CARROLL: McCain is no liberal

By Vincent Carroll, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

If you've spent time within earshot of conservative talk radio in recent weeks, you will have memorized John McCain's apparently unforgivable sins. They are listed, examined, poked and prodded, then repeated again and again.

The Arizona senator opposed the Bush tax cuts and sponsored the dreadful McCain-Feingold campaign finance act, which gags political speech. He favors caps on carbon dioxide emissions in what would soon become the biggest regulatory initiative in decades. He demonizes pharmaceutical companies and seems disdainful of commerce in general. And don't forget the McCain-Kennedy immigration bill - just to mention the highlights of the indictment.

It's a record any liberal would be proud to run on, declared syndicated host Laura Ingraham. She'd be right, too, if that were the sum total of McCain's record.

As it happens, no liberal would be proud to run on a lifetime rating of 82 from the American Conservative Union, or even the relatively more centrist rating of 65 he compiled in 2006. A liberal would be mortified at such baggage, although no liberal actually has any such rating.

More typically, liberals rate in the single digits on the ACU scorecard. Hillary Clinton's lifetime index is nine, for example, with a 2006 rating of eight - the same as Barack Obama's.

As you pore through McCain's ratings of recent years and review the many highlighted votes (the lists are available at acuratings.org), you quickly reach several conclusions.

* He's a fiscal hawk. On spending and on budget issues, he's held the line. In 2003, for example, he opposed creation of a new medical entitlement, voting against the Medicare prescription drug benefit. And he's been solidly against much pork-barrel spending, including earmarks.

* He's a national security hawk.

* He votes to confirm conservative nominees that liberals won't touch, such as John Ashcroft for attorney general and Sam Alito for the Supreme Court. (Whether he would nominate similar people if elected president is another matter; quite possibly not.)

* He's supported several efforts to hold the insatiable litigation industry in check, but he's also refused to back others.

* He's a mixed bag on energy development, supporting modest expansions of exploration in the Gulf Coast, for example, but opposing drilling in northern Alaska.

* He's all over the place on federal regulation - not nearly as interventionist as Richard Nixon but no Ronald Reagan clone, either. A worrisome pattern.

* He generally supports an individual's right to own a firearm (despite co-authoring a draconian bill against gun shows a few years ago that never came up for a vote).

* He's atrocious, as advertised, on laws that curb Americans' freedom to advocate their political views.

* He's almost as bad on tax policy, apparently because, as former chief presidential speechwriter Michael Gerson has explained, "I don't think there's much evidence that he's a convert on the pro-growth economic philosophy."

* Over the years he has been drifting slightly leftward.

The animus some conservatives harbor for McCain is not only a reaction to his policies, of course, but also to the contempt he has betrayed on occasion for conservatives themselves. But these irreconcilable differences should not obscure the fact that the McCain record contrasts sharply in a number of areas with both Clinton's and Obama's - should it come to such a comparison in the fall.

Vincent Carroll is editor of the editorial pages. Reach him at carrollv@RockyMountainNews.com.

• February 5, 2008

  11:33 p.m.

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  Ted_in_Vegas writes:

  Quite simply, he's not the best candidate for conservatives.

  Quite honestly, McCain-Feingold is such an abomination that no freedom lover could vote for him at all.

  I am ashamed to have him in my party; I'm just glad I'm not in or from Arizona - that would be horribly embarrasing.

• February 6, 2008

  5:08 a.m.

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  Armie writes:

  McCain not a liberal sure and water isn't wet. I don't think that he knows what he is but he is not a conservative. He sure pleases most of the liberals. I won't vote for him. I would rather see Hillery wreck the country than him.It is going to be a tough 4 years for all
  of us.

• February 6, 2008

  5:51 a.m.

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  Oh_Wise_One writes:

  Ted and Armie are teh correct, he is not a conservative. His smug condescending look is more than I can stand.

• February 6, 2008

  6:54 a.m.

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  Spencer writes:

  Who can "the agents of intolerance" vote for now?

• February 6, 2008

  6:54 a.m.

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  vudumom writes:

  Let's compare a few of the accomplishments that were made in the above commentary.

  He voted against a medicare presciption drug benefit for seniors,but he was willing to allow at least 12 million illegals get legal status so they could access even more benefits.He was willing to not help seniors who paid and helped build this country,who fought and died for this country a benefit of helping them get the drugs that would help their quality of life,he wanted to deny them that.

  Yet he wanted to allow millions of illegal aliens who came to this country illegally,broke as many laws as they could get away with,snubbed their noses at our American flag,made demands on the American people that we assimilate to them,drain our resources,bankrupt our hospitals,take away benefits that are for real citizens not babies had here to anchor them,the list can go on.

  Just think about these two things. He says it's too much to give seniors some help with getting medications they need and paid for in advance.Yet he's willing to give dishonest,illegals who are breaking our laws and bleeding this country dry along with bankrupting our schools and services a free unfettered ticket to legally bleed us dry even more.

  I think this is one example of why I cannot support this man. Our seniors should be taken care of,not illegals.Does anyone else get how wrong he was on just these two things?

• February 6, 2008

  7:10 a.m.

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  VVVV writes:

  Nobody is pleased with him? Sounds like the best cantidate for our country. He doesn't support bills based on the cliff's notes? Sounds like he actually reads them and forms his own opinion. He doesn't see growth as the end-all-be-all of economics? Sounds like a guy that knows a giant system can't be distilled to simplicity. He sounds like the most intelligent cantidate for office we've had in a very long time.

• February 6, 2008

  7:18 a.m.

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  DougH writes:

  So a man with a lifetime 82 % rating from the American Conservative Union is too liberal for Rush Limbaugh, Anne Coulter , Laura Ingarham, James Dobson and their cronies, doesn't it just show how extreme and out of touch these people are ? Americans are looking for moderation and consensus and the right wingers are going nuts. The McCain candidacy will expose just how extreme these people are.

• February 6, 2008

  7:26 a.m.

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  dilligaf writes:

  This man could have had my vote 8 yrs ago and I have never voted for a republican in my live. He stood for campaign finance reform. But he allowed Bush to muzzle him and he put his tail between his legs. He is smarter but will still be an extension of the Bush administration. I guess if your for the continuation of the Iraq war he is your man.

• February 6, 2008

  7:50 a.m.

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  SASQUATCH writes:

  There is nothing worse than a cranky old man lurching to the left. He only gets older, crankier and lurchier.

• February 6, 2008

  9:38 a.m.

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  titancain writes:

  This proves what democrats have been saying for years. Talk radio is nothing more than a hatefest.

  They HATE anybody who doesn't agree with them.

• February 6, 2008

  9:50 a.m.

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  yaakovwatkins writes:

  McCain may not be a liberal but he is no conservative.

  It depends on what your hot buttons are.

• February 6, 2008

  11:07 a.m.

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  JerryO writes:

  I'm in. Stay home 08. Let the RINOs win on thier own and screw the unity argument. If unity means we have to throw our values out the window then screw the party and screw the moderates. They have picked the losers repeatedly and we conservatives have picked the winners. In those cases the moderates have told us that our candidate cannot win because he is to conservatuive and they were wrong. In all cases we told the moderates that thier candidate cannot win and WE were right. They never learn and so I say stay home 08 if McCain steals this nomination with the help of democrats and a vote splitting Huckster and gullible moderates in the Republican party establishment.

• February 6, 2008

  11:13 a.m.

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  anderson writes:

  High V's to VVVV. Funny title from Vincent Carroll.

• February 6, 2008

  12:12 p.m.

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  SASQUATCH writes:

  He seems to love kissing Dems on the butt and making nice while throwing rocks at the Repubs and fighting them every inch of the way. For a guy with his military background, he sure seems to have more than considerable difficulty identifying the enemy. This repeated and continual weakness doesn't make me feel comfortable should he find his way into America's wheelhouse. His forever morphing persona also appears to have lost its rudder in recent years and looks to be making a big circle. Will he, or will he not, see the rocks?

• February 6, 2008

  12:37 p.m.

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  anderson writes:

  Talk radio gets far too much credence in their role in the political process.

  Occasionally we hear that Clinton is unelectable (in a general election) because so many people hate her.

  Now we hear that McCain isn't a "true" conservative (whatever that means).

  The Clinton and McCain haters obviously are the talk radio crowd(the medium which specializes in identifying and demonizing villains and stirring their audience into anger). This audience represents (I'd guess) at best 25% of the voting populace. In other words, they don't gives us a true picture of America (even though they often like to proclaim they are the only true Americans).

  So maybe McCain has figured out that most of America is able to think outside of talk radio's hatebox. And surprise, surprise, he's getting votes. Democracy in action. Prav-baugh takes a back seat. What a concept.

• February 6, 2008

  12:38 p.m.

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  mark79trans writes:

  Like Bob Dole, there is a reason why McCain has failed several attempts to get the nomination. I am not happy about his propable nomination. Although, I am completely disgusted in the prospect of Hillary Clinton as well as a society that would vote for her...she should be in jail not running for president. It looks to be another pinch your nose and vote fighting back the urge to vomit at the polls! Eventhough I dissagree with Obama on so many levels, I sure pray that he wins the nomination...McCain is a lost cause.

• February 6, 2008

  12:55 p.m.

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  jay writes:

  I don't know what you folks on the right are complaining about...McCain will be a third term for Bush's failed policies

• February 6, 2008

  1:17 p.m.

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  enginerd writes:

  The sponsor of the McCain-Feingold act has demonstrated a lack of understanding of the First Amendment, or worse, contempt for it. Either way, he is not qualified to support and defend the Constitution. If he is nominated, I hope there will be a Libertarian on the ballot so I will have someone to vote for.

• February 6, 2008

  2:51 p.m.

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  irisman writes:

  I'm very confused about what it means to be a true conservative, since we now have three candidates claiming that title and saying that the other two are not real conservatives. Can somebody please, please help me, and list the characteristics of of a true conservative, so that I can recognize one when I see one.

• February 6, 2008

  8:49 p.m.

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  samsmargolis writes:

  If McCain runs against Clinton, I'll vote for the devil I know in Clinton. If McCain runs against Obama, I won't vote. I couldn't stand wasting my time on an imposter or a clueless uber-liberal that has to rely on a daytime talk-show hack to generate votes from the couch-potato crowd for his campaign because he's DOA in the idea emergency room. Wow. Gotta love campaign season - glad to be on board.

• February 7, 2008

  6:11 a.m.

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  vudumom writes:

  The pickens are getting slim.I'm not liking what is left on the table no matter who wins the nomination on either side.Once again we have a presidential election with not much to choose from.This country is losing it's spirit and will to put it's faith in anyone,because of the past 16 years or more of bullcrap coming out of Washington on both sides. Remember ,it takes 2 to tango.It not just left or right,it's the whole political body.
  Obama will win the election ,I'd bet money on that.He has no experience,but that doesn't matter.Our culture likes stars,they care more about looks and likability than substance.Mr. Obama talks a good game. He is a wonderful powerful speaker.He energizes crowds and has a Martin Luther King Jr. quality about him.I like him as a person.He just hasn't said much about how he's going to change Washington.The only thing we hear is he voted against the war and will pull our troops out immediately if elected.
  I think he is a good person and a moral man who believes in his convictions.I would vote for him if he had more experience.He has only been a Senator for 2 years.Our world is alot more complicated.Our country has many problems.I just don't see anyone that I can fully trust to fix the mess we are in.I wish he would be more open about what he is going to do as president. He doesn't seem to have any plan,just well spoken vague speeches.If Obama will start making public his plans on healthcare,the deficit,government spending,homeland security,illegal immigration,taxes,education,our problems with Iran,Palestine,China,Russia,Iraq,Afghanistan,Pakistan etc...
  I think I could vote for him ,but so far I have only seen wonderful speeches.That's just not enough.

• February 7, 2008

  8:01 a.m.

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  Gene writes:

  Pretty fair column Vince, however, ". . animus some conservatives harbor for McCain." I would equally suggest as . . the animus Mc holds for the Republican Party. It seems to be part of his psyche, and a lot more dangerous. If he becomes president, it should be fun watching that little Hugo Chavez diving under rocks. But wait, since I think that way, Mc will probably make him vice president.

• February 8, 2008

  9:07 a.m.

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  T1anda writes:

  A vote for McCain is a slit in the vein!! Billary or Obama?? Bwahahaha!!!

  I am definately staying home on election day!!!