McCain is too easily persuaded by liberal senators

Robert Novak:

AS John McCain neared his momentous prima ry-election victory in Florida after a ferocious campaign questioning his conservative credentials, right-wingers buzzed over word that he had privately suggested that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito was too conservative. In response, Sen. McCain recalled saying no such thing and added Alito was a "magnificent" choice. In fact, multiple sources confirm his negative comments about Alito nine months ago.

McCain, as the "straight talk" candidate, says things off the cuff that he sometimes can't remember exactly. Elements of the Republican Party's right wing, uncomfortable with McCain as their prospective presidential nominee, surfaced the Alito comments long after the fact for two contrasting motives. One was a desperate effort to keep McCain from winning in Florida. The other was to get the party's potential nominee on record about key issues before he is nominated.

The latter has no pretensions of changing McCain's firmly held non-conservative positions on such issues as campaign-finance reform and global warming. Rather, they want two assurances: 1) that McCain would veto any tax increase passed by a Democratic Congress; 2) that he wouldn't emulate Gerald R. Ford and George H.W. Bush in naming liberals (John Paul Stevens and David Souter) to the high court.

That's the background of conservative John Fund's Wall Street Journal online column the day before Florida voted. He wrote that McCain "has told conservatives he would be happy to appoint the likes of Chief Justice 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.' "

In a conference call with bloggers that day, McCain said, "I don't recall a conversation where I would have said that." He was "astonished" by the Alito quote, he said, and repeatedly tells town meetings, "We're going to have justices like Roberts and Alito."

I found what he could not remember was a private, informal chat with conservative Republican lawyers shortly after he announced his candidacy last April. I talked to two lawyers present whom I've known for years and who have never misled me. One is neutral for president; the other recently endorsed Mitt Romney. Each said they were not Fund's source; neither knew I was talking to the other. They gave me nearly identical accounts, as follows:

"Wouldn't it be great if you get a chance to name somebody like Roberts and Alito?" one lawyer commented. McCain replied, "Well, certainly Roberts." Jaws were described as dropping. My sources can't remember exactly what McCain said next, but recollect that he described Alito as too conservative.

...

McCain sometimes reflects the cloak room chatter of his liberal colleagues. I am sure that is the source of his Alito comments. It is also probably the source of his screwy positions on ANWR. I would be surprised if he has spent any time really thinking about either issue. It is his acceptance of these positions put forward by his liberal colleagues that makes the media like him and conservatives distrust him. The key to a McCain administration may be the staff he brings with him to the White House. He may get smarter the further he gets from the cloak room.