asks whether McCain first developed his habit of “reaching across he aisle” in Hanoi? My suspicions, and the implications of being possibly right, don’t allow for seeing any difference between McCain and those who could be his puppetmasters.

How do we judge a man’s words?

[BillT]

The problem is not that the conservatives do not get to chose in the primaries but that we no longer work at the grass roots to keep the Repubs in line with our agenda.

When we leave what do you expect from the Demo-light party.

[not2worry]

>>Let me throw out a hypothetical. You are appalled to find that the Democratic (socialist) party is leading in the polls and Stalin is their candidate for the president. You are a republican and have been all your life. The republicans have been “going too socialist” for you the last decade or so, but you stick by them because at least they are better than the democrats/socialists.

But this year the Republicans have gone so crazy as to nominate, as their candidate, a fellow named Adolf Hitler.

Oh, and you are Jewish.

Which one do you vote for?

Or do you move to Thailand/Mexico/South America?

First, I know I don’t move to Thailand/Mexico/South America. Been most places in the world and most Countries are dictatorships/socialistic/communist, unstable countries.

Plus running away isn’t my nature.

I guess I vote for Adolph Hitler as President, support true conservatives for Congress, pray that there are no posts open on the USSC and work the next four years to try to energize a conservative base for the 2012 election.

Unfortunately, not all our choices in life are easy ones or ones that we like. Voting third party really doesn’t accomplish much, ala Nadar and Perot.

[RobRoy]

>>Unfortunately, not all our choices in life are easy ones or ones that we like.<<

With that I agree.

>>Voting third party really doesn’t accomplish much, ala Nadar and Perot.<<

Different things work at different times. Sometimes people do the right thing, but at the wrong time.

Meanwhile, there is no third party candidate I would vote for. If I bother, I will simply write in my own name.

[RobRoy]

>>Unfortunately, not all our choices in life are easy ones or ones that we like.<<

It is why it was so difficult for me to make the decision to take the Claire Wolfe option:

http://billstclair.com/lodge/Books101.shtml

Number 4: “Don’t vote. It only encourages them.

[1Old Pro]

I’m too calm to get excited about pulling the lever for McLame.

[DBCJR]

“We do need to find what it was that propelled conservatism into leadership but we aren’t going to find that conservative leadership in John McCain. We will only find defeat.”

McCain might well win in November, but we lose. Sure, he might not be “as bad as” Hillary or Obama. Great, we hava a “not as bad as” candidate! Whatever happened to the American dream? What did people flea Europe for? To become like them again? They came here for an ideal, not a “not as bad as” compromise. Conservatives need to re-group and think this through.

[ChildOfThe60s]

I'll not stay home. I will vote for every decent Republican I can.

As far as McEgo^TM is concerned. I am damn near 100% certain I will not vote for him.

That said, I am willing to be convinced by McBluster^TM that I should vote for him. I don't see him even trying to sway me. His attitude towards conservatives is more of a "bite me".

So, I will see what the next few months brings before I finalize my decision on McAmnesty^TM.

[GBA]

McCain reaches out to conservatives, not to shake our hands, but to show us his middle finger. I've regretted having to vote for the Bushes and for Dole, but at least they are all good and decent men. Sadly, with each new candidate conservative principles are shoveled into the compost bin while liberalism is embraced. I can't support nor vote for that any more. No more voting for republicans who turn into demonrats once they arrive in DC.

I've read and heard that conservatism is dead and that conservatives are not important to the Republican party. And I've seen elected Republicans back those thoughts up with legislative action. After a few decades of this steady decline leading to McCain's inevitable nomination I now must tell the Republican party to bite me. You people were voted into the majority and the presidency and you people gave all that up for what? To try to get the demonrats to like you? To trash the Constitution?

[egginanest]

“That way you can vote for deserving Republicans down ballot while sending a message to the party.”

Many of us sent a message to the party in ‘92 and AGAIN in ‘96. We did it again in ‘06.

Tell me, “are we there yet?”

While the party was busy ignoring our ‘messages’ the Clinton mafia ran rampant. How many civilian and military lives did those political ploys cost us?