In this, the silliest of all silly seasons, we conservatives find ourselves in a rather unfortunate position, given who the Republican standard bearer is.  He may be more conservative than Obama, but then again the odds are that any name randomly chosen from a phone book would be as well.   There has been much back and forth about McCain’s record and stance on the issues, and a lot of hope that McCain’s choosing Palin might indicate a more rightward change in direction on his part.  A lot of numbers have been tossed about regarding his voting record and how conservative his rating is from various groups in order to prove the point one way or the other. 

Not one to be all that comfortable relying on percentages arrived at by 3rd parties, I decided to undertake my own analysis of McCain’s recent legislative activities.  To that end I made a new friend, THOMAS, the legislative search engine of the Library of Congress (http://thomas.loc.gov/).  THOMAS and I focused on those bills McCain cared enough about to put his name on, the ones he either sponsored or co-sponsored. 

Now there are a few of these that we’re all familiar with, his signature pieces: McCain-Feingold (campaign finance reform, the 1st amendment takes it in the shorts), McCain-Lautenberg (closing the gun show loophole, the 2nd amendment takes it in the shorts, has BrianR mentioned his C rating from the NRA lately?), McCain-Kennedy (amnistia, por favor, every American takes it in the shorts), and last but not least McCain-Lieberman (CAP {economic growth} AND TRADE {prosperity for poverty, Christianity for Gaia worship}, globull warming, the Republican Party’s newest plank).

Now obviously while significant, these are just four pieces of legislation, and as bad as they are at least he agrees with conservatives on a majority of issues, certainly more than Barry, right?  So I thought I’d look at the other pieces of legislation he put his name on, the most recent ones from the current Congress to see what’s mattered to him lately.  McCain has sponsored or co-sponsored 245 pieces of legislation so far in the 110th Congress, and I’ve gone through the whole list.  Hey, if getting your name on legislation and getting it though the Senate is what a good Senator does, McCain’s one of the best.  The question is, just exactly what kind of legislation are we talking about here?

In the two posts that follow I have included a few details with respect to some 40 of the 245 bills or amendments sponsored or co-sponsored by McCain.  Specifically their title, sponsor, and co-sponsors, along with my usual witty and urbane comments.  I crack myself up.  I chose them because their titles indicated that they were relevant to an issue we as conservatives care about, either positively or negatively.  No, I did not read the text to any of these bills.  If you’re suffering from insomnia, go ahead.  Unlike U.S. Senators, I don’t have the ability to dip into the public purse to pay a bunch of relatives and drunken students, er Senate staffers, to read them and then give me the gist of it five minutes before they hit the floor of the Senate, that is to say five minutes before Teddy Kennedy hits the Senate floor on Martini Mondays in a more literal fashion.

To be fair to McCain, one thing that comes across loud and clear is his support for the military, and specifically its personnel.  There was a lot of legislation from him in support of the troops, funding for wounded warriors, posthumously awarded medals, etc.  Individually, none of these bills seemed particularly noteworthy, and thus aren’t listed below, but taken collectively they were pretty impressive.  In my opinion he does really mean it on this one because it shows.  In fact, after reading it all, if my kid was in the military, it’d be hard not to vote for him based on this issue alone.  Seriously.

There is a lot that can be drawn from the information in the following posts, I don’t have the time to slice and dice it as much as it could be, so please feel free to crib from them and make your own analyses of his record on your own blogs. 

What I want to bring your attention to at the moment is the following.  Look at the titles of the legislation, and whether or not you think he is supporting conservative causes or poking us in the eye yet again, and make a tally sheet.  Note that I have not deliberately excluded bills to make him appear either better or worse. 

Also, what I found even more interesting, look at who co-sponsors his bills and whose bills he co-sponsors.  A lot has been made of the company Obama has kept and what that says about him, and rightfully so.  Take a look at the company McCain has been keeping, legislatively speaking, and be consistent when considering what this says about him.  And bear in mind how long McCain has been working with some of these guys in the Senate, (I mean the collective amount of time served by the gang of 14 alone is measured in what, centuries or millenia?) and what conclusions can be drawn with respect to who has influence with him and who he has influence with.  I'm guessing that to our collective chagrin Sara is not even close to being in the picture.

 To that end, I’ll just post as a refresher the names of the gang of 14, most of whom were still around in the 110th: Byrd Robert (D-WV), Chafee Lincoln (R-RI), Collins Susan (R-ME), DeWine Mike (R-OH), Graham Lindsey (R-SC), Inouye Daniel (D-HI), Landrieu Mary (D-LA), Lieberman Joe (D-CT), McCain John (R-AZ), Nelson Ben (D-NE), Pryor Mark (D-AR), Salazar Ken (D-CO), Snowe Olympia (R-ME), and Warner John (R-VA).  For bonus points, count how often their names appear as sponsors and co-sponsors.

Finally, since this election is about McCain vs. Obama (the ultra-lightweight match of the ages), pay special attention to those bills they are together on, of which there are several.  The ones that struck me the most were McCain-Lieberman (same page wrt glbaloney), benefits and education rights for aliens (same page on illegal immigration), AIDS and other diseases funding for foreign countries (hey, why stop at nationalized health care when you can have internationalized health care), and nanny stateism (car seat safety laws and tobacco regulation).  How about this: Lieberman sponsored bills on both establishing (SPEW ALERT:) a Senate Office for Public Integrity and on earmark disclosure and McCain and Obama were both co-sponsors for each of them.  Then there’s this: Obama, McCain and even the Hildebeast co-sposored Jim DeMint’s amendment for an earmark moratorium for fiscal 2009.  Finally, here’s the kicker: McCain was one of only three co-sponsors on Obama’s bill to (SPEW ALERT:) strengthen transparency and accountability in Federal spending.  So if McCain can agree with Obama on global warming, illegal immigrants, health-care for illegal immigrants and foreigners, earmarks, integrity and accountability with respect to Federal spending, can I ask which of the following is true?

1)    John McCain is no better than Obama on these issues.
2)    Barack Obama is no worse than McCain on these issues.