Enemies to the Right of Him
HAYES, STEPHEN F.
Enemies to the Right of Him Charge of the anti-McCain brigade. BY STEPHEN F. HAYES West Palm Beach John McCain spoke through gritted teeth. “I respect Rush Limbaugh,” he said, days after...
...Won’t go into the details, but I was impressed...
...For two weeks, as the Republican presidential race moved south and he notched important victories in New Hampshire and South Carolina, John McCain has been subject to a series of withering attacks from the stars of talk radio and other prominent conservatives...
...And campaign fi nance reform...
...It is not diffi cult to understand why this galls McCain’s critics...
...We develop automobiles that go 200 miles before you have to plug them in...
...Then there was illegal immigration...
...There’s a broad array of steps we can take to reduce greenhouse gas emissions...
...Mark Levin, a longtime confi dant of both Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity who now hosts his own increasingly popular talk show, took the anti-McCain argument a step further on his show last Wednesday...
...Really...
...We use ethanol...
...So what if Republican primary voters say it’s McCain...
...Although many others have been as critical of McCain, perhaps no one has been as hypocritical...
...To a conservative, the consequences of the government mandates required to accomplish these things should be equally obvious and only slightly less devastating...
...And he’s right on the war on terror...
...Suppose that there’s no such thing as climate change and we adopt clean technologies...
...At this point, anybody who supports John McCain and claims to be a conservative, let me be blunt: You’re not a conservative...
...I have been at odds with the Bush administration on this issue for a long time...
...Levin, who has been as critical of McCain as anyone, has not ruled out supporting him...
...Suppose we do these things and we’re wrong about global warming...
...McCain is not only not conservative enough,” writes David Limbaugh, Rush’s brother, “he has also built a reputation as a maverick by stabbing his party in the back—not in furtherance of conservative principles but by betraying them...
...Bush in 1988...
...That’s gratitude, Santorum-style...
...Which came as a surprise to Jack Kemp, the ardent supply-sider who was the conservative alternative to George H.W...
...McCain did not support George W. Bush’s tax cuts in 2001 and 2003 and often used left-wing class warfare arguments to voice his opposition...
...And to Tom Coburn from Oklahoma, arguably the most conservative member of the Senate...
...Think of the vast tangle of new regulations that will cost American companies and consumers untold billions, potentially crippling the economy...
...They matter to me, as I know they do to all of you...
...When McCain obliged, Santorum put the video on his campaign website, listing it fi rst among “key events” of the year...
...But suppose we are right—that climate change is an urgent issue—and we do nothing...
...Most of the rank-and-fi le conservatives supporting McCain point to his leadership on Iraq and his leadership on defense issues...
...Take Tom DeLay, for instance, whose K Street pandering led to numerous indictments and contributed greatly to the Republican losses in 2006...
...Then all we’ve done is given our children a cleaner world...
...Straight talk...
...In 2006, when Santorum was running for reelection, he asked McCain to come to Pennsylvania to campaign on his behalf...
...We go to nuclear power...
...Allen continued: John McCain is our best and safest choice...
...Not an issue of fi ne character, because that he has—it has to do with policy...
...He’s gotten right on the economy...
...There are other concerns, many of them well known...
...He led Senate opposition to Bush administration policies on detainee interrogation, practices that even administration critics acknowledge have prevented potentially catastrophic attacks...
...We’ll see...
...I don’t agree with McCain on several things...
...John McCain’s is 82.3...
...I’ve spent all my adult life, more than fi ve decades, in these vineyards...
...John McCain and I have stood side by side on many issues,” Coburn said in endorsing McCain last week...
...The most important, he added, are “fi scal responsibility” and the “sanctity of human life...
...endorsed by National Review in 1996...
...We go to hybrids...
...I say it’s McCain...
...The difference between a real conservative and a phony one apparently lies in those six points...
...Richard Allen, national security adviser to Ronald Reagan, made this point in an email he sent January 3, the night of the Iowa caucuses, to a small group of longtime conservatives...
...Santorum’s lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union is 88...
...And to Sam Brownback, a stalwart conservative and one of the most outspoken pro-life politicians in America today...
...Other conservative politicians— or former politicians—have taken their anti-McCain arguments to absurd lengths...
...And no doubt a surprise also to Phil Gramm (lifetime ACU rating of 95), whose presidential campaign was Stephen F. Hayes is a senior writer at THE WEEKLY STANDARD...
...One would suppose there might be some overlap...
...We’ll see...
...I think the consequences are obvious and would be devastating...
...Like so many McCain critics, Limbaugh turned to former Senator Rick Santorum—“whose conservative credentials are beyond question”—as an expert witness...
...Some of the criticism is warranted...
...That’s just so preposterous,” said Kemp...
...Rather than simply fi ght for conservative jurists, McCain joined the so-called Gang of 14 that sought to fi nd compromise on judicial appointments...
...He’s right on foreign policy...
...I was early on a Fred Thompson supporter, worked with him, thought he would have the capacity to grow to a major force...
...Some cannot forgive past transgressions on campaign fi nance or other matters...
...McCain seems to delight in taking positions that upset conservatives, as he did at virtually every campaign stop in New Hampshire by going out of his way to talk about global warming...
...If he does squeak through, I’ll have to fi gure out what I’m going to do about it...
...Can there be a rapprochement with some of his conservative critics...
...Add them up, the critics argue, and you have John McCain, the Anti-Conservative...
...The argument, which he repeated in the debate here last Thursday, goes something like this: My friends, I believe global climate change is real, and I think it’s a major issue worldwide and in this country...
...But when you stop to refl ect on the matter, with whom—among all those out there— are we really going to be more secure, and who has the understanding of BOTH foreign policy issues and national security issues we face...
...The former House majority leader said, without a trace of irony in his voice, that John McCain “has done more to hurt the Republican party than any elected offi cial I know of...
...I respect Rush Limbaugh,” he said, days after America’s most influential talk radio host proclaimed that his nomination would ruin the Republican party...
...For all sorts of reasons, I suspect, there has been no policy bloom there...
...I don’t hardly agree with him on hardly any issues,” Santorum said...
Vol. 13 • February 2008 • No. 20
