McCain's Confusions.(Brief Article)

During the primaries last year, John McCain presented himself as a pro- life, tax-cutting Reagan conservative. True, he departed from Republican orthodoxy in supporting campaign-finance regulation; and the tax cut he offered was more modest than the one George W. Bush did. But even these positions were presented as helpful to the larger conservative cause: His campaign-finance bill would reduce the power of special interests to block conservative policies, and a smaller tax cut would leave money to finance a free-market reform of Social Security. He even added that he would support a bigger tax cut if revenues kept growing.

McCain's views were evolving during the primaries: He ended the campaign with a denunciation of religious conservatives (or at least those who opposed his candidacy), who used to be his allies. McCain's evolution has continued since then. He has co-sponsored, with Democrats, bills to regulate HMOs and subject them to lawsuits, to re- regulate the airlines, and to impose restrictions on gun ownership. He was one of two Senate Republicans to vote against Bush's tax cut-even though revenues have in fact grown since the primaries.

Where once McCain portrayed special interests as the enemies of conservatives, now he appears to consider them synonymous. When James Jeffords left the Republican party, McCain said that he had been driven out by K Street lobbyists who tried to enforce party orthodoxy. He seemed almost gleeful that the Republicans had lost the Senate majority, which is odd for a Republican senator.

Unless McCain no longer wants to be a Republican senator. Early June saw a resurgence of persistent speculation that McCain would run for president, against Bush, as an independent in ...