A move to the right through back-to-back elections has turned the once-“mavericky” Sen. John McCain into one of conservatism’s most dependable votes, the
National Journal reports. A tally of 2010 Senate ayes and nays places McCain farthest right alongside five Republican colleagues with considerably less fluid conservative credentials.
It’s a remarkable turnaround for a senator who used to routinely finish near the bottom of the Journal’s annual most-conservative list.
McCain started his 2008 presidential campaign known as an aisle-crossing independent. But in that contest, and then a tough home-state Senate primary in 2010, he apparently discovered his inner movement stalwart.
Predictions that McCain would prove an important Senate ally for President Barack Obama, who defeated him in 2008, have evaporated. Instead he is a White House antagonist on issues including healthcare, gays in the military, and federal spending.
A McCain staffer insisted that what has changed is not the senator, but the Senate itself.
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