Posted on 03/02/2008 7:39:36 AM PST by governsleastgovernsbest
Brit Hume has some blunt advice for conservative Republicans: lay off McCain if you don't want a Dem president.
At the very end of today's Fox News Sunday panel segment, Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol was first to make a point along similar lines.
BILL KRISTOL: I'm more conservative than John McCain but I think it would be a mistake for him to just make himself into an orthodox conservative in this election. The reason he is a stronger candidate than a lot of other Republicans would be is that he is a little bit heterodox. He's got his own views, he shouldn't back off on that, I think, actually.
Hume drove the point home in spades.
BRIT HUME: And if the conservatives don't want a President Obama or a President Clinton, they ought to get off McCain's back and let him campaign as whatever he wants to, and campaign from the center.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsbusters.org ...
Brit Hume tells conservatives to lay off McCain. Ping to Today show list.
Video at NewsBusters:
Conservatives to Hume: Nuts!
Hmm. Where to start with this. Brit Hume? Bill Kristol?
Cripplecreek to Hume.
Get off you knees.
People here are gonna be p*ssed about this, but he happens to be correct. :)
Hume has it right, McCain might not be what we wanted but he dang sure is better than the alternative and this is not the time for us to make a statement to the Republican party. Way too much at stake for our country to have eight years of a socialist.
I recommend this blog.
I don't much care about Wall Street Journal political reporter John Fund's report yesterday that's roiling the blogosphere and cable news talking head shows. Fund reported that Sen. John McCain
Since Sen. McCain led a gang of other Republican renegade senators in deserting their party's sitting president and colluding with the opposition party to throw some of that president's pending judicial nominations down the toilet — jettisoning along with their confirmation chances the chance for a constitutional showdown that could have ended senatorial filibustering of judicial nominees — there is nothing that Sen. McCain can do, and certainly nothing he can say or write as a campaign promise, to restore his credibility with me on the subject of judicial appointments.
Oh, yes, he did vote to confirm Roberts and Alito. But could we possibly set a lower bar than that for someone who's supposed to be a leader of his party and a contender for the opportunity to fill as many as three SCOTUS seats in the next term?
There are a lot of good things that can be said about Sen. McCain by good conservatives — but not on this issue. By taking the "constitutional option" (a/k/a "nuclear option" in Dem-speak) off the table, McCain and his fellow "maverick" GOP cronies doomed not only a handful of worthy circuit and district court nominees to non-confirmation, they ensured that the White House would thereafter dare not make any more controversial nominations to those vitally important lower courts. For "controversial nominations," read "demonstratedly and predictably conservative nominations just like Roberts and Alito would have been, but for the higher profile of SCOTUS nominations."
The only way that the Dems could justify stonewalling Dubya's circuit and district court nominations was that the stonewalling happens mostly out of sight, and rarely if ever makes a blip on the general public's radar screens. They couldn't get away with denying a floor vote to a SCOTUS nominee. But John McCain led the deal that let the Dems guarantee that they could continue to exercise an effective veto on circuit and district court nominations for the remainder of George W. Bush's term, regardless of the outcome of the 2006 elections. The unquestionable result of the Gang of 14's "compromise," as brokered by John McCain, will be two-fold:
No sir, the day John McCain led the Gang of 14, he forfeited all of my trust — irrevocably — on judicial selection issues. No ma'am, I don't care what words he mouths now on that subject.
In fact, I'm slightly more inclined to believe Rudy Giuliani's promises about appointing conservative judges than McCain's. Sure, it's contrary to Giuliani's own stance on many social issues; and I'm far from entirely comfortable about Giuliani's campaign promises on this and other subjects. But at least Giuliani hasn't already betrayed this particular trust, and then equivocated about that betrayal. already shown himself to have no backbone, and to be a willing collaborator with the Dems, specifically when it comes to appointing judges at the circuit and district court levels. To the limited extent that I care at all what McCain says now, the mere fact that McCain continues to defend the Gang of 14 deal out-shouts anything else he says. And saying now that he "fought for" the abandoned nominees is just a palpable lie. The way to fight for them was to continue at least threatening to use the "constitutional option." There was no other way to fight for them. There was no other way to even get their nominations to the floor for a vote! To even pretend that those abandoned nominees had a chance once the Gang of 14 struck its deal is comparable to the Brits and French saying in September 1939,
Stepping back and looking at the big picture:
But just don't insult my intelligence by pretending that John McCain is a reliable conservative on the subject of judicial nominations. From the point of view of any knowledgeable conservative, this is one of the huge warts on this particular candidate. And he doesn't have to "wear" that particular lack of conservatism "on his sleeve," because it's a wart that's as plain as his nose. You can secure my enthusiastic agreement that the Democratic alternatives are uglier, that they're practically "all-wart." But quit trying to pull my leg about McCain and this particular subject, okay?
Maybe if McCain is making a SCOTUS nomination, he really will pick another Roberts or Alito. What concerns me, though, is that at best, he'll gladly let the Dems pressure him into packing the circuit and district courts with Kennedys, O'Connors, and occasional Souters. I have no doubt that John McCain would be willing to take on the Dems on matters of national security, even if it means a bloody, long-term dispute. But I also have no doubt that if pressed (and he will be), he would make his picks, and then cut quiet deals left and right, to avoid such fights over judicial nominees below the SCOTUS level. Since he's already abandoned conservative principles and cut a deal with the Dems on nominees to those courts even when the GOP controlled the Senate, why would he possibly stand up to them as president, especially if they continue to control the Senate?
If Mr. McCain is elected, conservatives would certainly have to stay on his back then.
So what is the problem with doing so now?
If McCain is going to be campaigning as a moderate, conservatives showing dissatification with him would seem to be a positive for him, and it would shore up his moderate bonafides.
Heterodox, huh? Yeah, McCain does swing both ways. Better put some ice on that, Billy.
I heard Hume and my first thought was Hume essentially said..”If its inevitable, quit fighting shut up and take it.” interesting advice.
Dear Britt,
Tell McCain to stop pandering for liberal votes and good press, on the backs of conservatives.
Okay, we’ll put you down as an Obama kind of guy. Why don’t you go find some remote area of Montana where you can rent a shack and isolate yourself from the world.
Okay, we’ll put you down as an Obama kind of guy. Why don’t you go find some remote area of Montana where you can rent a shack and isolate yourself from the world.
can you spell obtuse?
McCain’s a gloabalist as much as any other candidate. Some minor differences, but we’re still heading to the same destination.
I guess Brit thinks there’s a big difference in the overall outcome. So we go over the cliff at 55 MPH instead of 100. Whoop de doo.
Okay, we’ll put you down as an Obama kind of guy. Why don’t you go find some remote area of Montana where you can rent a shack and isolate yourself from the world.
True. Time to unite -
"We stand together or we fall apart" mt
Time to put our inflated egos in check and fight for our side - or get ready to be surfs
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