Although I am encouraged by John McCain’s support of the Arizona Civil Rights Initiative on ABC’s This Week, I am also a little wary. He is claiming he supports the initiative — even though he hasn’t looked at it in detail — and has always been against quotas.

However, in the past he has called these initiatives “divisive.” And according the AP article on his ABC appearance, McCain voted to maintain a program that encourages the awarding of 10 percent of spending on highway construction to women and minorities. Isn’t that a quota?

The word “quota” has become rather slippery and elastic in meaning ever since “affirmative action” arrived on the scene.