Headline of the Day (McCain SCOTUS edition)

By Michael J.W. Stickings

From yesterday's WaPo:

A Win by McCain Could Push a Split Court to Right

Huh, you think?

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It's obvious, yes, but it needs to be said. Many people still seem to regard McCain as some sort of moderate, a maverick moderate who isn't like most Republicans. While he's broken with his party in the past, though, he isn't nearly the maverick or moderate his media image would suggest he is, along with his various detractors on the far right and some of his admirers among the self-styled "centrist" crowd. On the contrary, he has a long, long record of conservatism on social issues to go along with worse-than-Bush neoconservatism on foreign and military issues and, more recently, a Bush-like conservatism on fiscal and economic issues (he now loves Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy and has even made peace with Grover Norquist and the anti-tax crazies).

And so -- duh -- a McCain presidency would likely push an already conservative Supreme Court even further to the right. With the liberals much older than the conservatives -- Stevens, for example, is 88! -- President McCain (and how painful it is to write that) would be in a position to establish a solid conservative majority for decades to come... or at least for a long, long time to come, given that he would appoint the likes of Roberts and Alito to the court.

And just think what a solid conservative majority, with or without Kennedy, would have to say about abortion (so long, Roe)... and the death penalty (Old Testament justice)... and gun control (none)... and the environment (global warming? what global warming?)... and free speech (the First Amendment is overrated)... and habeas corpus (so quaint, so passé)... and executive power (Republican presidents are omnipotent gods)...

Anyone even flirting with voting for McCain -- and that means you self-styled centrists and independents, and you disgruntled Hillary supporters, and you so-called Reagan Democrats, and you Naderites and others on the left who think it doesn't make a difference whether it's a Democrat or a Republican in the White House -- ought to think about this rather seriously before buying the whole maverick moderate myth.

McCain is nothing of the sort. And he'd make the judicial nominations, including to the highest court in the land, to prove it.