Common Sense on McCain

Sen. John McCain is an opportunist. Good politicians usually are. He's saying all the right things now about how the GOP needs to stand for smaller government, less taxes, and the usual things that conservatives and libertarians would agree with.

The big problem is that McCain's record shows anything but disdain for those conservative values.

The Left Coaster notes that McCain is busy pandering to the right wing conservative base. It's a very good point. He is pandering. All the visits to places like GOPAC or The Federalist Society do nothing to burnish his actual record.

You do remember his record, don't you?

Member of Keating Five. McCain got cited for questionable conduct in that whole affair. But he's managed to resurrect his career by being considered a maverick.

Part of that image includes running on issues that run counter to what most GOP base voters would find objectionable - open borders for one. More importantly, as Rob Port also notes, McCain was a prime author of McCain Feingold Campaign Finance Reform Law, which is in actuality an abomination that undermines free speech for all, by specifically limiting political speech. Political speech was precisely the kind and form of speech that the Founding Fathers were concerned about when they designed the Bill of Rights. It is from political speech that other rights flows. Yet, McCain wanted to limit where and how that speech was conducted, and who could provide that speech.

Others blogging: Liberty Lounge.