Posted on 01/31/2008 12:11:06 PM PST by Checkers
Robert Novak confirms John Fund's deeply troubling account of John McCain's suspicion of Samuel Alito:
~~~“In fact, multiple sources confirm that the senator made negative comments about Alito nine months ago. …
“I found what McCain could not remember: a private, informal chat with conservative Republican lawyers shortly after he announced his candidacy in April 2007. I talked to two lawyers who were present whom I have known for years and who have never misled me. One is neutral in the presidential race, and the other recently endorsed Mitt Romney. Both said they were not Fund's source, and neither knew I was talking to the other. They gave me nearly identical accounts, as follows:
“‘Wouldn't it be great if you get a chance to name somebody like Roberts and Alito?’ one lawyer commented. McCain replied, ‘Well, certainly Roberts.’ Jaws were described as dropping. My sources cannot remember exactly what McCain said next, but their recollection is that he described Alito as too conservative.”
~~~Ed Morrissey notes that this account is even more troubling than Fund's, and of course we have McCain's denial of what seems certainly to be a true account, a denial that mirrors those he thrashed his way through last night on the "timetables" nonsense. (See Paul Mirengoff's "A Surge Of Dishonesty" for a standard reaction to this low point for the McCain campaign.)
This revelation, combined with McCain's halting debate performance last night and his increasingly strident assertions about global warming are going to give his handlers heartburn this week. McCain ought to be striding forward, but he is tired and unfocussed, and the fact remains he is trying to win a GOP nomination with a string of 35% wins against a divided conservative vote.
(Excerpt) Read more at hughhewitt.townhall.com ...
The conservatives care about judges in ways Senator McCain simply does not, and that message is going to be broadcast again and again this week, and weekend, as well Senator McCain's record on the First Amendment, tax cuts, ANWR, and of course illegal immigration.
If the Huckabee supporters are conservatives, they will recognize the peril to their party's core beliefs and abandon their favorite who has no chance of winning in favor of Mitt Romney who does. The Giuliani voters may surprise as well, as many of his fans in California are conservatives who were willing to overlook Rudy's views on abortion in order to win, but who are now facing a possible McCain nomination and the recognition that the Arizona maverick is a phenomenally weak general election candidate upon whom the Dems and MSM will fall as soon as he has the nomination locked up.
Their attack? McCain's age, of course, which Democrats used against Bob Dole with great effectiveness, and the idea that McCain's judgment on matters of war will be inflexible and dangerously hair-triggered --the Goldwater reprise.
22 states vote in six days, but that's an eternity in politics, especially after a big event last night put John McCain's ideas and vulnerabilities on stage opposite Romney's calm demeanor, command of the issues, and his conservative beliefs.
Expect the talkers, led by Rush but seconded by Ingraham, Bennett, Prager, Beck, Hannity, Levin and me to spend the next few days putting down a marker: McCain is a very weak general election candidate, and if he was to win, would not govern as a conservative in any significant way. Our audiences are not, as MSMers like to imply, not only shrinking but mindless. They are growing, but they are incredibly independent of thought. They also take in and respond to good information, and now the information will be focused on John McCain and the choice before them.
MSM will of course be sending a very different set of talking points into the general population, one that obscures McCain's record and which refuses to remind voters of the immigration fiasco etc. MSM will focus on Rudy and Arnold and leave the impression of a coalescing around McCain. Romney will battle to keep the issues out front, McCain the process.
But the new media is at work. We'll see how it plays out.
ping
Is McCain now himself claiming that he would appoint someone like Alito? Make him put it in writing. I bet he won’t.
We really as conservatives are at war with the media as well. They have the power as to what gets broadcasted for the lazy thinkers out there to digest that fits their agenda. They are forming this country into LibBots....
Well, McCain said last night that Justice O’Connor was great by him.
There has to be something or somebody to help save us from this creep.
Well in the interest of being fair to Romney (after months and months of people savaging him on being a flip-flopper), I give you John McCain, ladies and gentlemen.
McCain said last night that he would like to appoint justices like Alito and Roberts.
Maybe someone that looks like Alito but without all that conservative baggage.
The problem is that McCain and Romney are equally lousy on judges. Lets not forget Romneys liberal appointments, including a gay rights activist and another who was an abortion activist.
So he’s gonna let Kennedy and Schumer hyperventilate and block his nominations? I just doesn’t sound like him. I suspect he will be negotiating for a compromise. And you can bet that Kennedy and Schumer will call his bluff. They know they can roll him.
Bottom line: A no vote for McCain will be a vote for the murder of millions upon millions of innocent babies.
Good link in that article: http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives2/2008/01/019681.php
A surge of dishonesty
With any luck, few Americans tuned in to tonight’s Republican debate. Those who did saw our likely nominee at his worst. McCain not only persisted in his dishonest claim that Mitt Romney supported a timetable for withdrawing from Iraq, he used one evasion after another to try to make it stick.
McCain’s first line of defense was that Romney had used the word timetable which was a “buzzword” for withdrawal. His evidence that “timetable” meant “withdrawal” was that Harry Reid, who favored withdrawal, used the word “timetable.” Guilt by association is, of course, the hallmark of a smear. McCain went one step further to allege guilt by word association. Never mind that, in the same answer upon which McCain bases his smear, Romney said he would veto any timetable for withdrawal. I bet Harry Reid never said that.
Next McCain pointed out that Romney declined as governor to take a position on the surge. But this in no way supports McCain’s claim that Romney supported withdrawal. No one disputes that McCain was way ahead of Romney (and nearly everyone else) on the question of how to succeed in Iraq. What’s now in dispute is McCain’s ability to tell the truth about this subject.
Romney noted that McCain never raised this issue against him in any debate, preferring instead to put it out there just before the people of Florida were getting ready to vote. McCain answered by saying he has questioned Romney’s experience many times. This response is too pathetic to require comment.
McCain completed his cycle of cheap evasion when he noted that Romney had engaged in negative advertising, not just against him but also against Mike Huckabee. But the issue is not negativity, it is accuracy and honesty. This where McCain suddenly and unexpectedly is struggling.
McCain’s desire to smear Romney so overwhelmed his judgment that he returned to this attack in response to a totally unrelated question about his ability to lead the economy. McCain answered the question by talking about his service in the U.S. military, during which he took another shot at Romney over his alleged proposal to withdraw from Iraq. This one had even my wife, who likes McCain and is skeptical about Romney, rolling her eyes.
More generally, if McCain thinks that invoking his military experience is going to persuade voters that he can be trusted on economic issues, he should reconsider. He’s starting to sound like Rudy Giuliani, who answered every hard question by talking about New York. McCain can probably skate past Super Tuesday with this sort of line – his persistent smirk certainly suggests he thinks he can – but it won’t work against Clinton or Obama. But then, McCain doesn’t hate them like he hates Romney, at least not yet.
McCain also took a ridiculously cheap shot at Romney when he talked about how some people at companies Romney helped turn around lost their jobs. This, along coupled with his shot at Romney for being concerned with “profit” as opposed to patriotism, makes me wonder whether even Phil Gramm can help McCain when it comes to economics — capitalist economics, anyway.
The McCain campaign has been taking the position that, since their guy is the inevitable nominee, Romney’s attacks on the Senator can only help the Democratic nominee. Under our system, McCain cannot stop Romney from damaging him through political speech. He can, however refrain from damaging himself by revealing his darker instincts when he responds to Romney. Or maybe he can’t.
UPDATE: I don’t put great stock in focus groups, but CNN’s overwhelmingly agreed with me and my wife that McCain came across very badly in his exchanges with Romney about the surge.
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Posted by Paul at 8:41 PM | |
I am not for or against McCain but I have a heartburn with news guys making claims that they know they can’t back and second or 3rd hand info at that.
I’ve heard so much of that crap that mostly comes from the left wing press. I hate stuff being said that you just can’t verify.
Still hoping for Huckabee?
http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Multimedia/Player.aspx?GUID=B4E7E5A4-F7F1-4DAA-971D-F6F53A2B2B21
“Well, McCain said last night that Justice O’Connor was great by him.”
That was telling. The deciding vote on McCain-Feingold. If he’s POTUS, we’ll get another Suter and another O’Connor.
Hope is a liberal emotion.
I saw the debate and I thought McCain came off well last night on the exchange over Romney’s timetable for getting out of Iraq. He made himself clear, emphasized the timing of Romneys statement and what “timetables” at that time meant (Dem Buzz word for getting out of Iraq). Romney outsmarts himself too often by trying to have it every which way on an issue. In political terms, I was hoping McCain and Romney would both be hurt in the exchange to make Huckabee look better. Instead it was mainly Romney that was hurt in my opinion.
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