I keep looking for the issue that will drive Republicans away from John McCain for good. Today, in the WSJ, John Fund brings up yet another problem for the senator: judicial nominations, which is at or near the top of priorities for conservatives.
Nothing would improve Mr. McCain’s standing with conservatives more than a forthright restatement of his previously stated view that “one of our greatest problems in America today is justices that legislate from the bench.” Mr. McCain bruised his standing with conservatives on the issue when in 2005 he became a key player in the so-called gang of 14, which derailed an effort to end Democratic filibusters of Bush judicial nominees. More recently, Mr. McCain has told conservatives he would be happy to appoint the likes of Chief Justice John Roberts to the Supreme Court. But he indicated he might draw the line on a Samuel Alito, because “he wore his conservatism on his sleeve.”
Therein lies the problem that many conservatives have with John McCain. It is the nagging feeling that after all of his years of chummily bonding with liberal reporters and garnering favorable media coverage from them that the Arizona senator is embarrassed to be seen as too much of a conservative.
National Review’s Kathryn Jean Lopez made matters slightly worse for McCain by echoing Fund’s report.
For what it’s worth, I’ve been told the same thing John F. reported — that at a private meeting McCain said he would appoint justices like Roberts, but not like Alito — who wears his conservatism on his sleeve. The report of the comment — first in D.C. conservative circles and now in the WSJ — has set off alarm bells with conservatives who’ve worked on the judicial issues, for obvious reasons. We already got Alito despite a president who wanted to go in another direction. This time, folks feel like they’re being warned beforehand.
This isn’t going over well.
National Review’s Rich Lowry talked to McCain spokesperson Steve Schmidt, who emphasized that McCain was “instrumental in helping confirm Justice Alito,” and “was a warrior to get Alito on the bench.”
This didn’t help. Lowry characterized the answer as evasive, saying, “The question isn’t whether McCain supported Alito, but whether he would have nominated him in the first place.”
Byron York followed up with McCain directly this afternoon, and who issued a more forceful denial.
“Let me just look you in the eye,” McCain told me. “I’ve said a thousand times on this campaign trail, I’ve said as often as I can, that I want to find clones of Alito and Roberts. I worked as hard as anybody to get them confirmed. I look you in the eye and tell you I’ve said a thousand times that I wanted Alito and Roberts. I have told anybody who will listen. I flat-out tell you I will have people as close to Roberts and Alito [as possible], and I am proud of my record of working to get them confirmed, and people who worked to get them confirmed will tell you how hard I worked.” […]
I asked whether McCain had ever drawn any distinction between Roberts and Alito. “No, no, of course not,” McCain said.
I don’t imagine we’ve heard the last of this.