McCain: Alito Too Conservative

From John Fund's Wall Street Journal column: "Mr. McCain bruised his standing with conservatives on the issue when in 2005 he became a key player in the so-called gang of 14, which derailed an effort to end Democratic filibusters of Bush judicial nominees. More recently, Mr. McCain has told conservatives he would be happy to appoint the likes of Chief Justice John Roberts to the Supreme Court. But he indicated he might draw the line on a Samuel Alito, because 'he wore his conservatism on his sleeve.'"

(Update: A McCain spokesperson says McCain worked to get Alito confirmed, but does not directly refute the quote or state whether McCain would appoint someone like Alito. Andy McCarthy points out many good reasons not to believe McCain would appoint conservative justices.)

Californians may be particularly interested to note that McCain's National Finance Co-Chair poured millions into trying to defeat California's Proposition 227, which dismantled so-called "bilingual education" (which was trapping children perpetually in Spanish-language classes), and he also donated toward opponents of Proposition 187, which banned social services for illegal aliens (a law which has since been thwarted by the courts).

McCain's associates say a great deal about his own non-conservative points of view.

SeeDubya at JunkYardBlog raises the scary prospect of a Vice President Lindsey Graham.

Update: McCain directly refutes Fund.

However, his record on judges still raises questions. There is an interesting dialogue about this going on at The Corner today.