Hugh Hewitt interviewed Rick Santorum and Michael Gerson today and what they have to say about McCain is an eye-opener. Santorum was in the Senate with McCain for many years:
When Santorum says that “we’re looking at the media trying to make Barack Obama the president, and make John McCain the shill for him,” and “I think they know that John McCain can’t win this election,” he is exactly on target.
When Santorum says of McCain that on “the environment, he’s absolutely terrible. He buys into the complete left wing environmentalist movement in this country,” he is speaking from Republican Caucus experience.
When Santorum says that about the McCain-Kennedy immigration bill that “John McCain was the guy who was working with Ted Kennedy to drive it down our throats, and lectured us repeatedly about how xenophobic we were, lectured us, us being the Republican conference, about how wrong we were on this, how we were on the wrong side of history,” he was there, heard those lectures.
When Michael Gerson says that “I think the main policy problem John McCain has is that I don’t think there’s much evidence that he’s a convert on the pro-growth economic philosophy,” and adds that “[w]hen he opposed the Bush tax cuts, it wasn’t just that there was not offsets, and not sufficient cuts,” remember that Gerson was at George W. Bush’s side through those battles. Gerson remembers that McCain “used our class warfare arguments, ‘It’ll only benefit the top 1%’ and other things,” and concluded “I don’t think he buys the kind of supply side ideology that has really determined American economic policies the last 25 years, particularly under both Reagan and the current President Bush.”
Now before you say Santorum is a shill for Romney, as Hugh is, read this:
HH: We’ve got about 30 seconds, Senator Santorum. Have you sensed today the conservative movement waking up to its peril?
RS: I guess my answer is yes, but I also…a lot of folks are throwing up their hands, not sure in what direction to go. That’s the problem.
HH: The direction’s toward Romney, isn’t it?
RS: I don’t know. I mean, I’ve got…I mean, I could have a whole long discussion on Romney and my concerns with him, too.
And to be fair Gerson had a few nice things to say on McCain also:
MG: But you know, McCain, though, to be fair, I believe on social policy and on judges has been conventionally conservative over the years. He has a pretty good record in the same way that Bob Dole had a pretty good record, not that he looks like he’s deeply engaged in these issues. I don’t know how much he cares about them. But he’s generally voted the right way.
HH: Well, you just mentioned the D word, Bob Dole. And I get the sense that we’re getting fed another Bob Dole, that we’re being rushed to a John McCain candidacy that will represent exactly what Bob Dole did in 1996, which is the oldest guy in the room, has been around the longest, gets to get the Republican nomination, even though it means certain electoral doom.
MG: Right. Well, I’ve known both of them. I worked for Dole in ’96 in the doomed campaign. But I think that John McCain has stronger political skills than Bob Dole does. I think he does have the ability to reach out to independents who like…
So it wasn’t all bash McCain day, but the worries of Santorum and Gerson should not be taken lightly.
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