John McCain gave a speech this morning outlining his judicial philosophy. The speech didn't contain much of anything new to those who have followed Republican approaches to the judiciary: avoid "judicial activism," nominate Supreme Court justices in the mold of Scalia and Thomas, etc. But for McCain, it's a speech he needed to give, and may need to give again, to assure movement conservative voters that he is of their ilk when it comes to future judicial appointments. The one interesting point was McCain cited the Gang of 14, which in his view, led to the successful nominations of Chief Justice John Roberts and Samuel Alito. Even if there's a lot of truth in his rationale, it's highly unlikely to be warmly received by self-described conservatives who see any degree of compromise on judges as an abject failure. Marc Ambinder notes the press doesn't understand why McCain wanted to talk about his philosophy rather than debating the merits of significant past cases.
Writing that McCain's audience is "grasping it perfectly," Mary Kathering Ham writes:
I suppose it's natural that the press would assume McCain would spend an entire speech about the judicial system talking about policy instead of principles. The beauty of conservatives, however, is that they understand judicial philosophy is not about enacting preferred policies.
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