The old guard speaks up for its own

Well, Bob Dole has heard enough.

The old boy has roused himself and done a campaign PR gig for McCain, writing Rush Limbaugh a public "letter" in support of the little maverick.

In it he lists eight bullet points which are intended to prove McCain's conservative credentials, although tellingly Dole does NOT describe it as 'conservatism' but as 'support for his party'.

In a bill of particulars numbered 1 through 8, Dole wrote that McCain has a “Consistent pro-life record,” was a “Strong advocate for strict constructionist judges,” “Supported voluntary school prayer,” supported a balanced-budget amendment, was a strong advocate for cutting spending, consistently defended Second Amendment (gun-owner) rights, “opposed ‘Hillary Care,’ ” and was “Probably the Senate's strongest advocate for strong national defense.”

Let's take a look, shall we?

Consistent pro life record -- I'll give him that, for lack of evidence to the contrary. But does he believe a fetus is a human being and that abortion is murder? And if not, why is he against abortion? Or is he? Is a 'consistent pro life record' evidence of a belief, or of a simple desire to support fellow party members? Who knows? He never talks about it in these terms.

Strong advocate for strict constructionist judges -- uh, no. Gang of 14. Didn't like Alito because he wore his conservatism on his sleeve. McCain might say he likes constructionists, but they tend to write opinions of a conservative nature, and he has clearly said he does NOT like that. McCain is a George H. W. Bush type, and HIS picks for bench spots were plain dreadful.

Supported voluntary school prayer -- well, why not institutional school prayer, like it used to be? That's a cop out and is NOT conservative.

Strong advocate for cutting spending-- maybe, but he used this as an excuse to vote AGAINST Bush's tax cuts, TWICE. Real conservatives know that cutting taxes means increasing government revenue, and that spending cuts do not NEED to be tied to tax cuts. McCain is talking about CARBON taxes, about GLOBAL WARMING, right off the pages of the NYT's OPED section. He's not planning on CUTTING spending.

Besides, he's also said he opposed those Bush tax cuts because they were 'only for the wealthiest of Americans', just like every liberal says. So which is it? Was the problem a lack of spending cuts or that the recipients of the tax cuts were the EVIL RICH?

McCain is no conservative. Conservatives know you can't give a tax cut to somebody who didn't PAY any taxes. This is what's happening NOW, with the stupid 'stimulus' bill. They're going to send checks to people who didn't pay, and means-test the ones who DID in order to EXCLUDE them from the bonanza. It's the OPPOSITE of tax relief. It's simple redistribution of wealth.

Defended gun rights? Okay, at least he supports ONE of the amendments to the Constitution. But that freedom of speech thing? Forget it. McCain Feingold. The Incumbent Protection Act. A clear violation of our right to speak about politics in the public square during election season, supposedly to get money out of politics but really all it did was to remove accountability from that money.

the Senate's strongest advocate for national defense -- okay, but, Senator, what is your actual stance on Islamism and our long term foreign policy? I mean, we all demand to be protected from attack by our military, and that's fine; even Hillary would be responsible for the most part in that area.

But what's your plan? What's your opinion? What's your vision? Funny how he never talks in those terms. Bush says freedom and peace go hand in hand, and that unfree nations are the only ones that make offensive war these days. Free citizens tend to not want to do that. So Bush's vision is a free and democratic Middle East, with no dictators amassing weapons and dreaming of conquest.

It's a vision thing, whether you like Bush's vision or not. What is McCain's vision? Nobody knows.

We DO know that he believes totally in the leftist pap about global warming, including a need to tax the hell out of anyone with an extra dollar to pay for the mess he's going to get us into. We know he believes border fences are stupid, and anyone quick or smart enough to get here illegally ought to stay. He says he's strong on defense, but what about the defense of our own borders?

Match Point to Rush.

Dole has given the game away; he's responded to Limbaugh in such a way as to prove Limbaugh right AND to demonstrate that conservatism is NOT fading away as an American philosophy.

After all, if conservatism was a dying movement, why would Dole feel the need to defend McCain's conservative credentials? Why not just blow those crazies off, forget about them, reach out to regular mainstream America and win THEM over? Who needs a dying movement, a minority of cranks, a failed philosophy?

Apparently McCain does. The polls have been shifting mightily of late, showing lots of creep from McCain to Romney, showing Rush's assertions are having their effect. If we had anything like a Reagan in this game, even if Fred had caught on and been in Romney's shoes this week, McCain would be fading fast. Romney is the default candidate for conservatives now, and he's not really the best at articulating this. but so many are concerned at McCain's legendary non-conservatism that they're moving to Romney furiously. too little, too late, perhaps; still, it's happening. Huckabee is staying in ONLY because he takes votes from Romney; watch the McCain cabinet picks to see his smiling weasel face again in our future.

After all, if McCain was a real conservative, why would he have to EXPLAIN it to us? Wouldn't the conservative movement know it already?

Isn't this movement founded on principles and populated by attentive and politically astute citizens who are capable of determining through news and current events whether their politicians are adhering to their principles? After all, that was Rudy's problem in the end; he was not really a conservative, just a strong-on-defense moderate lib. The people voted on it, and he didn't get any real traction amongst conservatives.

Well, the people know McCain too. He gets lots of waffle votes, lots of moderate votes, independents, crossover Dem nutcases who illegally vote in our primaries-- but not the majority of the conservative vote.

If McCain was a real conservative, he wouldn't be enlisting a fake conservative like Dole to trumpet the conservative angle.

This is why Dole lost the presidency, folks; he was a blue blood country club establishment Republican who was embarrassed at all the conservative noise and ignored those crazy red-state rednecks.

And he lost to a man who did NOT get a majority of the vote.

I think that once the media has assured itself of getting McCain as the Republican nominee, they will rapidly fall out of love with him, and McCain will find it impossible to win in November.

The media are liberal, folks. They don't change overnight. If they've got a choice between Hillary (or Obama) and McCain, they'll go with the left leg every time.

Oh, and does anyone now believe the Dem ticket will NOT be some combination of Hillary and Obama?

This business of getting McCain nominated is just the media's effort to nullify conservatism as a topic of discussion. They're sending us out into the woods to be forgotten, to be hermitized.

But we're not gone just yet. :-)