LA County Libertarian Examiner Martin Hill Congressman Tom McClintock is being praised for a fiery speech he gave on the floor of Congress in which he rightly criticized Mexican President Felipe Calderon. "I rise to take strong exception to the speech by the president of Mexico here in this chambe today", McClintock began, outlining the inappropriateness of the foreign visitor daring to lecture the U.S. Congress on immigration law. He referred to the display as an outrage and disgrace.
While McClintock's speech deserves accolades, some scrutiny of his actual record may be in order, lest he be falsely characterized as a no-compromise patriot.
When Minutemen founder Jim Gilchrist ran for Congress in California in 2005, McClintock offered no support. Instead, McClintock endorsed Gilchrist's opponent, John Campbell. As promised, Campbell has since towed the neocon line, rejecting a timetable for the withdrawal from Iraq, voting yes on the Military Commissions Act, and voting no on a proposed ban on cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of detainees held by U.S. forces. Campbell also voted to give spy agencies expanded power to eavesdrop without a court order.
Soon afterwards, McClintock endorsed Arnold Schwarzenegger for governor in 2006, despite the fact that Arnold had called for "a free flow of people across" our nations' borders. In a March 2006 L.A. Times op-ed entitled 'Next Step for immigration', Arnold wrote "immigration is about our economy. The freest nation in the world, and the freest economy in history, depend on a free flow of people".
McClintock, who most recently endorsed 'former' abortionist, pro-tax advocate and Al Gore donor Steve Poizner for California governor, has a history of bizzare and hypocritical 'flip-flops', endorsing big government authoritarians and socialists. McClintock enthusiastically endorsed Council on Foreign Relations member Fred Thompson for president in 2008.. (article continues here