McCain Still Disliked by Fiscal Conservatives

On Thursday, I got hold of some early results from a large survey the fiscally conservative Club For Growth is doing of its membership. McCain is near the rock-bottom of the pack when Club For Growth members are asked whom they would like to see made the GOP presidential nominee in 2008, and he comes in at the very top when members of the group are asked whom they would not like to see nominated. His favorable/unfavorable rating is also very poor with this crowd.

The Club For Growth is in the midst of conducting an extensive presidential survey of its 40,000 members, by phone and by email. So far, they've gotten roughly 3,300 responses.

* Club members' top choice for 2008 GOP nominee for president: McCain received 5%

* McCain's favorable/unfavorable rating with Club members: Favorable 16% / Unfavorable 76%

(On those first two questions, Club members were asked to pick from a list, including: Romney, Pataki, McCain, Gingrich, Hunter, Huckabee, Hagel, Giuliani, Brownback, or no answer.)

Asked to comment, Club For Growth President Pat Toomey offered a rather bleak assessment of McCain's chances at wooing fiscal conservatives in the GOP primary.

"This is a real reflection of a serious challenge McCain has with free-market conservatives and with limited-government conservatives," Toomey said. "He very prominently spoke out against the Bush tax cuts. He spouted class-warfare rhetoric usually voiced by the Democrats."

What's more, Toomey said it would be a mistake to underestimate the importance of McCain's role in bringing campaign-finance reform to American politics with his McCain-Feingold bill. "Frankly, our members, almost by definition, are concerned with weighing in on issues and having a voice in American politics," Toomey said. "His willingness to diminish the First Amendment is a matter of great concern."

Despite the fact that McCain is good on trade policy and on opposing pork-barrel spending, Toomey said, "Fundamentally, limited government requires limited taxes, and economic growth requires lower marginal taxes."

Asked whether McCain could do anything to woo back fiscal conservatives, Toomey offered only: "You never say never in politics."

Of course, McCain has already spent some considerable time trying to win back fiscal conservatives, flip-flopping on the Bush tax cuts (calling for their renewal after having opposed their original passage) and flip-flopping on the estate (a.k.a. death) tax.

McCain and the Club For Growth, a so-called "527 organization" have long been at odds. McCain has repeatedly cited the Club For Growth as the type of group that made his campaign-finance-reform bill necessary, because they run lots of hard-hitting (and sometimes even negative) ads in House and Senate races in the days leading up to federal elections. In 2000, the Club ran ads boosting the candidacy of now-Rep. Jeff Flake, a rising fiscal-conservative star, for an Arizona congressional seat, leading to the defeat of an opposing candidate hand-picked by McCain.

Nonetheless, the vehemence of the opposition to the purported GOP frontrunner by the leadership and membership of the Club For Growth is pretty striking this early in the game.

McCain on the First Amendment isn't going to help him either:

McCain and 'the Constitution'

"I work in Washington and I know that money corrupts. And I and a lot of other people were trying to stop that corruption. Obviously, from what we've been seeing lately, we didn't complete the job. But I would rather have a clean government than one where quote First Amendment rights are being respected that has become corrupt. If I had my choice, I'd rather have the clean government."

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Recall that McCain, under McCain-Feingold CFR, has tried two different times to restrict voters' rights:

FEC Won't Regulate Internet Politics

Posted 03/27/2006

The Federal Election Commission decided Monday that the nation's new campaign finance law will not apply to most political activity on the Internet. In a 6-0 vote, the commission decided to regulate only paid political ads placed on another person's Web site. The decision means that bloggers and online publications will not be covered by provisions of the new election law. Internet bloggers and individuals will therefore be able to use the Internet to attack or support federal candidates without running afoul of campaign spending and contribution limits. "It's a win, win, win," Commissioner Ellen L. Weintraub said, adding that...

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McCain-Feingold's Electioneering Communication Prohibition Held Unconstitutional as Applied to Genuine Grassroots Lobbying

Posted on 12/21/2006

Today the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia held that the ban on corporate electioneering communications is unconstitutional as applied to the three grassroots lobbying ads for which Wisconsin Right to Life ("WRTL") sought judicial relief in WRTL v. FEC. Judge Leon wrote the opinion and was joined by Judge Sentelle in the majority of the three-judge court.

Look for more attempts by McCain, and possibly Hillary and Jon Carry, to restrict voters' rights and Internet use during the coming year.

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McCain Looked into Caucusing with Democrats

Posted on 01/05/2007

Some of us have joked that McCain would be a great candidate--for the Democrat ticket. But it turns out that there is an element of truth to the joke. This month's Vanity Fair has a long fawning profile of McCain entitled Prisoners of Conscience. It says that the Bush-McCain relationship was so frayed after the 2000 election that in 2001, McCain strategist John Weaver actually sounded out Democratic Senate leaders about having McCain caucus with them. That would have given the Democrats control of the Senate.

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