McCain Goes for the Coulter Vote

The Senate passed an intelligence bill that banned waterboarding torture, but John McCain voted against the ban even though he had previously condemned waterboarding.

It would be easy to say that McCain was "against waterboarding before he was for it" and score cheap rhetorical points that way.

But I prefer to score cheap rhetorical points in different ways.

Instead of being inconsistent and hypocritical (what politician isn't inconsistent and hypocritical), McCain is taking his shot at getting the most important conservative vote in the country--Ann Coulter's.

Coulter indicts McCain as insufficiently conservative on a wide variety of items, including immigration, right-wing judges, McCain-Feingold, and global warming.

But Coulter also excoriates McCain's previous opposition to waterboarding as a form of torture.

He (McCain) hysterically opposes waterboarding terrorists and wants to shut down
Guantanamo.

Obviously, support for torture is a big litmus test for Ann Coulter and her hard-right acolytes. For a lot of people on the right, 9-11 was worth it because it gave them an opportunity to defy American law and international law, stick it to liberals, and show how tough they were by supporting torture for al-Qaida suspects. I'm sure McCain sees this and is beginning a political "full monty" in which he strips himself of all his previous moderate and reform positions and exposes his "inner right-winger" for all to see.

Anything for Ann's vote.