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 McCain Promotes Conservative Stand On Supreme
Court Nominations
by The Associated Press
Posted: May 6, 2008 - 8:00 am ET
(Winston-Salem, North Carolina) Republican John
McCain castigated Democrat Barack Obama for voting against John Roberts as
Supreme Court chief justice in a speech about the kind of judges McCain would
nominate.
McCain offered an olive branch to the Christian
right in a speech planned for Tuesday at Wake Forest University. The far right
has been deeply suspicious of McCain, the expected GOP presidential nominee,
because he has clashed with its leaders and worked against them on issues like
campaign finance reform.
McCain promised to appoint judges who, in the
mold of Roberts and Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, are likely to limit the
reach of the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion.
"They would serve as the model for my own
nominees if that responsibility falls to me," McCain said in his prepared
speech.
Obama likes to talk up his image as someone who
works with Republicans to get things done, McCain said. Yet Obama "went
right along with the partisan crowd, and was among the 22 senators to vote
against this highly qualified nominee," McCain said.
Hillary Rodham Clinton, Obama's rival, also voted
against Roberts, although McCain focused his criticism on Obama.
Tuesday's primaries North Carolina and Indiana,
the biggest prizes left in the nomination battle between Clinton and Obama, were
likely to overshadow McCain's address. His advisers said the timing was not
deliberate and that they accepted the invitation for him to speak several weeks
ago.
McCain often is viewed as an independent because
he antagonizes fellow Republicans and likes to work with Democrats. Some
conservatives dislike his decision to join the "Gang of 14," a group
of senators - seven Republicans and seven Democrats - who averted a Senate
showdown over whether filibusters could be used against Bush judicial nominees.
On Monday, McCain told reporters he didn't know
whether conservatives would forgive him for that decision.
"You'll have to ask them, but I think I was
right to do it; we got all but two of the president's nominees through the
Senate," McCain said.
Despite the controversy, his actual record is
very conservative, particularly on social issues like abortion, gay rights and
gun control. However, he said once, in 1999, that the landmark Roe v. Wade
decision allowing abortion should not be overturned.
But that was a blip in an otherwise unbroken
record of opposing abortion rights for women. McCain has repeatedly voted
against federal funding for abortion; he has opposed federal Medicaid funds for
abortion even in cases of rape or incest.
He voted to require parental consent for abortion
and voted to criminalize anyone but a parent crossing state lines with a minor
to help get an abortion. McCain also supported a ban preventing women in the
military from getting abortions with their own money at overseas military
hospitals.
He also has cast conservative votes on judges. In
fact, McCain has never voted against a Republican nominee for the Supreme Court
or federal courts, the Democratic National Committee pointed out.
"Promising four more years of radical judges
who are bent on rolling back our basic rights and freedoms is just one more
example of why John McCain is the wrong choice for America's future," DNC
spokeswoman Karen Finney said.
©365Gay.com 2008
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