Here's a challenge to McCain to introduce legislation NOW to secure the border, in order to prove to sceptics that his change of heart is not just an election yr conversion:
>Mike Pence: Best Advice to McCain
by Jed Babbin, humanevents.com
02/11/2008
The olive twig that John McCain held out to conservatives last Thursday didn’t have a lot of leaves on it. The loud boos that interrupted him at the first mention of illegal immigration may have shown him how deep the divide was that separates him from many conservatives, but the boo-birds won’t change McCain.
McCain reminded me of Popeye’s refrain, “I yam what I yam and that’s all that I yam.” And -- after the reception he got at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) -- McCain probably realizes that he could say the same of conservative activists. Which -- absent one of those miracles Mike Huckabee seems to be waiting for -- means that we are stuck with each other through this election. How can we cope with each other?
More importantly, in a year that the media have decided should be a disaster for the Republican Party, what can we do to prevent Hillary or Barack from becoming president? Just as urgently, how do we prevent the Senate Republican minority from being so reduced that even if HC or BO become C-in-C they won’t be able to pass any of the horribles they’d impose on us, from defeat in Iraq to more out-of-control entitlement programs?
There is a way. In what was the least-noticed and far and away the best speech at CPAC, silver-haired Hoosier Rep. Mike Pence began to chart it the day after McCain addressed the same group.
Pence began with a hard-hitting description of the choices this year. Between a candidate who will defend our nation and the military and one (it matters not whether it’s Hillary or Barack) who subscribes to retreat, defeat and surrender. Between one whose promises of fiscal restraint are provable and one who cannot wait to take our bloated government and give it more to spend. And between one whose pro-life record is consistent and one who will do everything to promote the abortion rights agenda, especially when it comes time to appoint Supreme Court justices.
About Sen. McCain, Pence said, “I did not endorse the Senator from Arizona. We have clashed on the issues too many times for that. But let me say from my heart, based on what I've personally seen of Senator McCain from the floor of Congress to the “watchfires of circling camps” in Baghdad and Ramadi, I could support Senator McCain for President of the United States.”
Could, not would. Pence said, “But he's going to have to take a little advice from a friend.” Pence’s advice listed McCain’s promises to make the Bush tax cuts permanent, fight big government spending, secure the borders first, appoint conservative judges and stand for the sanctity of life.
And then came the challenge to Sen. McCain:
"These are the specifics that conservatives need to hear and keep hearing.
But now it’s time for deeds. You can begin keeping those promises today.
Whether this party comes together to support you as the nominee depends on your actions. So I offer you this challenge: If you will continue to run on conservative issues and continue to build a solid conservative team and ticket, we can and will support you and work our hearts out to elect you as the 44th President of the United States. You’ve claimed the Reagan mantle. Show us you know how to use it."
And he cautioned us to accept McCain’s actions on these lines if they come.
Sen. McCain would do well to accept and act on Mike Pence’s advice. He has more than six months before the Republican Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota, an eternity in politics. In that time, he can do a lot to unify the party and perhaps prevent the congressional election debacle the media is panting after.
McCain’s advantage is that he is a sitting senator. For starters, he could introduce legislation to show he means what he says in “securing the borders first.” Sens. John Cornyn (R-Tex.), Jeff Sessions (R-Ala) and Jim DeMint (R-SC) were among his most determined opponents in last summer’s Bush-McCain-Kennedy disaster. If he can work with them and agree on a “borders first” bill, he could defuse a huge amount of conservative dissent.
He could do the same on the Bush tax cut permanence and go farther, eliminating the Alternative Minimum Tax. And while he does this, he could name a committee of advisors to help select a conservative running mate, publishing the committee’s charter to prove that his direction to them is to find not only a politically-advantageous choice, but one who is as unshakably conservative as any of us could demand.
In doing these things, McCain can help conservatives rally around him. And if he campaigns on these actions -- no matter how long his selection of a running mate takes -- he can help Republican senators who are targeted by the left this year.
We conservatives should rally around those conservatives as well, even if we disagree with them on some points. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) is the target of MoveOn.org, which has opened a separate office in Louisville to organize McConnell’s downfall. Conservatives may occasionally argue with McConnell about earmarks, but his skill in stopping Harry Reid’s agenda cold cannot be lost to us in the next congress.
None of the legislation McCain would introduce would pass this year, but it would put him on record more than mere speechifying can ever do. As Mike Pence said, it’s time for McCain to act. And if he continues to embrace the right, the right -- as much as most of us will have to grit our teeth to do it -- must embrace him.
If CPAC were a NASCAR race, Mike Pence would have lapped the rest of the field. It would cost John McCain little to act on Pence’s advice. And it could win him the White House if he does.
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Mr. Babbin is the editor of Human Events. He served as a deputy undersecretary of defense in President George H.W. Bush's administration. |
