Conservative Radio Hosts Lampoon McCain
Typically, conservative talk show hosts attack the opposite side of the aisle; this cycle, they are going after one of their own
Sean Hannity
(Douglas C. Pizac/AP)
Sean Hannity, the conservative half of Fox News's Hannity & Colmes, recently spoke with Newt Gingrich, former GOP speaker of the House, about McCain.
Hannity: I am getting a lot of E-mail, there are a lot of people who feel now that it may be inevitable that Senator McCain is going to be the nominee for the Republicans but yet he has alienated a very big part of the Republican base and that is the conservative movement on significant substantive issues.
Gingrich: I would say if he is the nominee, that every conservative in the country better do everything they can to help elect conservatives to the House and Senate...because I think it's very important that we understand that this would be an administration on most days that is very unreliable from our standpoint. Let's be fair. It would be better than Senator Obama. It would be better than Senator Clinton. But for all the values that created the modern conservative movement, from Goldwater to Reagan to the Contract With America, this would not be an administration that had any interest in those kinds of values.
Michael Medved
(Eric Draper/The White House/AP)
A USA Today columnist and host of the Michael Medved Show, Medved has been one of the few steady defenders of John McCain among the panjandrums of conservative talk radio. Appearing on MSNBC, Medved was asked by Tucker Carlson to explain the "hate" among radio hosts toward McCain. Medved replied:
"Well they're acting like liberals, and I know that's a terrible thing to say about people I like and respect — I have great respect for Rush. But he's acting like a liberal on this. Liberals allow personalities and emotions and feelings over issues, substance, and policy. And that's what they're doing here. Because if you actually look at the three essential elements of the Reagan coalition: security, economics, and social issues — McCain is solid. He is very conservative. He is a traditional Reagan Republican, and there is no policy reason, there is no issues reason, for people to be so hostile to him and to call him all these names and to bang on him day after day after day. I actually believe that talk radio is hurting itself more than they're hurting Senator McCain."
Laura Ingraham
(Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
Ingraham, a former Reagan administration speechwriter and the host of the Laura Ingraham Show, has called McCain "the Democrats' favorite Republican." She blasted the candidate for defending campaign finance laws in a recent Supreme Court case brought by a Wisconsin right-to-life group, which argued that the law limits freedom of speech.
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