Jack Kelly Sunday

Things must be real panicy over in Wingnuttia these days.

According to talkingpointsmemo, in a state-by-state round up of the upcoming Republican primaries, Senator John McCain looks to be in a good position. In fact they say:

The bottom line: John McCain has it made.

And this morning, they posted:

On the Republican side the picture is coming pretty quickly into focus: John McCain looks poised to crush Mitt Romney on Tuesday. If you look at the results of the Gallup daily tracking poll, virtually all of Giuliani's support nationally has gone to McCain, pushing him up into the mid-forties. Put that apparent break-out together with the fact that the Republican side is dominated by winner-take-all primaries, and it seems more than likely McCain will take Tuesday in a blow out. Probably enough to effectively end the Republican race. [emphasis added.]

So when the "more conservative-er than thou" crowd is unhappy with McCain's Con-credentials, it's up to our Jack Kelly to try to calm things down. Here he is from today's column:

The race for the GOP nomination for president is all but over, save for the weeping and gnashing of teeth among conservatives.

I don't think Arizona Sen. John McCain would be a good president. He lacks the temperament for it, he has virtually no managerial experience and the economy is, as George Will put it, "a subject with which Mr. McCain is neither conversant, nor eager to become so."

But there is a big difference between being a mediocre president -- as one could argue George W. Bush has been -- and being an awful one.

First off, let me congratulate Jack Kelly for putting in print something we've been waiting to hear him say for a long time: George W. Bush has been a mediocre president. But is it possible that he's saying that McCain would be a worse president than dubya? Or is he making a comparison between a McCain presidency and an Obama or Clinton presidency?

This part is unclear to me. Perhaps his editors should have asked him to tighten that one up a bit.

In any event, he makes his case for and against McCain. First the pro:

For this conservative, the paramount issue is winning the war on terror, because if we lose, nothing else will matter very much. Arguably, Mr. McCain is better suited than anyone else to lead us to victory.

The next most important issue to me is to appoint to the federal bench judges who will follow the Constitution. Mr. McCain supported the nominations of John Roberts and Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court, but some are trying to manufacture doubt about whom he'd appoint. There's no doubt about what kind of judges Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama would choose.

Then the con:

Mr. McCain was wrong to oppose the Bush tax cuts, and his refusal to admit his mistake fuels MDS (McCain Derangement Syndrome).

In between he outlined the dangers facing the citizens of the Red States:

While it is true no Republican can be elected president without the support of the conservative base, it is also true that no Republican can be elected with the support only of the conservative base. When moderates are no longer comfortable in the Republican Party, Democrats will win all the elections.

That being said, I thought it would be fun to see just what they in fact are saying about McCain.

First, Ann Coulter:

John McCain is Bob Dole minus the charm, conservatism and youth. Like McCain, pollsters assured us that Dole was the most "electable" Republican. Unlike McCain, Dole didn't lie all the time while claiming to engage in Straight Talk.

Of course, I might lie constantly too, if I were seeking the Republican presidential nomination after enthusiastically promoting amnesty for illegal aliens, Social Security credit for illegal aliens, criminal trials for terrorists, stem-cell research on human embryos, crackpot global warming legislation and free speech-crushing campaign-finance laws.

I might lie too, if I had opposed the Bush tax cuts, a marriage amendment to the Constitution, waterboarding terrorists and drilling in Alaska.

And I might lie if I had called the ads of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth "dishonest and dishonorable."

Astonishing. For the record Bob Dole was born in the summer of 1923. So that means that in 1996 (when he ran for President) he turned 73. John McCain was born in late-summer of 1936. So in 2008 he'll turn 72. Kinda kills Coulter's age joke, doesn't it?

Or maybe I'm just lacking a sense of humor.

Here's Rush Limbaugh on John McCain. The headline of the transcript goes like this:

It's Plain to See: McCain Chooses to Surround Himself with Liberals

Followed by a picture of McCain Governor Schwarzenegger and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. At Schwarzenegger's endorsement of McCain, the Governator touted McCain's ability to reach out across the aisle. This rubbed the Rush the wrong way:

Well, that's really helpful. He reaches across the aisle well. (sigh) That means he reaches out to Democrats -- and of course Schwarzenegger probably could write the book on that.

Here he is on McCain's recent positions:

But one other thing that I would like to ask those of you who are military -- and you know of my profound, deep respect and awe for you in the decades of support on this program, but I would like to ask you about McCain's support for closing Club Gitmo. Senator McCain wants to shut down Guantanamo Bay because of abuses that the Europeans are accusing us of committing, and so he wants to appease the Europeans and whoever the hell else around the world who thinks that we are committing torture. These are the people with whom we are at war. We have gleaned operational intelligence from people at Guantanamo. Waterboarding gave us everything we needed to know about the 9/11 mastermind and hijackings and the strategery and the operations of it. Waterboarding, not torture. The attorney general was put on the spot yesterday in hearings and he told the guys at the committee, screw you -- he didn't use those words. He didn't back down. Waterboarding is not torture. I'm not going to tie my government's hands. He said, (paraphrasing) "I would love to institute my personal preferences on these kind of things, gentlemen, but I am the attorney general of the United States, and my first duty is the defense and protection of the Constitution here. I am not going to just by fiat tie my country's hands dealing with this enemy."

Senator McCain wants to do that. He wants to bring these prisoners of war into the United States, give them constitutional rights and lawyers, and basically fight the war in the court system. So on the one hand Senator McCain sounds all gung-ho, I'm for the surge and this sort of thing, but if you look at some of the other things that he's trying to do, like cut down on the interrogations that take place. I mean, isn't that part of the war, the internal security of the country? We were attacked here on 9/11, after all. I don't think we need to close Club Gitmo. Senator McCain says that if we waterboard these clowns we're no better than our enemy. What do the troops think of that? I'm just throwing some questions out there, not trying to agitate, not trying to stir the pot. That happens naturally. Don't have to try. Just throwing some questions out there.

Sounds like he's not a fan.

Neither is Michelle Malkin:

John McCain said at the GOP debate two days ago: “I’ll rely on people to judge me by the company that I keep.” The company John McCain keeps:

Russ Feingold.
Teddy Kennedy.
Lindsay Grahamnesty.
Juan “Mexico First/Free Flow” Hernandez.
Jerry “Spanish first” Perenchio. Geraldo Rivera.
La Raza.
Charles Keating.
John Kerry.
The New York Times.

Ouch. John Kerry, the New York Times AND John Keating.

Here's Hugh Hewett at Townhall.com. He just quoted McCain's opposition to drilling in ANWR:

As far as ANWR is concerned, I don’t want to drill in the Grand Canyon, and I don’t want to drill in the Everglades. This is one of the most pristine and beautiful parts of the world.

There in a sentence is another example of the dynamic that drives conservatives away from John McCain. Not only do the vast majority of Republicans support exploration in ANWR, they also deeply resent the idea that such a position is on a par with a proposal to strip mine Yellowstone. But here is John McCain comparing exploration in ANWR to drilling in the Everglades or the Grand Ganyon. It isn't just that McCain's position is opposite that of the Republican party. It is also that he uses the harshest rhetoric of the left to convey that disagreement

They're not happy with John McCain, no.

But I would be remiss if I were to omit this:

The most frightening aspect of the entire story.