A law professor defends:

I think it is somewhat misleading to say that McCain filed a brief against Wisconsin Right-to–Life without giving more of the context. That case had nothing to do with abortion per se; it was about a particular issue arising from the interpretation of what counts as an “electioneering statement” in the campaign finance law. The fact that the defendant in that case was a right-to-life group is irrelevant to the question of McCain’s overall pro-life commitment. Whether one approves of the campaign finance law or not, it affects pro-life and pro-choice groups in precisely the same way. Your recent post and the article by Andy McCarthy seem to imply that the fact that McCain filed a brief against a right-to-life group calls into question his pro-life credentials. But it would be wrong and unjust to refuse to apply the law against a group just because you support its position on a political issue–even an issue as important as abortion. It could possibly be argued that one negative result of the campaign finance law itself is that it burdens pro-life groups disproportionately since the mainstream media is pro-choice. It doesn’t seem to me that pro-life voices are having any difficulty getting their message out this election season. But in any event, the law involves many issues besides the pro-life cause, and the larger question of campaign finance regulation needs to be treated separately from the much narrower question of McCain’s overall commitment to pro-life policies. McCain has had a solid pro-life voting record for 24 years, which is one reason why some of the most stalwart and intelligent defenders of the pro-life position in the country are supporting him–to name just a few, Sam Brownback, Tom Coburn, Gerard Bradley and (with reservations) Ramesh Ponnuru.

UPDATE:

An e-mail:
I feel so much better now that the good professor assures that McCain is only hostile to free political speech, not right-to-life groups in particular. By the way – Wisconsin is critical to any Republican’s chances of winning in November. Given that Ohio (and probably a couple of other states) will probably go Blue this season, it is imperative that the GOP switch a couple of states from Blue to Red. Wisconsin is our best chance, it had the narrowest margin of the states that went for Kerry in 04. But given McCain’s slap at an important part of the GOP base there, his chances there are far weaker than those of any other GOP hopeful.