Republican John
McCain is castigating Democrat Barack Obama for voting
against a conservative as Supreme Court chief justice.
McCain offered an
olive branch to the Christian right in a speech about
the kind of judges he would nominate planned for Tuesday at
Wake Forest University in North Carolina. The far
right has been deeply suspicious of McCain, the
expected Republican presidential nominee, because he has
clashed with its leaders and worked against them on issues
like campaign finance reform.
McCain promised
as president to appoint judges who, in the mold of
Supreme Court chief justice John Roberts and justice Samuel
Alito, are likely to limit the reach of the 1973
Roe v. Wade decision that widely legalized
abortion across the United States.
''They would
serve as the model for my own nominees if that
responsibility falls to me,'' McCain said in his prepared
speech.
Obama likes to
talk up his image as someone who works with Republicans to
get things done, McCain said. Yet Obama ''went right along
with the partisan crowd, and was among the 22 senators
to vote against this highly qualified nominee,''
McCain said, referring to Roberts.
Hillary Rodham
Clinton, Obama's rival, also voted against Roberts,
although McCain focused his criticism on Obama. The Bush
appointee was confirmed by the Senate on a vote of 78
to 22 in 2005. All the Republicans voted for Roberts,
while the Democrats were split 22 to 22.
Tuesday's
Democratic presidential primaries in North Carolina and
Indiana, the biggest prizes left in the nomination battle
between Clinton and Obama, were likely to overshadow
McCain's address. His advisers said the timing was not
deliberate and that they accepted the invitation for
him to speak several weeks ago.
McCain often is
viewed as an independent because he antagonizes fellow
Republicans and likes to work with Democrats. Some
conservatives dislike his decision to join the ''Gang
of 14,'' a group of senators -- seven Republicans and
seven Democrats -- who averted a Senate showdown over
whether filibusters could be used against Bush judicial
nominees.
On Monday, McCain
told reporters he did not know whether conservatives
would forgive him for that decision.
''You'll have to
ask them, but I think I was right to do it; we got all
but two of the president's nominees through the Senate,''
McCain said.
Despite the
controversy, his actual record is very conservative,
particularly on social issues like abortion, gay rights, and
gun control. However, he said once, in 1999, that the
landmark Roe v. Wade decision should not be overturned.
But that was a
blip in an otherwise unbroken record of opposing abortion
rights for women. McCain has repeatedly voted against
federal funding for abortion; he has opposed using
federal health funds for the poor for abortion even in
cases of rape or incest.
He voted to
require parental consent for abortion and voted to
criminalize anyone but a parent crossing state lines with a
minor to help get an abortion. McCain also supported a
ban preventing women in the military from getting
abortions with their own money at overseas military
hospitals.
He also has cast
conservative votes on judges. In fact, McCain has never
voted against a Republican nominee for the Supreme Court or
federal courts, the Democratic National Committee
pointed out.
''Promising four
more years of radical judges who are bent on rolling
back our basic rights and freedoms is just one more example
of why John McCain is the wrong choice for America's
future,'' DNC spokeswoman Karen Finney said. (Libby
Quaid, AP)
