Bringing conservatives over to McCain

I know many of you are unhappy with McCain. I told you last night I would do what I could to make you feel better about voting for McCain in the general election should he be our nominee. So here goes.

This first post I have tried to keep simple, but there will be more to come.

First--Judges are a priority to most of us. Here are some excerpts from an interview with National Review's Ramesh Ponnuru. In this answer he tells how the gang of 14 gave us not only Alito and Roberts,but a slew of conservative judges:

Ponnuru: What kind of judges would President McCain be looking for?

Sen. McCain: Strict interpreter of the Constitution. I’m proud of what the Gang of Fourteen did. I’m proud that we got two Supreme Court justices that will be the best I think, perhaps ever. I’m proud of that we got a whole flood of federal and appellate-court justices through without a single one being rejected because we framed the criteria as quote "extraordinary circumstances." And seven Democrats on our gang never saw quote "extraordinary circumstances." The proponents of the nuclear option wanted 51 votes. Suppose that the Democrats keep their Democrat majority and you get a Democrat president, do you want judges confirmed by 51 votes now? I don’t think so.

Does anyone realize how important that was? I don't believe for a moment that we could have gotten these judges without the gang of 14. It took the power of PR away from the Democrats because their colleagues were a part of it.

Ponnuru: Are there any members of the current Supreme Court that you particularly admire or regard as a model?

Sen. McCain: Eh of course, Antonin Scalia. He’s a lot of our conservative models, I admire how articulate he is, but I also from everything I’ve seen I admire Roberts as well.

Anyone who sees Scalia as a role model is the person we want appointing judges.

Feel better yet? Stay with me. We are overtaxed. No doubt. Can we count on McCain to not raise taxes for any reason? Yes. Yes we can.


Ponnuru: If you could get the Democrats to agree, or at least to come to the table on entitlements or on tax simplification, are those circumstances under which you’d be willing to accept a tax increase?

Sen. McCain: No; no.

PONNURU: No circumstances?

Sen. McCain: No. None. None.

Although McCain disappointed us with the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts, his record goes far beyond that. He voted in 2006 extend the Bush tax cuts. He voted in 1997 vote to cut capital gains taxes and in 1990 and 1993 voted against President Bush's and President Clinton's tax hikes. He introduced measures that would require a sixty-vote majority to pass a tax increase.

Just looking at that, it is clear that any label of "liberal" on John McCain is absurd. Do you think any of the critically important things mentioned above from judges to taxes would happen under a Democrat?

I've got more. Much more. Stay tuned tomorrow when I look at the tremendous amount of pork barrel spending McCain has voted against in his career.

It's ok, I know you are feeling vulnerable right now. Take my hand. We will get to the voting booth together and vote for McCain...;-)