Dole vs. Limbaugh; or, how McCain is like Helms

By Michael J.W. Stickings

He's back! And he's taking it to the wingnuts on McCain's behalf:

Former Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole on Monday wrote conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh defending John McCain as a "mainstream conservative" who had supported the party on critical votes during Dole's time as the Senate Republican leader.

The letter, obtained by CNN from a Republican source close to Dole, includes a voting comparison that suggests McCain's voting record compares favorably to that of the longtime conservative icon Sen. Jesse Helms of North Carolina.

Dole in the letter said he remains neutral in the GOP contest and spoke kindly of all three remaining leading GOP candidates. But the letter comes at a time Limbaugh is trying to rally grassroots conservative support against McCain.

"Whoever wins the Republican nomination will need your enthusiastic support," Dole wrote in the letter. "Two terms for the Clintons are enough."

And you know what? He's right.

Not about the Clintons, although I think he's getting ahead of himself, but about McCain. The purificationist conservatives, as I've come to call them, despise McCain and are working diligently to destroy his candidacy for the GOP nomination, the prospects of which are looking better and better, but McCain is, for the most part, one of them. A real, honest-to-goodness (or dishonest-to-badness) conservative. Sure, there was the (wingnut-unfriendly) campaign finance stuff, and the (in?)sincere bipartisanship, and the (self-glorifying, media-perpetuated) maverick myth, and the criticisms of Bush, and the vague flirtations with the Kerry and the Dems (and especially with the non-Democrat Lieberman), but -- by Zeus! -- he's Jesse Helms! Bob Dole says so!

That may be something of an exaggeration -- surely McCain is like Helms without the racism, nativism, and general bigotry and ignorance -- but Dole is certainly on the right track. Which will be great come the general election campaign:

A vote for John McCain is a vote for Jesse Helms!

Are you paying attention, dear Democrats?

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Like many others, I've been touting McCain's conservatism for a long time: August 2005, December 2005, March 2006, April 2006, and so on, on into the present campaign.

But I do love watching conservatives snipe at each other, all to the electoral detriment of their party.