McCain Alienate Conservatives? Never!

For some reason, the MSM seems to think that we Conservatives just LOVE John McCain! Oh, how we love him!

If the MSM actually got a clue and asked real Conservatives, we would tell them that McCain might as well be named Teddy Kennedy. Sure, some "moderate" (read: wishy-washy whiner) Republicans like McCain, but we Conservatives . . . let's just say thanks but no thanks to "the Maverick."

If we had wanted John McCain, we would have elected John McCain.

Of course, the MSM has NO CLUE at all!

AP: McCain may alienate some conservatives.

Really, been there, done that! Why exactly is this news?

WASHINGTON - Republican Sen. John McCain's standoff with the White House over treatment of detainees — an issue the former POW knows intimately well — threatens to exacerbate his already contentious relationship with conservatives.

No kidding.

The Arizona senator has been a staunch supporter of President Bush on the Iraq war. He has alienated conservatives, however, for opposing a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and supporting federal expansion of embryonic stem-cell research.

Social conservatives also have taken issue with his effort to overhaul the immigration system, in part, by granting millions of illegal immigrants a path to eventual citizenship, and his work with a rogue group of senators to avert a Senate fight over Bush's judicial nominations.

All reasons I will never work for a McCain campaign or vote for John McCain. How exactly is John McCain a Conservative, or even a Republican?

The warnings from conservatives over the detainee issue illustrate the risk McCain faces in taking on the White House — alienating a base of support he would need to win the Republican presidential nomination.

As the clash escalated, McCain shrugged off suggestions that the dust-up could hurt him politically, telling reporters last week that his "credibility with the American people is that I do what I think is right."

But he's not right. So it doesn't matter that he sticks to it. He's still wrong and he still won't be elected by Conservatives.

Long known as a maverick, McCain's latest tussle with the White House is over the president's insistence that Congress allow the CIA to use aggressive methods against terrorism suspects.

McCain and a growing group of Senate Republicans contend the United States must adhere strictly to the Geneva Conventions international standards.

Bush wants Congress to quickly pass his own proposed legislation authorizing military tribunals for detainees and harsh interrogations of terror suspects. Last week, he singled out McCain, a rival for the presidential nomination in 2000, making clear whom he blamed for standing in the way.

A year ago, McCain led a high-profile charge in Congress to clarify a law against torture by extending it to also ban cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of prisoners. The White House issued a veto threat.

But McCain, a former Navy pilot tortured during nearly six years of imprisonment in Vietnam, attracted enough support in the House and Senate to override a veto. After a very public spat, the White House and McCain reached an agreement that essentially resulted in the senator getting what he wanted. Bush signed the bill in December.

We all know that John McCain was treated horribly as a Vietnamese POW. We admire him for his service to our country and for making it through horrid torture.

But, how exactly does treating detainees like the Queen of England insure that when our soldiers or other Americans are captured by, oh, let's say, Al-Qaeda, they are treated the well and the Geneva Convetions are followed?

Because, really, I doubt Osama bin Laden and his fellow evil-doers are going to give a care whether or not we follow the Geneva Conventions. They prefer to cut heads off and fly planes into buildings. If some huge things like the World Trade Center towers couldn't stop them, then I highly doubt some voluntary words on paper like the Geneva Conventions will.

And, I am sure it will be such a comfort to Al-Qaeda hostages to know that we all follow the Geneva Conventions, which means that Al-Qaeda will follow the Geneva Conventions . . . oh, wait, who in their right mind would think that a barbarous group like Al-Qaeda would follow the Geneva Conventions? Did the Vietnamese brainwash John McCain because this is seriously unintelligent thinking.

Al-Qaeda doesn't care about the Geneva Conventions. Al-Qaeda isn't going to follow the Geneva Conventions. Even if we say "Pretty please with sugar on top!?!" So why, why, why would anyone think they would follow the Geneva Conventions just because we do?

Some poor American soldier, who gets captured because we weren't allowed to extract information from a wicked and dangerous captured Al-Qaeda operative and stop a terrorist ambush before it happens, will some day be able to thank John McCain for getting him tortured by Al-Qaeda!

Ann Coulter's latest column is all about this topic: Are Videotaped Beheadings Covered by Geneva?.

Here is an excerpt:

The belief that we can impress the enemy with our magnanimity is an idea that just won't die. It's worse than the idea that paying welfare recipients benefits won't discourage them from working. (Some tiny minority might still seek work.) It's worse than the idea that taxes can be raised endlessly without reducing tax receipts. (As the Laffer Curve illustrates, at some point — a point this country will never reach — taxes could theoretically be cut so much that tax revenues would decline.)

But being nice to enemies is an idea that has never worked, no matter how many times liberals make us do it. It didn't work with the Soviet Union, Imperial Japan, Hitler or the North Vietnamese — enemies notable for being more civilized than the Islamic savages we are at war with today.

By the way, how did the Geneva Conventions work out for McCain at the Hanoi Hilton?

And:

Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Ronald Reagan and Winston Churchill had a different idea: Instead of rewarding bad behavior, punish bad behavior. How many times does punishment have to work and coddling have to fail before we never have to hear again that if we treat terrorists well, the terrorists will treat our prisoners well?

This War On Terror is a fight for Freedom. Unfortunately, those we fight against are barbarous, primitive animals who do not abide by the Rules of War that even Hitler, really, fought under. Al-Qaeda and their Brothers in Terror will kill anyone in any way and do whatever, whatever, whatever it takes to eliminate their enemies from the face of the earth. They will never abide by the Geneva Convention. And we should not be required to give captured Al-Qaeda the Presidential Suite Treatment when we know they are holding information that could save millions of lives or even one innocent life.

John McCain is wrong. And he will never be President of these United States if he does not see the light . . . on many issues. He has already alienated Conservaties. If he doesn't watch out, he will alienate even Republicans. Then where will he be?

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