A reader asks why McCain is called “not conservative” by Rush, folks in the Corner, etc.

McCain’s conservative rating from the American Conservative Union in 2006 was 65 (bleh) but his lifetime record is 82.3 at the end of that year. (I don’t see any updated numbers that include the 2007 votes.)

Rick Santorum has a lifetime rating 88.1, this reader notes. The ratings are determined by how often a lawmaker votes the conservative position on a key vote.

(Other interesting lifetime ratings…. That squish Lindsey Graham? 90.6 lifetime rating. John Sununu of New Hampshire? 93.2. Trent Lott? 92.4. Sam Brownback? 94.0. Hillary Clinton? 6.2. Barack Obama? 8.0.)

I’m not going to try to persuade my readers who are convinced that McCain is liberal or “not conservative” that McCain is a conservative; even if I could muster the rhetorical brilliance and analytical rigor that task requires, I don’t think they want to hear it right now.

I’ll note that McCain had been in Congress for 24 years at the time of that rating (in 2006, so it’s now more than 25) and thus any one year with a lot of non-conservative votes doesn’t pull down that lifetime rating very much. I’ll also note that when McCain takes a position to the left of his party or to the conservative base, it’s not on quiet, little-noticed issues. Campaign finance reform. The Gang of 14. The immigration deal. The Bush tax cuts. He’s not perfect on guns, and he believes in cap and trade to mitigate global warming.

But year after year, there’s been a lot of pro-life votes, a lot of defense spending bills, welfare reform efforts, the Republican Revolution of the mid-1990s, voting to impeach Clinton on both counts, Supreme Court justices, etc.

As discussion of Republican primary choices has gotten more heated, I think the terms “liberal”, “not conservative” and “not as conservative as I would like” have become synonyms, and that shouldn’t be the case.