Ross Douthat is far too kind to Mickey Kaus.
Kaus' fixation on immigration distorts his political analysis to the point of absurdity -- nearly every political victory or defeat can somehow be tied to a candidate's immigration stance and Kaus is convinced that his restrictionist view is an absolute political winner.
Yes, the hard right hates McCain for immigration, but only because they hate him for everything he does. This is why Giuliani and Romney got a general pass on their past open borders views by simply ignoring them, while McCain, who honestly acknowledged his ("I learned my lesson, America wants a secure border"), is still vilified.
The fact of the matter is that the talk show right hates McCain because he's beholden to nobody. He's absolutely his own boy, in league with nobody. He'll pander with the best of them, but at the end of the day, everybody knows he's going to do what he's going to do. While that trait is somewhat admirable to an extent, it's makes him simply unacceptable to the loyalty-first wing of the Republican party that still supports Bush and supported Giulani to his bitter end.
P.S. I realise that I promised a series of posts on the Republican candidates, but I decided life is too short to think about those clowns, and besides... I've been busy. I voted for Paul. He was the most reliable pro-life candidate (unlike McCain, Romney and Giuliani), and though I don't fully agree with his desire to end the Iraq war immediately (though that's better than every other candidate's shrugs), his foreign policy views were coherent (unlike Thompson, Huckabee and Romney), based on ideas instead of fear-mongering (unlike Giuliani) and unlikely to get us into a war with a crumbling Persian theocracy. Finally, he actually seemed to want to win (unlike Thompson). I'll likely be voting third party in the general election if I can find a pro-lifer who doesn't want forever-war in the Middle East.
