http://www.gopusa.com/commentary/mmalkin/2008/mm_01231.shtml

Editor's Note: The following column contains language that may be offensive to some readers.

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After spearheading a disastrous, security-undermining illegal alien amnesty bill last year with Teddy Kennedy, "straight-talking" GOP Sen. John McCain claims he has seen the light. In TV appearances, he vows to put immigration enforcement first. On the campaign trail, he offers a perfunctory promise to strengthen border security and emphasizes the need to restore Americans' trust in their government's ability to defend the homeland.

"I got the message," he told voters in South Carolina. "We will secure the borders first."

But how can McCain cure citizens' distrust when his own credibility on the issue remains fatally damaged? He doesn't believe his own election-year spin. And he knows we know it. This is cynicism on steroids with a speedball chaser.

Not all of us have forgotten how the short-fused Arizona senator cursed good-faith opponents in his own party ("F**k you!" and "Chickensh*t" were the choice words he had for Texas GOP Sen. John Cornyn during a spat over enforcement provisions). Not all of us have forgotten that he voted against barring felons from receiving amnesty benefits under his plan. Not all of us have forgotten the underhanded, debate-sabotaging manner in which McCain/Kennedy/Lindsey Graham/Harry Reid conspired to ram their package down voters' throats.

His admission of the shamnesty failure is grudging and bitter. While he now tells conservative voters what they want to hear about the need to build the southern border fence, he takes a contemptuous tone toward physical barriers when talking to businessmen. "By the way, I think the fence is least effective," he told executives in Milwaukee, according to a recent Vanity Fair profile. "But I'll build the goddamned fence if they want it." Straight talk? Try hate talk.

For all his supposed newfound enlightenment about what most Americans want -- protection against invasion, commitment to the rule of law, meaningful employer sanctions, an end to sanctuary cities, enforcement-by-attrition plus deportation reform, and an end to special illegal alien benefits that invite more law-breaking -- The Maverick remains a Geraldo Rivera Republican. Like the ethnocentric cable TV host who can't string a sentence about immigration together without drowning in demagoguery, McCain naturally resorts to open-borders platitudes when pressed for enforcement specifics.

Instead of emphasizing the need for local and state cooperation with federal immigration authorities to prevent the release of illegal alien criminals or discussing 100 percent preventable crimes by illegal alien thugs who should never have been on American soil in the first place, McCain harps on open-borders sob stories. Several times over the past year, in response to citizen questioners who have expressed frustration with the lack of accountability for immigration law-breakers, McCain has responded: "I am not going to call up a soldier and tell him I am deporting his mother. ... I'm not going to do it. You can do it."

But what if that mother had stolen an American citizen's Social Security number to work here illegally? What if she had been previously deported, re-entered illegally, and had been convicted of previous crimes? What if she were part of a human smuggling ring? What if she had been working in a sensitive area -- airport security, a military base, a port? Would he still refuse to abide by his constitutional obligation to provide for the common defense and secure the blessings of liberty for law-abiding Americans?

If McCain refuses to enforce immigration law against illegal alien parents of soldiers, what about illegal alien soldiers who used stolen or fake identification to get into the military? And why only illegal alien parents of soldiers? Why not illegal alien parents of police officers, teachers, doctors and store owners? McCain's selective enforcement policy is the exact recipe for immigration anarchy that we have today.

The hothead has succeeded in intimidating voters and eluding tough questions from the press by playing his rhetorical violin. There is a reason so many liberals in the media and the Democratic Party want John McCain to be the GOP presidential nominee. He gives them cover to continue smearing grassroots conservatives.

In Michigan, the illegal alien parent-of-a-soldier story was met with boos. McCain's cheerleaders at The New York Times and other press outlets attempted to depict the detractors as insensitive and racist boors -- just as they did during last year's ill-fated shamnesty campaign.

McCain has learned nothing. What about us?

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Michelle Malkin is author of "Unhinged: Exposing Liberals Gone Wild." Her e-mail address is malkinblog@gmail.com.

McCain has learned nothing. What about us?

Apparently we haven't learned anything either.  This makes (like Glenn Beck is fond of saying) blood shoot out of my eyes!!  I love it..."I'll build the goddamn fence if they want it!"  There is a WAR on our border and no one cares or even talks about it.  The Mexican mafia is spreading and recruiting throughout our country and no one talks about it.  What is it going to take??!!!  

McCain!  People are voting for MCCAIN???!!!

(CM) theSuperPatriot said: McCain will probably cause the demise of Rudy and then his job will be over (mccain) and we can get rid of him next.

This is McCains last chance, he wants it badly and he's close enough to smell it.  Evidently he has some powerful supporters and that's too bad for us.

Since he is one of my senators, I'm sorry to admit, I have written him numerous emails.  To say that most were very derogatory is to pull punches.  They were downright mean but whoever handles his mail probably erases them.  All I can do is watch the dark drama of politics play out on TV and pray he is eliminated soon. 

I feel for you, oldone - isn't Lindsey the one who called us xenophobes, racists and bigots because we opposed amnesty?

I just received this from the Evans-Novak Political Report - not good..........

Outlook

1. While both the Republican and Democratic presidential races are undecided going into the massive array of February 5 primaries (which amounts to nearly a national primary), a Hillary Clinton vs. John McCain contest in November looms as the most likely prospect. That is the match-up that offers the highest likelihood of Republican success despite the continued sniping at McCain by certain right-wing activists.
                              UGHHHHH!
   

Here's Ann Coulter's latest article (against McCain).  All these things are so alarming -- why won't Americans wake up?

 CM said - why won't Americans wake up?

Good question, Jim!  They deserve exactly what they get!

Conservatives and McCain and Tancedo's view of McCain!

Surging McCain Faces Conservative Skeptics

CBSNews.com Reports: Despite Early Wins, Conservative Establishment Has Yet To Embrace Republican Presidential Hopeful

 www.cbsnews.com&c1=Politics&h... border="0" alt="" width="1" height="1" />

Jan. 23, 2008

• Republican presidential hopeful, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., walks at Baker Manufacturing Co., which makes spas and tubs, after a discussion on the economy, Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2008, in Orlando, Fla. (AP)

">http://wwwimage.cbsnews.com/CBS_Produ...

Disillusionment: McCain

(CBS) This story was written by CBSNews.com political reporter Brian Montopoli.

According to American Conservative Union chairman David Keene, John McCain is not what you'd call a conservative's conservative.

"There's this personal animosity he has towards people over issues," said Keene, who has endorsed Mitt Romney. "Most conservatives see that he would like to remake the party without them."

Despite a voting record that suggests he should be in conservatives' good graces - he has an 82.3 percent lifetime rating from Keene's ACU - McCain has strident critics within the conservative establishment. Among them are Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, Former Sen. Rick Santorum (who has vowed to support any Republican but McCain), and a host of conservative talk radio hosts led by Rush Limbaugh, who has suggested a McCain nomination would "destroy the Republican Party."

Much of their disenchantment is tied to the positions McCain has staked out on hot-button issues. McCain's relative moderation on immigration led his onetime rival in the GOP race, Tom Tancredo, to suggest that McCain "is one of the most dangerous threats we have." His sponsorship of campaign finance reform legislation has prompted outrage from conservative advocacy groups who see it as a limit on free speech. And his longtime opposition to the Bush tax cuts, characterization of conservative religious leaders as "agents of intolerance," decision to partner with Joe Lieberman on global warming legislation, and bipartisan Senate compromise on judicial nominees have all generated anger from the right.

But the animosity towards McCain stems from something deeper than just his positions. The Arizona senator's ACU rating is only six percentage points behind Santorum's, and his voting record is conservative enough that he's been able to line up support from well-respected conservative Republicans like Tom Coburn, Phil Gramm and Sam Brownback.

For many, McCain's style is the problem: He not only breaks with conservative orthodoxy on issues that many conservatives consider basic tenets of the movement, but he does it with a "finger in your eye" style that alienates them even further.

"He's tough to deal with, there's no doubt about it," said Randy Pullen, chairman of the Arizona Republican party, citing McCain's general unwillingness to compromise. "He believes what he believes in, and he wants other people to support him in those beliefs."

"Some of his battles are so intense and loud that it sort of increases the animosity," said GOP strategist Greg Mueller. "You've got these intense issues where a lot of rhetoric gets tossed around and it breeds resentment."

Keene said "those who've worked with [McCain] get the sense that he doesn't like conservatives."

"In his world, it's very difficult to have a simply policy disagreement," Keene said. "Everything becomes personal. His position is right, and everyone else's is basically evil."

McCain's defenders say that the conservative establishment's skepticism towards McCain grows out of his unwillingness to defer to them.

"McCain has never kowtowed to them or anybody else," said McCain strategist Charlie Black.

"I think with Rush Limbaugh and some of them, they're always looking for a perfect conservative," added Black. "They see that as their job. And nobody's perfect."

Some of the anger towards McCain could be personal. McCain launched the Jack Abramoff investigation that sank DeLay, and his focus on eliminating pork barrel spending may have alienated some of his Senate colleagues.

"John McCain couldn't win a popularity contest in the Senate if he tried," Senator John Warner, a McCain supporter, said on Tuesday. "Why? Because he cuts too much government spending."

According to McCain press secretary B.J. Boling, any disenchantment with McCain among the conservative establishment has not been reflected among the rank-and-file.

"Just take Greenville County [South Carolina] for example," said Boling. "Bob Jones University, North Greenville University, and a few theological seminaries are located in Greenville - it’s practically the buckle of the Bible Belt. It’s home to some of the largest evangelical congregations in the state, and John McCain came within three points of defeating a former Southern Baptist minister [in Mike Huckabee] there.”

But McCain, who courted South Carolina's conservative establishment, has largely been dependent upon moderate and independent voters in the early contests. Mueller argues that his campaign needs to do more to consolidate support among the conservative base.

"Just because they found one county in South Carolina where the vote was closer to them, I hope they're not taking that to the bank," Mueller said. "They're going to need to do a lot more than that with conservatives. You want the base energized, want them mobilized. You're going to need every vote."

McCain and his surrogates have made some overtures to skeptical conservatives by stressing that McCain will pick strict constructionist judges as president.

"It's a huge issue for Republicans, a party crossing issue," said Mueller. "The next president could appoint two, three, even four Supreme Court judges. If McCain goes out and talks about that, it's going to be a reminder to the conservative base of the party - 'who do you want picking your judges?'"

Conservative Republican media strategist Craig Shirley, who is supporting McCain, says the opposition will dissipate if McCain wins the Republican nomination.

"Winning is a great antidote to bruised feelings and strained relations," said Shirley. "What he's got to do is keep articulating his conservative positions. And keep the lines of communication open with everybody. And everybody in the end is hopefully going to play nice."

Black puts it more bluntly.

"All these conservative leaders will be for him in two weeks when we lock up the nomination," he said.

Labrador said:

 CM said - why won't Americans wake up?

Good question, Jim!  They deserve exactly what they get!

That's exactly the problem, Jim.   If enough of the voting public would investigate and really pursue the push for the right candidates, while at the same time eliminating the America last candidates, we wouldn't be worrying about someone like McCain as he would have been out of the picture a long time ago, and he would be facing recall in my home state for his traitorous amensty activities last summer.

It's a matter of responsibility in creating good government, and there are simply not enough people who want to do that.  Most of them are looking for a quick fix without the hassle involved of defending and supporting the right candidate(s).