McCain has a lifetime conservative rating in the 80s. If that makes him a RINO, then Henry Hyde and Rick Santorum are RINOs. He's very far removed from any RINO's voting record. Let me know when turns left of center and starts voting "our way" a mere 40% (like Arlen Specter and Linc Chaffee) and I'll be happy to call him a RINO.
I'll certainly vote McCain IF he gets the nomination and GENERAL ELECTION choice is him or a communist like John Kerry. But no, I don't vote for actual RINOs. George Ryan would never get my vote in a general election, or Arnold Schwatzkennedy, or Lincoln Chafee, or Chris Shays, or any other RINO. McCain might be a media whore and an arrogant jerk, but he IS a relible Republican vote in the Senate nonetheless.
After his idiotic sponsorship of the McCain-Feingold Act, we already know what a low opinion McCain has of the First Amendment.
As for this "conservative rating," I challenge you to back it up with solid facts. To that end, answer the following.
What's is McCain's stance on illegal immigration?
What's his stance on abortion?
What's his stance on honoring Second Amendment rights?
What's his stance on the War on Terror?
What's his stance on the liberation of Iraq?
What's his stance on artificial "exit strategies"?
What's his stance on cutting welfare and other socialist programs?
What is his stance on securing America's borders?
What is his stance on NAFTA and similar trade agreements?
What is his stance on Unions?
What's his stance on tax cuts?
Now for each of these, reconcile those professed positions with his voting record.
Go ahead. Lay it all out. I'm sure everyone here would love to hear it.
McCain is a lot like Hagel and Lott.
All three are 8 or 9 parts conservative and 1 or 2 parts key-issue, stab-you-in-the-back, betrayal.