Robert D. Novak, The Houston Chronicle, January 31, 2008
As John McCain neared his momentous primary election victory in Florida after a ferocious campaign questioning his conservative credentials, right-wingers buzzed over word that he had privately suggested that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito was too conservative. In response, Sen. McCain recalled saying no such thing and added Alito was a “magnificent” choice. In fact, multiple sources confirm his negative comments about Alito nine months ago.
McCain, as the “straight talk” candidate, says things off the cuff that he sometimes cannot remember exactly. Elements of the Republican Party’s right wing, uncomfortable with McCain as their prospective presidential nominee, surfaced the Alito comments long after the fact for two contrasting motives. One was a desperate effort to keep McCain from winning in Florida. The other was to get the party’s potential nominee on record about key issues before he is nominated.
The latter has no pretensions of changing McCain’s firmly held non-conservative positions on such issues as campaign finance reform and global warming. Rather, they want two assurances: first, that McCain would veto any tax increase passed by a Democratic Congress; second, that he would not emulate Gerald R. Ford and George H.W. Bush in naming liberal justices John Paul Stevens and David Souter.
That is the background of conservative John Fund’s Wall Street Journal online column the day before Florida voted. He wrote that McCain “has told conservatives he would be happy to appoint the likes of Chief Justice 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.’ ” In a conference call with bloggers that day, McCain said, “I don’t recall a conversation where I would have said that.” He was “astonished” by the Alito quote, he said, and repeatedly tells town meetings, “We’re going to have justices like Roberts and Alito.”
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Robert “Prince of Darkness” Novak: McCain Has Repair Work to do with GOP Right Wing
Robert D. Novak, The Houston Chronicle, January 31, 2008
As John McCain neared his momentous primary election victory in Florida after a ferocious campaign questioning his conservative credentials, right-wingers buzzed over word that he had privately suggested that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito was too conservative. In response, Sen. McCain recalled saying no such thing and added Alito was a “magnificent” choice. In fact, multiple sources confirm his negative comments about Alito nine months ago.
McCain, as the “straight talk” candidate, says things off the cuff that he sometimes cannot remember exactly. Elements of the Republican Party’s right wing, uncomfortable with McCain as their prospective presidential nominee, surfaced the Alito comments long after the fact for two contrasting motives. One was a desperate effort to keep McCain from winning in Florida. The other was to get the party’s potential nominee on record about key issues before he is nominated.
The latter has no pretensions of changing McCain’s firmly held non-conservative positions on such issues as campaign finance reform and global warming. Rather, they want two assurances: first, that McCain would veto any tax increase passed by a Democratic Congress; second, that he would not emulate Gerald R. Ford and George H.W. Bush in naming liberal justices John Paul Stevens and David Souter.
That is the background of conservative John Fund’s Wall Street Journal online column the day before Florida voted. He wrote that McCain “has told conservatives he would be happy to appoint the likes of Chief Justice 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.’ ” In a conference call with bloggers that day, McCain said, “I don’t recall a conversation where I would have said that.” He was “astonished” by the Alito quote, he said, and repeatedly tells town meetings, “We’re going to have justices like Roberts and Alito.”
Read More Here