Michelle Malkin: Beware of McCain Regression Syndrome

The movement to restore limited government has come too far to be pulled back into the abyss

By Michelle Malkin | Published on 01.24.2010

  • E-mail
  • Print this page Print
  • Comments (6)
    • Share

Pay attention: In the afterglow of the Massachusetts Miracle, there are flickers of peril for the right. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but like Paul Revere’s midnight message, consider this warning “a cry of defiance, and not of fear.” Conservatives have worked hard to rebuild after Big Government Republican John McCain’s defeat. But McCain isn’t going gently into that good night.

Michelle Malkin
Michelle Malkin

Red Flag No. 1: A reader from Arizona informed me the day after the Bay State Bombshell that he had received a robo-call from Sen.-elect Scott Brown, R-Mass. “He basically wanted me to vote for John McCain in November,” the reader said in his description of the automated campaign call supporting the four-term Sen. McCain’s re-election bid. “No wonder (Brown) said he hadn’t had any sleep. ... He was busy recording phone messages!”

Red Flag No. 2: Also in the wake of the Massachusetts special election, the nation’s most popular conservative political figure, Sarah Palin, announced she would be campaigning for her former running mate in Arizona in March. Palin told her Facebook followers that she’s going to “ride the tide with common-sense candidates” and help “heroes and statesmen” such as McCain.

Facing mounting conservative opposition in his home state and polls showing him virtually tied with possible Republican challenger and former Rep. J.D. Hayworth, McCain welcomed the boost: “Sarah energized our nation and remains a leading voice in the Republican Party.”

Savor the irony: After a career spent bashing the right flank of the party, McCain is now clinging to its coattails to save his incumbent hide.

And pay attention to the hidden, more troubling irony: While he runs to the right to protect his seat, McCain’s political machine is working across the country to install liberal and establishment Republicans to secure his legacy.

In Florida, McCain’s Country First Political Action Committee is supporting the Senate bid of fellow illegal alien amnesty supporter and global warming alarmist Republican Gov. Charlie Crist, whose crucial 2008 primary endorsement rescued McCain from disaster. Grassroots conservatives support former Republican state House leader Marco Rubio — who is hitting Crist hard for lying to voters about his embrace of President Barack Obama’s pork-laden, fraud-ridden stimulus package.

In Colorado, McCain and his meddlers infuriated the state party by anointing former Lt. Gov. Jane Norton to challenge endangered Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo. She’s a milquetoast public official who has served on a lot of task forces and GOP clubs — and who happens to be the sister-in-law of big Beltway insider Charlie Black. An estimated 40 percent of her coffers are filled with out-of-state money (and much of that is flowing from the Beltway).

The mini-McCain of Colorado claims to oppose “special interests,” but has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars from D.C. lobbyists at McCain’s behest — stifling the candidacies of strong conservative rivals led by grassroots-supported Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck, an amnesty opponent whose aggressive illegal-immigration prosecutions have earned him the rage of the far left and big-business right. A recent Rasmussen poll showed Buck and Republican candidate Tom Wiens beating Bennet — despite the huge cash and crony advantage of frontrunner and blank-slate Norton.

In California, McCain’s PAC supports former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina — a celebrity name with deep pockets of her own, massive media exposure and a checkered business record. Fiorina served as the economic adviser to McCain, who supported the $700 billion TARP bailout, the $25 billion auto bailout, a $300 billion mortgage bailout and the first $85 billion AIG bailout. As Republican rival and grassroots-supported Chuck DeVore’s camp notes, Fiorina also has vacillated publicly over the Obama stimulus. With taxpayer “friends” like this, who needs Democrats?

With all due respect to McCain’s noble war service, it’s time to head to the pasture. As the Supreme Court has ruled Thursday, he was wrong on the constitutionality of the free-speech-stifling McCain-Feingold campaign finance regulations. He was wrong to side with the junk-science global warming activists in pushing onerous carbon caps on America. He was on the wrong side of every Chicken Little-driven bailout. He was wrong in opposing enhanced CIA interrogation methods that have saved countless American lives and averted jihadi plots. And he was spectacularly wrong in teaming with the open-borders lobby to push a dangerous illegal alien amnesty.

Tea Party activists are rightly outraged by Palin’s decision to campaign for McCain, whose entrenched incumbency and progressive views are anathema to the movement. At least she has an excuse: She’s caught between a loyalty rock and a partisan hard place. The conservative base has no such obligations — and it is imperative that they get in the game (as they did in Massachusetts) before it’s too late.

The movement to restore limited government in Washington has come too far, against all odds, to succumb to McCain Regression Syndrome now.

— Michelle Malkin is author of Unhinged: Exposing Liberals Gone Wild. Click here for more information. She can be contacted at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Comments (6)

Post a Comment

Noozhawk's comments are moderated, but by posting here you accept your responsibility to follow our rules.

  1. No abusive, defamatory or libelous attacks. In plain English: No personal attacks.
  2. No vulgar or discriminatory language.
  3. If you do not follow these rules, don't be surprised if your comment is removed.
  4. Please use the Report Abuse button on offensive comments.
  5. Share what you know, ask about what you don't. Give us your eyewitness accounts, observations, background and history. Tell us what else you want to know about the story.
  6. Stay on the topic, PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK, and forgive people their spelling errors.

Noozhawk's intent is not to limit the discussion of our stories but to elevate it. Thank you for your respectful participation. Click here for our complete Terms of Use.

Comments are moderated, and will not appear until they've been approved.

Name:

» An honorable man wrote on 01.25.10 @ 08:20 AM

McCain is a Democrat in disguise…far too mushy and pandering to be called a conservative. How else could he lose?

» AN50 wrote on 01.25.10 @ 11:59 AM

McCain lost because he did not have the conservative vote.  Brown won campaigning on a conservative platform. If the GOP doesn’t get that there is no hope for salvaging the party of the old stuffy blue blood oligarchs.

» local wrote on 01.25.10 @ 02:49 PM

McCain lost because he picked an idiot as his running mate. He thought the economy was in great shape. He also was a big backer of Bush’s Neo-Con War in Iraq. He came across as very old and out of touch with the people. He surrounded himself with people like Phil Gramm who was a significant contributor to the cause of our economic problems. He aligned himself too much with George W. In other words, McCain ran a poor campaign from the beginning to the very end. The GOP pool of Presidental candidates was pathetic so McCain won the nomination by default.

» Time to get Real? wrote on 01.25.10 @ 03:50 PM

I feel that it will not be long that we will still be arguing over the merits of Republicans vs. Democrats, Liberals and Conservatives. Both parties are essentially the same, and are playing a very clever game to keep each other in power. Ultimately, WE keep them in power, and then complain when they do not represent us, which is their supposed job.
The thin cloak covering Truth will soon be uncovered!

» Malkin Madness wrote on 01.25.10 @ 05:59 PM

Good old Michelle. No one, and I mean no one, is right of her ultra-radical conservative orientation. What’s interesting however is that when she did get what she asked for in the anti-government, pro-ruling class, corporate cheerleading dream team of Bush-Cheney (an administration she rarely had complaints about), the results weren’t so great for the middle class, the economy, the military or the nation itself. I wonder what specific blend of small government fascism Malkin really has in mind that she thinks will work? Maybe she should join the ‘Palin for 2012’ ticket?

» AN50 wrote on 01.25.10 @ 11:01 PM

Good old Michelle. No one, and I mean no one, can make a liberal spew Bush Derangement Syndrome like she can. Oh you liberals really make me laugh!

 

More Local News »

Michelle Malkin: Speaker Pelosi’s Deficient Cleaning Service

Her House is in disarray as she tries to sweep Massa cover-up allegations under the rug

Michelle Malkin: The Obama Way — Bluster, Bully, Bribe

Accusations of a judgeship-for-Obamacare-vote deal not so far-fetched

Michelle Malkin: Oba-Kabuki Health Care a Box Office Bomb

Obamacare Theater, lacking substance, showed only that Democrats have a flair for the dramatic

Michelle Malkin: It’s All the Tea Party’s Fault

For the left, all the evil in America can be conveniently placed right where it doesn't belong

Michelle Malkin: Jack Murtha — Requiem for a Corruptocrat

The late Democratic congressman embodied everything that is wrong with Washington

Weather: Fog/Mist 54.0º


© Malamute Ventures LLC 2007-2010 | ISSN No. 1947-6086

Web Design & Development by PixelFive