GayPatriot

The Internet home for American gay conservatives.

My Problem with John McCain

by

As John McCain moves to smooth the ruffled feathers of social conservatives considered about his past attitudes toward them and about his stance on a number of issues, my doubts about the presidential bid of the Arizona Republican continue to grow. I’m always troubled when a candidate goes out of his way to appease social conservatives — as McCain appears to be doing.

I have long respected this Vietnam veteran and prisoner of war for he is a true American hero. After being captured by the North Vietnamese when his plane was shot down, he “refused early release–which he saw as a public relations stunt by his captors–insisting that POWs held longer than him should be granted their freedom first.” As a result, his captors treated him more harshly. He would have received better treatment had he given in to any number his captors’ demands. He refused.

He has been steadfast in his support of the War on Terror and unwavering in his commitment to victory in Iraq — despite past bad blood with President Bush. He has put his the national interest over his reported dislike of the Chief Executive. Not only has he been great on national security issues, he has also been solid on fiscal issues as well, faulting Congress for “spending money like a drunken sailor.”

But, while he has been excellent on these two items on the conservative agenda, he has equivocated on what kind of judges he would appoint were he elected president. Back in 2000, when I was deciding between him and then-Texas Governor George W. Bush as I prepared to cast my vote in the California GOP primary, I found both candidates compelling until McCain lost it when radio talk show host Michael Reagan asked him about his judicial appointments.

In the last Congress, when Republicans had a comfortable majority in the Senate, he led the Gang of Fourteen to compromise on filibustering the president’s nominees to the federal bunch, thus preventing the Senate from exercising its constitutional responsibility to vote on all the candidates the president tapped.

It’s not just judges where McCain makes me uncomfortable, it’s also his tendency to posture on certain issues to please the media. It seems that since he was in the “Keating Five” scandal, he has bent over backwards to support campaign finance reform, authoring numerous proposals placing onerous restrictions on political speech. At times, when he takes issue with his party, he seems to be doing so only to become the “maverick” Republican. And we know how much the MSM likes Republicans at odds with their party and the president.

With the latest news that McCain is courting Christian conservatives, it seems McCain is trying yet again to placate a group not readily disposed to him. On a number of issues, notably foreign policy and federal spending, John McCain has been a bold conservative, standing up against the media establishment and even his party (when it strayed from its principles). And he was a true hero during the Vietnam War.

But, too often, alas, he seems too eager to please those who might otherwise be an odds with him. Not a quality which would serve him well as Commander-in-Chief. And that’s why I have a problem with John McCain.

Comments

  1. Dan, I remember McCain’s meltdown on Michael Regan’s show (and Reagan even said after hanging up on him: “You’ve lost my vote, sir”) as well as his very public snap at Maria Shriver when she was with NBC.

    This guy is too hot to handle, and anyone with a temper like that should not be anywhere NEAR the ICBM codes, much less at the negotiating table.

    Rudy’s looking a lot better nowadays…but as I pointed out to V the K a couple topics down, I will wait and see and make my own decisions whom to support in 2008, and not let the Drive-By Media make it for me.

    Regards,
    Peter H.

  3. Dan, I think I hear you saying that McCain has been kissing ass with anti-gay conservatives lately in a way that can only be considered phony (or possibly troubling for other reasons as well), and that’s your new top concern about him.

    My top concern with him remains McCain-Feingold. I cannot vote for a man, ever, who wants to violate our most basic Constitutional right – free speech – to that extent. Would he appoint similar justices? Aaargh!

    Rudy looks good – sort of. He understands and supports the War on Terror. He gets, apparently, the importance of appointing originalist judges. Unfortunately, he is all ready to cave into the Left on Manbearpig.

    Right now, nobody has my support. Gingrich seems to have good philosophy on a lot of things, but (1) he may not be running and (2) I’d need to know more about him.

  4. Do you all view Giuliani’s shift to the right on abortion as appeasement? He is now saying he will only appoint “strict constructionists” on the issue — in other words, “please vote for me, crazy Christians.” I wonder if he’ll begin tilting to the right on the gay issue as well.

    And then there’s Mitt Romney. *Sigh* Who to vote for?

    –Chet

  5. I wrote this about McCain when he started to offer his own Senate Non-Binding resolution:

    IMHO John McCain is one of the principle reasons why the GOP lost Congress. How many times does this pattern need to play out:

    – The American people vote for Republicans
    – The Democrats do something extreme to block the agenda
    – John McCain swoops in and makes some sort of “compromise” which in the end serves to block whatever it was the Democrats wanted to block.
    – Republicans lose the issue and the voter gets more angry and disillusioned.

    He did with the Judicial nomination process
    He did with Bush’s proposal regarding Gov’t workers being protected from Torture lawsuits

    And he’s doing it with our vital war.

    He wants to make a “oversight” committee.

    Great..its bad enough the Courts are interfering with the CinC, and now he wants to add Congress to that?

    Is there no limit to the self-defeat of John McCain. he needs to go. and fast.

    I know one thing, because of his positions there is no way he will ever be elected president.

    No politician gets my support solely because the letter D is not after his name.

    If he doesn’t have the letter A after his name (for America) he can go prostitute himself to someone else.

  6. I missed the Meltdowns mentioned above. Is there a transcript?

    Anyway, McCain-Feingold, the Gang of Fourteen and his sucking up to the drive-bys just frosts me.

    I like Rudy, although at this point I’m not entirely sure he’s what we need. There’s no question, though, that he’d be tough on national security.

    BTW, Gingrich has said that he would decide in the fall.

  8. I’ve never been a fan of his political actions, esp. as regards campaign finance reform. “To protect our democracy we have to ban speech before elections” is so counter-intuitive, so mind-boggling, and he’s proud of it! Also, his witch hunt over steroids seems to me to be the epitome of nanny state, digging in your bedroom conservatism, and not the small government conservative I’m (still) waiting for…

    GPW: i don’t know your thoughts on the torture issue, but I am gratified to hear you describe McCain as “steadfast in his support of the War on Terror and unwavering in his commitment to victory in Iraq ” given his position on the Bush admin re: torture.

  9. For the record: McCain and Bush have the same position on coercive interrogation (mis-labelled “torture”) now. They devised the 2006 bill together, Bush signed it, and McCain has (in terms of public contents I know of) been more than happy to let Bush brag about all that.

  11. Thanks Calarato. It’s good to see that such rigorous debate as was going on between McCain’s faction and Bush’s, before the 2006 accord, did in fact not result in McCain being labeled as a traitor, or America-hater, etc., at least on this blog.

    Also, I note in passing that Bush did sign McCain’s bill–with a signing statement saying he may not always be bound by it. It would be interesting to know how Bush views the law’s limitations, if any, versus what Congress intended when they wrote it.

  12. Actually, McCain’s butt-kissing of the religious right (harsh words yes, but that’s what it is) has been expected. The GOP is increasingly becoming a sectarian (read: Christian) party & that’s where the power is. I used to admire McCain when he was a maverick & not afraid to ruffle feathers. But now he has moved several notches down in my book. Add to that his famous temper (he has a notoriously short fuse) & the fact that he will be 72 in 2008 lowers the chances that he will win the presidency.

  15. I really don’t understand why social conservatives don’t like McCain: when it comes to their hot button issues, he’s solidly in their camp. He opposes abortion and has always been anti-gay from his fundraising for the Oregon Citizens Alliance in the early 1990’s to his doing ads for the draconian marriage initiative here in Arizona in 2006.

    His temper, though will do him in and it will be interesting to see which of the other Republick Party candidates goads him into losing it first. From what I’ve heard, Rudy has a pretty thin skin too. It should be fun watching those two go at it.