McCain changed in ‘98. Before then, he was a more “reliable” Conservative vote. Not 100% reliable, mind you, but someone I could have settled for and supported. The current McCain is entirely different.
I can remember a time when I actually admired John McCain. I broke with him around 1999, when he was leading the charge against “Big Tobacco.” He’s degenerated considerably since then to become the pandering old fool he is today.
Sorry, as you say, no sale. I can look up how often McCain voted conservative in those years to see if he "radically changed" by 2000 and went from being mostly reliable conservative to a slimey liberal voting with us less than half the time. Here is how often he supported the American Conservative Union from 1997 to 2000:
McCAIN, JOHN S.
1997 - 80%
1998 - 68%
1999 - 77%
2000 - 81%
Looks he had a bum year in 1998 (though he STILL managed to support us nearly 70% of the time), but the alledged "radically changed, turned leftist" McCain scored a respectable 77% in 1999 and got a conservative rating of 81% by 2000, one point higher than the "old, reliable McCain" from 1997.
Yep, no sale. Your statements don't match his voting records.
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BTW, for comparison, here's an ACTUAL example of a a "radical change":
SHELBY, RICHARD
1993 - 42%
1994 - 55%
Switches parties when GOP takes control of Congress
1995 - 91%
1996 - 90%
“McCain changed in ‘98.”
He voted to extend the Bush tax cuts in ‘06. He also voted against the 2003 Medicare prescription plan. He voted against the farm bill in 2002 and the most recent one. He’s also voted against millions in pork barrel spending. He voted against the minimum wage increase in ‘05. He voted to remove Saddam, voted for the surge, ect...There are plenty of conservative actions by McCain after ‘98.