Bob Novak appears to pretty much resolve the issue of Fund’s column, by finding two sources who give essentially the same story. The broad outlines are clear — at a gathering of conservative lawyers in April 2007, McCain appeared to suggest he would appoint Justices like John Roberts, but expressed some reservation about Sam Alito.

Novak also repeats private comments by McCain indicating he thinks he would have to raise taxes as president. Publicly, McCain has said he would never support a tax increase.

I realize private conversations are private (and Wendy Long apparently missed my sarcasm when I referred to a hypothetical “odd crowd of conservatives who thought Alito was crassly vocal in his conservatism” who would quietly nod in agreement to McCain’s statement)… but if a presidential candidate says in private that they would break one of their key campaign pledges, does the candidate still have that same expectation that what they say will not be repeated?

Don’t the voters deserve to have this information to take into account?