COLUMN: 02-13-2008

President George W. Bush's endorsement of Senator John McCain as a "true conservative" should be reported accurately by the media for what it actually stands for. It is President Bush telling his party's insiders that Senator McCain will be good for them and has nothing to do with conservatism. By any reasonable measure, Senator McCain has a very conservative record. The excuses used by some pundits to label his current and past positions as non-conservative or even liberal are focused on his political benefit to them and their cronies, not his actual values.

It's ironic that President Bush is somehow given credibility as a conservative by the media when he has been responsible for the biggest growth of the federal government in history along with a major increase in the irresponsible deficit spending once associated with the Democratic Party. Yes, he did cut taxes, but in an irresponsible manner creating more and more loopholes for special interests instead of an across the board cut for everyone equally. He has done very little on all other conservative issues as his administration has wasted five of its seven years in office on an unnecessary war, driven more by the ideology than any threat to American national security.

Senator McCain does, unfortunately, need the party insiders to help sell his message to the Republican grass roots. However, he should seek their support in such a fashion as to distance himself from any commitment to anyone who will continue the corrupt influence peddling that Senator McCain has stood against throughout his career in public office. He needs to clearly show that taking money out of politics is a conservative position that goes back to the intentions of the founding fathers and not let the corrupt party insiders continue their bogus claim that it is somehow a violation of First Amendment free speech rights.