Sen. John McCain

A recent string of primary victories have all but assured that Sen. John McCain will be the Republican nominee for president. However, many conservatives, especially here in the Valley, are reluctant to embrace him. The common complaints are that he has commingled with liberals too often: campaign finance reform, immigration reform, and his opposition to the Bush tax cuts are often cited as cardinal sins against the doctrine of conservatism.

Yet a detailed evaluation of McCain's record in Congress shows the opposite: he has been a consistent tax-fighting, fiscal hawk who has challenged pork barrel projects and been in line with conservative thought on practically every major issue we care about. We must remember his conservative record on judicial appointments: he has supported conservative justices from Robert Bork in 1987 through Samuel Alito. His pro-life record is solid. And he was a lone voice calling for more troops in support of the mission in Iraq.

Yes, there are issues in which many in the party have not shared McCain's viewpoint or agreed with his actions. They disagreed with the alleged amnesty in the immigration bill. But remember this was a carefully constructed compromise across both parties, even supported by the president. And as for the much-maligned campaign finance law, we should keep in mind that those who take the name conservative have the right to disagree with one another whether or not paid speech falls under the same definition as free speech.

Conservatives were willing to give Rudy Giuliani a pass on his more moderate positions. The fact that he was pro-choice, had supported gun control efforts in the past, and was sympathetic to gay marriage and domestic partnerships seemed to get overlooked in the effort to have an "electable" candidate. So conservatives should even be more willing to accept some previous disagreements with McCain in exchange for strong and consistent conservatism in other areas. Besides, a willingness to extend the hand across the aisle is not a sign of shifty principles, but instead a sign of leadership. And in a time when we are at war, fighting off an economic downturn, have a broken health care system, isn't leadership exactly what we need?

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Derek Walter is the Fresno County chair for the John McCain campaign. He can be contacted at derekswalter@gmail.com.

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