Hostility towards John McCain among most leading conservative bloggers has been linked to the Arizona senator’s recent rise — the more McCain looks like the Republican frontrunner, the more conservatives express their ire.
The past couple of days have been particularly striking in this regard. With polls showing McCain in a pretty good position right now, National Journal summarized some of the more notable examples from the conservative end of the ‘sphere.
* Right Wing News‘ John Hawkins: “[W]e’re talking about a man who could fairly be called a Rockefeller Republican, a Country Club Republican, a RINO, or just a toweringly arrogant, out of touch D.C. insider who seems to assume that any position he takes is right solely because he happens to hold it. However, what John McCain cannot fairly be called is a conservative.”
* Townhall‘s Hugh Hewitt: “A GOP vote for McCain is a vote for a shattered base and a desultory campaign in the fall. It is a vote for lecture after lecture on global warming, campaign finance reform, and the bridge to nowhere. It is a vote for an old warrior way past his prime.”
* NRO‘s Mark Levin: “There’s a reason some of John McCain’s conservative supporters avoid discussing his record. They want to talk about his personal story, his position on the surge, his supposed electability. But whenever the rest of his career comes up, the knee-jerk reply is to characterize the inquiries as attacks. The McCain domestic record is a disaster.”
* NRO‘s Mark Steyn: “McCain has an almost Edwardsian contempt for capitalism, for the people whose wit and innovation generate the revenue that pay for your average small-state senator’s retinue of staffers worthy of a Persian Gulf emir.”
* Townhall‘s Patrick Ruffini calls McCain “a tax-loving, free speech-crushing, amnesty-awarding, big government Republican nominee.”
The question, of course, is what they’re going to do about it.
These bloggers’ reactions are not at all uncommon; Republican activists have been expressing these concerns for quite a while. In Iowa, the GOP’s far-right base responded well to the criticisms, and McCain finished fourth (behind a guy who barely campaigned). In New Hampshire, the party’s voters were unmoved, and he won.
The irony is, I’m cheering these conservative bloggers on because they want what I want: someone other than McCain to get the Republican nomination. We have different motivations, of course, but the goal is identical.
With that in mind, I have some advice for my friends on the right, because they’re going about this the wrong way.
First, they’re going to have to settle on a favorite. Historically, the race for the GOP nomination boils down to a two-man contest. This year, the field is huge, and the base is divided. I’d say the top conservative bloggers are spread thin with their support for at least three different candidates. That’s not going to work — McCain’s already the frontrunner; the debate over whether Romney or Thompson is the best choice should be over by now. By the time the right settles on the anti-McCain, it’ll be too late.
Second, the laundry list of McCain’s heretical behavior is pretty good, but I’d emphasize his flirtation with Dems. Josh Marshall mentioned today:
With John McCain now firmly in the position of frontrunner and possibly on track to come close to settling the matter in Michigan tonight, is it time to revisit the fact that McCain considered and even got into preliminary talks about switching parties back in President Bush’s first year in office?
Why, yes, it’s the perfect time. In 2001 — in discussions initiated by McCain, not Dems — the Arizona senator was in talks to leave the Republican Party altogether. Three years later, he reportedly reached out to John Kerry to join the Democratic presidential ticket, and told a national television audience that he would consider an invitation from Kerry, if it were offered. Around the same time, just as the national Republican campaign was beginning in earnest, McCain said, “I believe my party has gone astray…. I think the Democratic Party is a fine party, and I have no problems with it, in their views and their philosophy.”
Want to beat McCain in the primaries? Start advertising this quote.
But, do me a favor. Hurry.