For the last couple of months, Republicans were divided between those who supported John McCain and those who didn’t. As McCain emerged as the likely nominee, both sides grew larger and louder.
But particularly after McCain’s victory in the Florida GOP primary, there seems to be another split, between McCain’s conservative critics who’ve decided it’s time to close ranks and get behind the eventual nominee, and McCain’s conservative critics whose hatred for him knows no bounds and who simply cannot tolerate him as Republican standard bearer.
Josh Marshall noted today, “As I told a Republican friend this morning, it is with some regret and chagrin that I am forced to recognize that the only serious opposition to McCain within Republican circles appears to be from people with active personality disorders.” I think that’s probably right, though it describes a surprisingly large contingent within the Republican Party.
The NYT’s David Kirkpatrick reported on McCain’s GOP detractors who’ve given up and come to terms with political realities.
Since his victory in the Florida primary, the growing possibility that Mr. McCain may carry the Republican banner in November is causing anguish to the right. Some, including James C. Dobson and Rush Limbaugh, say it is far too late for forgiveness.
But others, faced with the prospect of either a Democrat sitting in the White House or a Republican elected without them, are beginning to look at Mr. McCain’s record in a new light.
“He has moved in the right direction strongly and forcefully on taxes,” said Grover Norquist, an antitax organizer who had been the informal leader of conservatives against a McCain nomination, adding that he had been talking to Mr. McCain’s “tax guys” for more than a year.
Tony Perkins, a prominent Christian conservative who has often denounced Mr. McCain, is warming up to him, too. “I have no residual issue with John McCain,” Mr. Perkins said, adding that the senator needed “to better communicate” his convictions on social issues.
Richard Land, an official of the Southern Baptist Convention and a longtime critic of Mr. McCain, agreed, saying, “He is strongly pro-life.”
That’s one side. Then, there’s the “personality-disorder” wing.
“Conservatives need to act now, before it is too late!” Mark R. Levin, a movement veteran and talk-radio host, wrote on the Web site of National Review, urging a “rally for Romney.” The publication was host to an online debate on Wednesday on the question “A Republican future with McCain?”
A spokesman for Dr. Dobson, the influential evangelical Christian founder of Focus on the Family, said Wednesday that he stood by the position he staked out more than a year ago that as a matter of conscience he could never vote for Mr. McCain.
Nor has the small-government wing of the movement swung to Mr. McCain’s side. “I have yet to see McCain make any attempts to reach out to free market conservatives,” said Pat Toomey, president of the antitax group Club for Growth, warning that “if you have a big problem with a big part of your base, you really should be mending fences.”
And in his broadcast on Thursday, Mr. Limbaugh escalated his attacks on Mr. McCain as an imposter in the party. “McCain is in a lot of these places not actually the Republican candidate,” Mr. Limbaugh said. “He is the candidate of enough Republicans, but independents and moderates and probably even some liberals.”
From what we can tell, Tom DeLay and Rick Santorum also fit into the “kicking and screaming” camp.
How passionate is this group? Both Ann Coulter and Michelle Malkin, with no apparent humor, said this week that they’re not even prepared to support McCain over Hillary Clinton.
Indeed, with this in mind, it’s also worth noting that these die-hard conservative McCain opponents are themselves split between those who think McCain is worse than Hillary, and those who don’t.
I don’t really have an over-arching point here, other than to note that conservatives can be very funny to watch at a distance.