Santorum Attacks McCain's Conservative Credentials

Pro-life stalwart Rick Santorum takes on McCain's conservative bona fides in this interview:

[O]n the economic side, he was against the President’s tax cuts, he was bad on immigration. On the environment, he’s absolutely terrible. He buys into the complete left wing environmentalist movement in this country. He is for bigger government on a whole laundry list of issues. He was…I mean, on medical care, I mean, he was for re-importation of drugs. I mean, you can go on down the list. I mean, this is a guy who on a lot of the core economic issues, is not even close to being a moderate, in my opinion.

And then on the issue of, on social conservative issues, you point to me one time John McCain ever took the floor of the United States Senate to talk about a social conservative issue. It never happened. I mean, this is a guy who says he believes in these things, but I can tell you, inside the room, when we were in these meetings, there was nobody who fought harder not to have these votes before the United States Senate on some of the most important social conservative issues, whether it’s marriage or abortion or the like.

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Now, there's a legitimate line of attack on McCain's conservative credentials, unlike other less legitimate exercises we've seen.

Nevertheless, David Freddoso writes at The Corner that Santorum doesn't exactly have clean hands when it comes to taking a principled stand for conservativism:

All well and good. He's even defending principles I believe in very strongly.

But then something comes to mind. I seem to remember where Santorum was when a critical battle came up over the future of economic and social conservatism. It was back in April of 2004. I was in Allentown, Pa. to cover a Senate primary, at the victory party for the economic and social-conservative candidate.

Santorum was with the other guy, the winner — Sen. Arlen Specter. Steve Moore wrote in our own pages:

Rick Santorum is obligated to publicly back the incumbent Specter...But Santorum is actively working to undermine Pat Toomey's candidacy. He has discouraged donors from contributing to Toomey. He has cut TV ads for Specter that portray the senior liberal senator as a friend of the taxpayer. He has staff people in Pennsylvania actively campaigning against Toomey.

Worst of all, Rick Santorum is running around Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C., perpetuating the myth that Pat Toomey is "too conservative to win in Pennsylvania." This is precisely what liberals said about Rick Santorum when he ran for the Senate back in 1994. Santorum proved that wrong. So did Ronald Reagan, when he won Pennsylvania with a fairly right-wing message in 1980 and 1984. Pennsylvania is the signature state of the Reagan Democrat voter. These are middle-class, often unionized, blue-collar voters who are pro-life, pro-gun, and anti-tax.

Specter barely survived, and everyone agreed that it was Santorum's doing.

I've never cared for John McCain, but how much worse is he than the average conservative politician who, when the chips are down, doesn't stand up for what he supposedly believes in?

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