If I may be so bold, I’d like to embellish on Hugh’s point on why this immigration bill is dreadful news for the McCain candidacy. McCain has been a stalwart on Iraq; he’s also been appropriately hawkish on the wider war, although I’ve yet to see any indications that he actually understands it. Although his position on coercive interrogation techniques is outside the party’s mainstream, even McCain’s critics sense that he’ll fight the war aggressively. This is all good, and his greatest asset as he seeks the Republican nomination.
But in order to get that nomination, the party faithful will have to overlook the many thumbs in the eye Senator McCain has delivered to conservatives over the past six years. For those of us with long memories, he doesn’t really have a chance. But a lot of people are more forgiving types, so maybe he can be so strong on the war that Republican voters will essentially forget McCain/Feingold, McCain/Kennedy, the Abu Ghraib grandstanding, the Gang of 14, voting against the Bush tax cuts...You get the idea.
Today’s events put the non-viability of the McCain candidacy into stark relief. McCain has committed so many offenses to conservatives over the past six years that he can’t realistically hope to emerge from their shadow.
Republicans are hopping mad over the immigration deal that’s been struck. Even as a relatively passive observer of the entire debate, I find this creature to be an abomination. The Counter Terrorism blog refers to it as a national security disaster. I would add that it’s also a moral disaster. And John McCain, more than any other single senator, is responsible for it.
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