The American Spectator

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Ira M. Kessel br> Rochester, New York /p>

I've read the pro-McCain commentary this past week and most of it seemed pretty desperate. He is the only Republican who can win the election (didn't work for John Kerry). Then he was the seemingly lone Republican voice that supported the war and the surge (not true). I experienced a chill when I read about the peril the Supreme Court would be in if a Democrat moved into the White House and failed to warm up to Senator McCain's gang of fourteen participation that cut short the PR gains the President was making at the time. That group didn't gang up against the explosive spending and earmarks of the last few years so I am left combing my memory for efforts other than grand statements by Senator Electable.

Sure, some of Senator McCain's supporters grudgingly and dismissively acknowledge his more memorable positions that were contrary to the Republican Party and its constituents. Those are too numerous to list here.

p>The only principles the Senator embraces are those that promote his standing with the MSM and the independents (the buffet, Punxsutawney voters). So I am forced to read insults to my intelligence and one even came from Victor Hanson on January 20 when he wrote disgruntled Conservatives who are threatening to sit it out were engaging in "braggadocio." We'll see. br> -- Diamon Sforza br> Bartlett, Illinois /p>

Mr. Wallison writes "The similarities between Reagan and McCain begin with their extraordinary attachment to principle." Mr. Wallison is presumably implying that "extraordinary attachment to principle" is inherently a positive characteristic. It is, in fact, a neutral one. All of the greatest tyrants of history were men of principles, those being horrifically malignant principles.

The other political party has a comparable siren song of "change." But "change" is also a neutral concept.

Therefore it is necessary to enumerate an individual's principles and then decide whether the individual is desirable or not. Senator McCain has declared his principles of:

(1) Voting against the Bush / Republican tax cuts at the time they were enacted, and also at the time making comments about tax cuts for "the rich" being unjustified. That the "progressive" tax structure inherently compels "the rich" to pay the vast majority of income taxes and thus naturally implies that an income tax cut would mostly affect "the rich" is apparently irrelevant to Senator McCain's principles.

(2) Supporting amnesty for illegal aliens and being a driving force behind the recently defeated amnesty bill. The staggering cost of importing poverty, its affect on hospitals, schools, crime and general employment, is apparently irrelevant to Senator McCain's principles.

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