September 16, 2003
RINOs Closing Ranks in California
The Get-A-Republican-As-Governor-At-Any-Cost crowd in the California gubernatorial recall effort are exerting more pressure on the field to "get behind Arnold", which means attempting to shame conservative Republican candidate Tom McClintock into dropping out of the race. Only a few voices are urging Arnold to drop out and throw his support behind McClintock. Fox News personality and talk radio High Church Republicrat Sean Hannity, who initially supported McClintock, seems to have been bought off by the Arnold crowd, since he's now reversed himself and is berating McClintock for not dropping out of the race. So much for holding dear his "conservative" principles.
I'm an admirer of McClintock now. I'm a libertarian and disagree with him on the abortion issue - I'm all for a woman's right to choose - but I understand that as Governor, he would have no say in the matter. We do both agree that there should be no government funding of the practice, which suits me fine. Where we do almost completely agree is on matters in which he as governor does indeed have some say. For example:
“I'll spend the rest of my first day as Governor to personally de-fund every state agency that duplicates local or federal jurisdictions, or overlaps other state agencies or that is performing functions that the private sector could and should do anyway.”
He says this consistently in radio and television interviews, usually crediting the libertarian Reason Foundation for many of his policy ideas. He's an A+ supporter of the human right to keep and bear arms, and is not afraid to say so, time and again, on radio and TV. The Gun Owners of America endorses him, noting "...Senator McClintock has a perfect voting record on Second Amendment issues..."
I am a libertarian. I am not, however, a Libertarian Party loyalist. If a candidate espouses libertarian ideals, and has a shot at winning, I'll support him. McClintock seems to be The Man in this race.
Posted by Russell Whitaker at September 16, 2003 10:07 AM | TrackBack