Let’s Talk About 'True Conservatism'

Allow me, if you will, to delve a little bit further into the hypocrisy of Mr. Tiahrt’s recent criticism of US Senator John McCain. You see, while I previously talked about the lunacy behind Mr. Tiahrt’s claims that McCain should have ran a more conservative campaign last fall; I failed to mention the hypocrisy that lies at the heart of Mr. Tiahrt’s proclamations of real conservatism.


That hypocrisy lies in the fact that Mr. Tiahrt himself does not practice the true conservative principles that he idealizes.


True conservatism means decreasing the size of government. True conservatism means cutting back on wasteful spending. True conservatism means a complete refusal of earmark legislation and pork-barrel politics. Todd Tiahrt’s congressional record does not back up his oh-so-often-proclaimed ‘true conservative’ ideals.


According to the 2009 Club for Growth RePork Card, which compiled the voting record for 68 anti-Pork amendments this year, Mr. Tiahrt has voted in favor of anti-Pork amendments an upsettingly low 29% of the time. This means that our ‘True Conservative’ Congressman has voted in favor of wasteful spending more the twice as often as he has voted against it.


Even more shocking, is how these pork projects might not just be any old excess. According to a Washington Post story from earlier this fall, Tiahrt is one of seven congressional lawmakers (mostly liberal Democrats by the way) on the House Appropriations committee that worked to steer over $200 million in earmarks towards the increasingly shady PMA Group.


Not only are these actions decidedly NOT those of a fiscal conservative, but they are potentially illegal.


All these things would be troubling in and of themselves, but when they are considered in light of last week’s critical Op-Ed, we see a far more hypocritical Tiahrt that is more of snake than a GOP elephant. You see, John McCain has spent much of his illustrious Senatorial career championing legislation against pork-barrel earmarks. McCain has consistently been rated above 85% by the Citizens Against Government Waste, and had a 94% rating from the Club for Growth in 2007.


Furthermore, McCain authored the Line-Item Veto law that would work to prevent wasteful spending, and has championed the cause of taking wasteful spending out of government.


This is the opinion of a true conservative, and these are the actions of a true conservative. Mr. Tiahrt should take notice.


Conservatively Yours,


Publius