MAY I REMIND YOU...

I'm listening to a raspy-voiced Rush Limbaugh right now (apparently suffering from the same bug I had ten days ago) talking about a piece in today's Washington Post that opens with this:

"From Rush Limbaugh to Tom DeLay, voices that once held sway over the Republican rank and file unloaded on John McCain over the last week, trying to use a conservative electorate in South Carolina to derail the Arizona senator's quest for the Republican nomination."

Rush points to the McCain Feingold legislation - the first "shut up speech" act -- that affects only one segment of the political spectrum -- Limbaugh and the rest of us in the talk spectrum.

"Limbaugh led the way with a verbal blitz, not just against McCain but against his closest rival in South Carolina, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee.

"I'm here to tell you, if either of these two guys get the nomination, it's going to destroy the Republican Party. It's going to change it forever, be the end of it," Limbaugh fumed on his radio show Tuesday. It was a line of argument that he kept up all week long."

Time for me to refresh your memory. For those who might be considering McCain to lead this country, may I remind you...

The McCain domestic record is a disaster. To say he fought spending, most particularly earmarks, is to nibble around the edges and miss the heart of the matter. For starters, consider:

McCain-Feingold — the most brazen frontal assault on political speech since Buckley v. Valeo.

McCain-Kennedy — the most far-reaching amnesty program in American history. (Pictured here looking Left with Sen. Lindsay Grahamnesty, his Veep To Be)

McCain-Lieberman — the most onerous and intrusive attack on American industry — through reporting, regulating, and taxing authority of greenhouse gases — in American history.

McCain-Kennedy-Edwards — the biggest boon to the trial bar since the tobacco settlement, under the rubric of a patients’ bill of rights.

McCain-Reimportantion of Drugs — a significant blow to pharmaceutical research and development, not to mention consumer safety (hey Rudy, pay attention, see link).

And McCain’s stated opposition to the Bush 2001 and 2003 tax cuts was largely based on socialist, class-warfare rhetoric — tax cuts for the rich, not for the middle class. The public record is full of these statements. Today, he recalls only his insistence on accompanying spending cuts.

As chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, McCain was consistently hostile to American enterprise, from media and pharmaceutical companies to technology and energy companies.

McCain also led the Gang of 14, which prevented the Republican leadership in the Senate from mounting a rule change that would have ended the systematic use (actual and threatened) of the filibuster to prevent majority approval of judicial nominees.

And then there’s the McCain defense record.

His supporters point to essentially one policy strength, McCain’s early support for a surge and counterinsurgency. It has now evolved into McCain taking credit for forcing the president to adopt General David Petreaus’s strategy. Where’s the evidence to support such a claim?

Moreover, Iraq is an important battle in our war against the Islamo-fascist threat. But the war is a global war, and it most certainly includes the continental United States, which, after all, was struck on 9/11. How does McCain fare in that regard?

McCain-ACLU — the unprecedented granting of due-process rights to unlawful enemy combatants (terrorists).

McCain has repeatedly called for the immediate closing of Guantanamo Bay and the introduction of al-Qaeda terrorists into our own prisons — despite the legal rights they would immediately gain and the burdens of managing such a dangerous population.

While McCain proudly and repeatedly points to his battles with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who had to rebuild the U.S. military and fight a complex war, where was McCain in the lead-up to the war — when the military was being dangerously downsized by the Clinton administration and McCain’s friend, former Secretary of Defense Bill Cohen? Where was McCain when the CIA was in desperate need of attention? Also, McCain was apparently in the dark about al-Qaeda like most of Washington, despite a decade of warnings.

Is this the best the Republican party can do?

No. Consider this message from Chuck Winn of the Duncan Hunter for President campaign:

"Unless Duncan's senior campaign staff informs us that he has in fact been offered the Vice Presidency by one of the remaining candidates, I will not lift a finger to help any of them and will continue to recommend that his supporters vote for Duncan on the 29th if they have not already done so.

This is not a wasted vote by any means since the Florida primary is the first major vetting in a process that will go on through March. It is therefore critically important for the RNC and media elites to know we are not satisfied with the menu of mediocrity they are offering.

At 7:30 P.M. Saturday when I received the news of Duncan's decision, we had just completed focusing Duncan's strong grass roots leaders in 8 key GOP vote-rich regions of the state on mobilizing his 400 volunteers to flush out votes begriming this weekend.

BOTTOM LINE - Until we receive word that a remaining candidate has offered the Vice Presidency to Duncan, then continue putting the word out to vote Duncan Hunter on the 29th."

As Rush just said before going into a break, "We will NOT shut up!!!"

Right on, Rush. Right on...

[h/t Michelle Malkin]

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