According to the WaPo's Jonathan Weisman, Tom Tancredo is upset that John McCain has been secretly meetings with Latino leaders in Chicago. In a disgruntled letter to the GOP nominee, Tancredo charged: "[A]ccording to several news reports, you promised the group that you plan to pursue 'comprehensive immigration reform.' Senator, given your past sponsorship of amnesty legislation, such statements raise troubling questions."
Troubling questions? Not really. Anyone who still has questions as to McCain's real position on the issue of illegal immigration hasn't been paying attention. The man is not a hardliner. He never has been. And as soon as this race is over, he will go back to peddling a sensible, comprehensive, non-draconian reform plan. So Tancredo and his ilk shouldn't have "questions;" they should simply be furious that McCain is pretending to give a damn about their pet issue long enough to get elected.
More broadly, all of us--left, right, and center--should be troubled by Senator Straight Talk's willingess to pander so egregiously on this (as on so many other) issues. For a guy who's entire candidacy is based on his unimpeachable character and his maverick's willingness to stand up for what he believes in no matter the cost, McCain seems awfully willing to pucker up and follow the political winds on any number of domestic issues when it serves his electoral purposes.
Early in the primary, when I would talk to conservative activists about why they hated McCain, they rarely cited his specific positions. It was always that they didn't trust him--that they couldn't count on him to back the right kinds of policies or tap the right kinds of judges. Obviously, I don't share these activists' preferences when it comes to judges and policies. But I increasingly share their distrust of the flamboyantly honorable McCain.
--Michelle Cottle