Why McCain Will Cost The Right The Court

The central issue to conservatives in our next presidential election may well be the Supreme Court. It won't be much discussed other than at inside, inside politics sites like The Corner, just as it is being discussed today. Anyone who would make the argument that a President McCain would advance conservative interests as regards the Court, fails to understand John McCain. That includes: his oft stated priorities; current Washington dynamics; McCain's need for, and relationship to the levers of power; as well as his take on ideological thought. McCain is not an ideologue. Can anyone argue with that?

Furthermore, outside of his honorable, if all too often invoked military career, John McCain is not a fighter ... except for cause. And the conservative cause for the Courts is not one he will take up because of what it would cost him. In fact, any causes McCain might take up are strictly military in nature. This likely goes all the way back to his youth and will never change.

Perhaps instilled from his military brat, distinguished Admiral Fathered upbringing and exaggerated by his POW experience, McCain has an authoritarian bent which causes him to always seek out power. It's a need existent far beyond desire. The man spent five years completely powerless, for heaven's sake.

This is most clearly represented by his response to serious challenge, whether in the Senate Cloakroom, or a debate. The man simply cannot abide challenge. And therein lies the critical human flaw of John McCain, which will likely cost him the Presidency. But should it not, it will most assuredly cost the Right the Court.

McCain must have power, but lacks the ability to fight the long fight on non-military issues to get it. Consequently, he always chooses the easy, or what some might call the low road to gain it. He did this when the power paradigm shifted in DC in the nineties. Dennis Hastert suggests, he took up populism over conservatism as a result of the Keating Five. I believe there was more than that in play. Keating may have made him a reformer. But bowing to Clinton in exchange for power made him into a more liberal populist.

Speaking later to the Tribune, Hastert, who retired from Congress in November of last year, said McCain changed after the Keating Five to become “more of a populist.”

He did this to retain a sense of power as the Reagan/Bush era ended and the Clintons came to power. It's then that he mostly made this unpopular shift to the Democrat side of the aisle. That was where the executive authority rested. And like a moth to the flame of power, John McCain must be near it, or be an integral part of its dynamic. He couldn't make the transition back to conservatism under Bush. For starters, he didn't have to. And, second, there was too much animosity there. So he continued to build even more power among his liberal friends, going so far as to almost switch parties.

An impolite digression, but he made this same easy choice upon his return from Viet Nam. Only because character matters, this warrants pointing out. Perhaps understandably, unable to cope with feeling powerless, a Vet struggling terribly, horrifically even, to re-build his life encumbered by a weak, handicapped wife - he traded up for power, or access to it, to survive. I do not enjoy pointing out this rather tragic flaw here. But it's relevant.

When he was finally released in 1973, it was as a changed man into a changed world. His first wife, Carol, had not seen him for six years, and had herself had a terrible car accident. McCain embarked on a series of affairs, the last one with Cindy Hensley, the daughter of an Arizona beer baron, who he met at a military function in Hawaii in 1979. They were married a year later, one month after he divorced Carol. McCain's second life began.

Cindy's wealthy and well-connected father offered a gateway into Arizona's business and political elite.

The simple point is, to understand what will most easily allow McCain to access and use the full levers of power as President, you must understand what will be the easiest path to the most power for a John McCain. As he will most likely never run again at his age, there will be only one entity that can grant McCain real power. And that, my friends, will be the Liberal Congress. The final factors of this equation are his all too clearly stated priorities. Have you been listening? He has made them clear to the point of obsession throughout this entire campaign.

It's Iraq. It's the war on terror. If anyone thinks the Liberals in Congress will give him anything like the power he will need, if not crave, in his administration for nothing - you must be kidding yourself. John McCain will trade away the Court and also strike a last, smirking blow at some old enemies and trade for his own priorities, prestige and power, the much coveted Supreme Court.

And there will be nothing Ted Olsen, or any other conservative will have to say about it. Have you ever tried to argue with John McCain on anything? Somehow, I suspect Ted Olsen hasn't. But he'll have a job. And while I don't suspect it, if he thinks he's buying himself a pathway to the Court by endorsing McCain, well ... I pity the fool, what else can I say. If Alito is too controversial for McCain to fight for, my God, what truly good conservative jurist isn't?

Comments

[seekeronos]

If a McCain presidency attempts to court power for his 100-year war by trading the SCOTUS for some sympanthy support, he is not only mistaken, but will go down in history as the man who gave up the Republic to Euro-Socialism.

In fact, I am willing to go on record and say that he will claim the term "Worst President Ever" from the current holder, Jimmy Carter.

I'd say now might be a good time to buy gold, guns, bullets, and heritage seed stock before McCain's ruinous reign brings us triple-digit inflation on top of a depression that will coupled with peak oil make 1929-1939 look like wartime economic boom.

[tally]

McCain has voted for every Bush Circuit Court nominee, every single one of them.

[seekeronos]

While important in their own spheres, Circuit Court judges are not the ultimate level of judicial review in this nation. The Circuit Court could be considered a bit of a farm club of raising conservative, strict construction jurists though.

SCOTUS decisions, AFAIK, cannot be overturned by a Circuit Court judge.

[tally]

i had assumed everyone knew mccain voted for every bush supreme court nominee. just trying to expand the thoughts, seek.

[Yoda]

Vanilla ice cream, I will eat when handed it. Strawberry, if given a choice is preferred.

[Mike]

Ankle biters, please go back onto your meds!
Both Ted Olson and The Federalist Society have endorsed McCain, with the Federalist Society recognizing his judicial appointee history!
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/rubin/2206
Yeah, I wish Fred had started organizing in 2006, I wish I had the winning Lotto numbers and I wish the MSM would try to be objective.
Seems the "Beltway Conservative navel gazers" and their followers hate CFR and the McCain belief that "little brown people from Mexico and points South" are an asset to our economy more than they want the Presidency to remain in GOP hands.

[alle]

Honestly I'm not a McCain fan; he wasn't my first choice but Ted Olsen's endorsement should count for something. I'm very sorry to see that it does not. It SHOULD.

[docweasel]

Well said Mike. Also, Ted Olsen carries a GREAT amount of weight with me.

Also, I keep reading long screeds like this on why McCain will fail. I fail to see why Romney, who has never beat Hillary or even Obama in any national poll, would all the sudden be able to work wonders and nominate and seat conservative justices. I fail to see how he could even be elected. He'd lose in a landslide, and I think even his "backers" know this, they just detest McCain too much to think of anything else.

Further, I am eternally entertained by people who say, that mostly, they hate McCain for cooperating with the Democrats and their perception he's hurt the Republican party- their reaction to this: back the Democrat candidate or not vote and by omission cede the election to the Democrat. Think about those 2 positions for a minute and about how stupid and hypocritical they are.