John McCain is still campaigning, and yesterday it was to the base of the Republican Party, the Christian conservatives. He said all the right things to that crowd about the appointment of judges (the AP story about the speech is here). To that end, he’ll probably hearten the Christian conservatives who until now are luke warm on the McCain candidacy, but McCain forgets he’s still going to face a Democratic Senate. Maybe that’s his old age getting to him.

McCain led off his harangue about “activist” judges by calling out Barack Obama for opposing the nomination of Chief Justice Roberts. Yes, the Obama people are correct when they when they note that the “Straighttalk Express” to an extreme right turn with the speech. He wants this campaign enough to compromise every supposed principle he’s held. Then again, the desperation of old age that is driving McCain to pander in this election may just be a mirror of his constant bowing to the right. He did it yesterday, and he did it in his youth. But first, a bit of a blurb from his speech about the kinds of judges McCain would nominate, direct from the McCain web site:

Quite rightly, the proper role of the judiciary has become one of the defining issues of this presidential election. It will fall to the next president to nominate hundreds of qualified men and women to the federal courts, and the choices we make will reach far into the future. My two prospective opponents and I have very different ideas about the nature and proper exercise of judicial power. We would nominate judges of a different kind, a different caliber, a different understanding of judicial authority and its limits. And the people of America — voters in both parties whose wishes and convictions are so often disregarded by unelected judges — are entitled to know what those differences are.

Forget the notion that McCain disdains the appointment of judges altogether there, implying he would sacrifice their independence to the tyranny of the polling place. Believe me, I live in Pa where we elect judges, and it just isn’t a good idea, besides being completely contrary to the constitution McCain claims he wishes judges to uphold. What’s interesting here is that McCain claims he will appoint qualified judges. McCain’s vote for Clarence Thomas in 1991, perhaps the most unprepared nominee ever nominated, belies his claim to nominate jurists of quality. Indeed, McCain, the man who claims to be a maverick, walked in lockstep with Republicans in the close vote (52-48) to confirm Thomas’ nomination. It is plain McCain favors politically right-wing nominees far more than he favors “quality,” at least if you look at his record and not at his “straight talk.”

So what’s McCain going to say to defend his Clarence Thomas vote? Clearly Thomas is the second vote controlled by the right-wing ideologue on the bench, Antony Scalia. The man doesn’t even have his own philosophy. So on the issue of “quality” McCain claims he prizes, Thomas fails. Further, McCain claims he will not let political leanings get in the way of his nominations to the court, but his favoring of folks like Thomas clearly belie that stance.

Business as usual by MC Straighttalker. A pander here, a pander there, empty promises about avoiding politics in nominations, empty promises that he’ll favor “quality” on the bench. Clearly the pandering to the religious right wing trump McCain’s promises. My guess is that McCain would sacrifice our civil liberties if it would get him a vote.