Before he went over to the dark side too and endorsed John Judas McCain, Senator Santorum made it clear that McCain “more often than not” stood with liberal Senators in blocking conservative legislation in the back rooms of the Senate.
It is that inside knowledge from the ex-Senator from Pennsylvania, plus the rest of the public record, that I base my statement on.
And I stand by it.
Senator Santorum: McCain unreliable on Life Issues
1/16/2008
Catholic News Agency (www.catholicnewsagency.com)
McCain’s largely pro-life record, Santorum claimed, concealed other problems, such as McCain’s support for embryonic stem cell research and his vote against a Federal Marriage Amendment.
Washington, DC (CNA) - Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum has attacked Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain of Arizona for hindering social conservative issues, arguing that McCain is a poor choice to lead the effort to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Speaking to radio host Mark Levine on Levine’s Thursday night radio show, Senator Santorum cited Senator McCain’s compromises in congressional debates about Supreme Court nominations as evidence the Arizona politician was not a strong pro-life candidate.
Santorum, who is now a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, said of McCain, “this is not a guy who would give me a lot of confidence that he would appoint the judges who are necessary on the court to overturn Roe v. Wade, who would be strict constructionist judges.”
McCain’s largely pro-life record, Santorum claimed, concealed other problems, such as McCain’s support for embryonic stem cell research and his vote against a Federal Marriage Amendment.
Further, Santorum alleged that during his tenure in the Senate McCain did not provide the necessary support to discuss and vote on social conservative issues on the Senate floor.
Santorum disclosed what happened behind the scenes when he held meetings to gather votes for proposed legislation, telling Levine, “That discussion is held in private, where you’re jostling and jockeying to get your legislation into the queue so that you can have your time on the floor to get something done.”
“And I can tell you, when social-conservative issues were ever raised — whether it was marriage or abortion or a whole host of other issues — there were always the moderates who said ‘no, no, no, we can’t: they’re divisive, divisive, divisive.’ And more often than not, John McCain was . . . with them” in preventing votes on such issues.
http://www.catholic.org/politics/story.php?id=26460
I agree - McCain would never have been someone that I trusted. Yet I held my nose and voted for McCain (actually I voted for Palin) because Obama was a much more frightening choice. Personally I wanted to see a Fred Thompson candidacy.
But getting back to the issue at hand, McCain isn't alone in his support of certain pro-abortion topics such as embryonic stem cell research. Point being, there is plenty of blame to go around.