McCain on Fund's Alito Quote: I Don't Recall Saying That

McCain begins by saying, "We're flying all over the state of Florida leave her fairly soon, and do an event in Tampa with Governor Crist. It's a coup to have him signed on. We're locked in a tight race."

He begins by remarking about Justice Alito — "I supported him, I thought he was a magnificent choice, I spoke on his behalf from the floor of the Senate... I've said several times that I'd like to find clones for Justices Roberts and Alito. Of course, that opens up raises other issues, so I ahven't used that phrase anymore... It was a tough fight. He only got 57 views. If you ask Jon Kyl, Lindsey Graham, or anyone on that committee, they'll say that I was a supporter... I was astonished that my record — I just wanted to make clear my record of supporting Justice Alito."

"I don't recall a conversation where I would have said that. I'm not saying someone didn't tell him that. It's important to say what my record was, my advocacy, my hard work, my comments on the campaign trail. Every town hall meeting, I've said, we're going to have justices like Roberts and Alito. The White House would be the first to tell you that I was one of the folks out there slugging for them."

Me: Is it possible for a Supreme Court Justice nominee to wear his politics on his sleeve?

McCain: Well, mmm... There may be. They're there to interpret the Constitution, and the question is, does this justice have a record, does this nominee have a clear record of strict interpretation of the Constitution. We know we can't ask about pending cases. The beauty of Alito and Roberts was they had a clear record.

I don't think Supreme Court Justices should get involved in political campaigns or electoral politics, and I know you don't either. I know that if they interpret the Constitution strictly, you'll see a lot of decisions in the keeping with your and my political philosophy.

McCain: We've only done a few, tomorrow is the perfect time to do it. We have some slack time until the polls close and we are waiting for the exit poll numbers to come in.

McCain: (missed the beginning) The robo-calls are all out again. I don't think that works. He challenges my economic credentials, which I think are strong. I challenge his record as governor, where they had the third-worse economic record in the country and he left a deficit... They're throwing everything but the kitchen sink at us... I'm being accurate, and I see his attacks as unwarranted and a bit desperate.

McCain: I objected to [Kerry's] combat record being questions. When they attacked his acts in the anti-war movement, that was completely different. I thought all of that stuff was fair game. I didn't think that his combat record were appropriate. I think there's a significant difference there.

Asked by Michael Goldfarb about Obama's South Carolina victory, McCain said he was eager for the fray with either Obama or Clinton. In response to a question about Pat Buchanan claiming they're no longer friends or on speaking terms, McCain said, "One of the things I have to do if and when I get the nomination, I have to unite the party. We have a lot of work to do to unite and galvanize our Republican Party, and we're going to need everyone pulling in the same direction."

NRO's Mark Hemingway asked whether McCain's strict constructionist judges would uphold his views on issues like campaign finance reform.

McCain: I won't allow my bias on any belief - there will be decisions whose importance that will far exceed my political agenda.

Asked about his reaction to the New York Times endorsement, McCain said, "My reaction was, as with several other liberal papers that have endorsed me, I'm glad that they support that they support my views, but it doesn't mean I support theirs."

Some background from the Blogosphere:

McCain Said What?
Floppin Aces
Posted by: Curt @ 11:23 am in Politics, SCOTUS

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If this quote is true then McCain is in for some deep trouble. But remember, we’re talking about the MSM here who almost never quote someone accurately:

Then there is the issue of judicial nominations, a top priority with 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.”

If this is true it’s just one more example why the man can’t be trusted.

Sadly, I would still work to ensure he gets elected if he does become the nominee because we all know, with absolute certainty, that Hillary/Obama would not put up anyone like a Roberts, more like a John Paul Stevens, and that CANNOT be allowed to happen.

UPDATE

Via Hot Air comes McCain’s response to this from Byron York:

“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 don’t get it,” McCain continued. “I have a clear record of that. All I can tell you is my record is clear: I’ve supported these guys. I went to the floor of the Senate and spoke in favor of them. It’s in the record, saying, ‘You’ve got to confirm these people.’”
I asked whether McCain had ever drawn any distinction between Roberts and Alito. “No, no, of course not,” McCain said.

A reporter misquoting a candidate? Naw, never happens. I agree with Bryan here, this now shifts to John Fund who wrote the offending article.

UPDATE II

Based on this from nine months ago:

He told his audience in Columbia Thursday how happy he was that the Supreme Court last week upheld the law to “outlaw the terrible and odious practice that’s called partial birth abortion. I am proud that happened; I am proud of the Congress and proud of the president. But I’m also proud of the fact that (Republican senator) Lindsey Graham and I –- with five other Republicans joined with seven Democrats” to design an anti-filibuster deal that allowed Bush nominees John Roberts and Sam Alito to win confirmation.
McCain called them “two of the finest justices ever appointed to the United States Supreme Court.”
As McCain made a point of telling the audience in Columbia, “there may be as many as three vacancies on the United States Supreme Court” in the next presidential term. “It’s going to be a very, very important responsibility of the next president.”
His judges, he implied would be in the mold of Thomas, Alito and Roberts and, he vowed, “would strictly interpret the Constitution.”

I think Fund has some explaining to do.

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From the comments to the original post:

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TBinSTL

John Fund was on Levin’s show today and says that he stands by the story and that he has multiple sources on this. K-lo at NRO says she has sources of her own that tell her that the quote is accurate.

January 28th, 2008 at 3:48 pm

What really bothers me is staffing his Hispanic outreach effort with This Dr. Juan Hernandez -- who is a notorious open-borders activist... See post #38 on McCain’s billionaire national finance co-chair Jerry Perenchio

********************************SND Post #40 on the above thread:

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Chasing links from the Blogosphere...leads me to this..see post #38:

Thursday, January 24, 2008
More Multiculturalism [Mark Krikorian]

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Actually, this is more like transnationalism. A reader alerted me to the fact that McCain's "Hispanic Outreach Director" is the same guy who held that job for Mexico's President Vicente Fox! U.S.-born dual citizen Juan Hernandez was in Fox's cabinet as Director of the Office for Mexicans Living Abroad and is notorious for having said of Mexican Americans on Nightline on June 7, 2001, "I want the third generation, the seventh generation, I want them all to think 'Mexico first.'" Does McCain agree with this? Has he offered Hernandez, a former high-level foreign government official who presumably swore an oath to uphold the Mexican constitution, a place in a future McCain Administration? That's not a rhetorical question.

01/24 05:38 PM

Realise that he could have worked really hard for Alito’s confirmation, and STILL said that he wouldn’t have picked the guy if HE was in charge.

As a Senator, McCain had to work with what he was given. He in fact probably loved Alito. I don’t think the quote was about not liking Alito.

But look what he said here about him — how he had to work so hard, how he only got 57 votes.

To McCain, that’s a bad thing. He likes the Senate to be able to confirm with wide margins, to “get along”.

His quote indicates that he saw Alito as being so obviously conservative that it made it really hard to get him through the Senate. And that becuase of that, he might not pick such an obvious conservative.

That is perfectly in line with what we know about McCain, AND still perfectly in line with his personal feelings about Alito and how hard he worked to get him through.

But it plays to MY fears — that on judges it won’t matter what McCain wants, he’ll work with the senate democrats to find candidates that will get wide bipartisan support.

Let us look at McCain’s conservative credentials:
-IMMIGRATION: he wrote the bill granting amnesty to illegal immigrants (co-sponsored by Ted Kennedy)
-SOCIAL SECURITY: he voted to give your social security money to illegal immigrants
-TAXES: he voted against the Bush tax cuts multiple times (he has since flip-flopped and has campaigned as a lifelong tax-cutter)
-RHETORIC: he routinely engages in Democratic class warfare against big companies in America, particularly the “evil” drug companies who research cures to debilitating diseases for a profit
-ECONOMY: as recently as December 2007 he admitted “he does not know the economy very well” and needed to get better at it
-1ST AMENDMENT: he wrote the McCain-Feingold campaign finance bill that was declared to be an unconstitutional infringement of the 1st Amendment (co-sponsored by ultra-liberal Democrat Russ Feingold)
-2ND AMENDMENT: he was called the “worst 2nd amendment candidate” by the president of the NRA
-ENERGY TAX: wrote a bill (co-sponsored by his buddy Lieberman) imposing a massive tax on energy which, according to the Department of Energy, would drastically raise the price of gasoline and put 300,000 Americans out of work
-GLOBAL WARMING: supports radical global warming legislation which involved him voting with every Democrat; think only America is responsible to take action, not other superpowers
-JUDGES: he joined forces with Democrats (Gang of 14) to block the Senate Republican’s attempt to confirm conservative, strict constructionist judges; also said Alito was too conservative for his liking
-WAR ON TERROR: fought with Hillary Clinton to demand that terrorists be given a full American trial
-GAY MARRIAGE: he joined liberals to fight against a federal marriage amendment supporting the institution of traditional marriage
-CHRISTIANS: campaigning in 2000, he famously described Christian leaders as “agents of intolerance”
-PRO-LIFE: he filed an amicus brief against pro-life advocates in Wisconsin
-BI-PARTISANSHIP: he met with leading Democrats in 2004 to discuss the possibility of being John Kerry’s Vice-President; publicly considered leaving the Republican Party in 2001 after he lost the primary
-PROFESSIONAL ETHICS: ringleader of the infamous Keating 5 ethical scandal which cost US tax payers $160 billion (Google it)
-PERSONAL ETHICS: McCain cheated on his first wife after she had a severe accident that left her partially disabled. He then divorced her and married his multi-millionaire mistress, whose daddy bought McCain a spot in the Congress

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