The LA Times’ Dana Parsons has an awesome column in today’s paper; it’s an interview with CRA Vice Chairman Karl Heft.
From the column…
Heft, who supports Mitt Romney, is a 37-year-old conservative Republican who grew up hearing about and then revering Ronald Reagan. He’s also made a volunteer career out of working for Republican causes. He’s a vice president of the California Republican Assembly, an organization that represents the most conservative wing of the state party.
A Laguna Hills mortgage broker, he also chairs the assembly’s 18 Orange County chapters in the heart of Republican territory.
“On critical issues that are important to conservatives,” Heft says, “on key battles, McCain has been on the wrong side every time.” He ticks off immigration; campaign spending limits; a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage; global warming; President Bush’s tax cuts (which McCain originally voted against but now favors).
In broader strokes, Heft says, is McCain’s willingness to partner with Democrats on legislation. And McCain’s desire to close the Guantanamo detention center or to give suspected terrorists access to U.S. courts. Or that in the 2000 campaign McCain implied that evangelical Christians, like Heft, are intolerant.”
These passages tell me two things; Heft was 9 years old when Ronald Reagan took office. And two, he seems to forget the Gipper’s tax hikes, preservation of Social Security, and 1986 Amnesty for Illegal Immigrants, not to menion the huge decifits run up during the Reagan administration. Per my post earlier this week, Ronald Reagan would not have held muster with people like Heft if he were a candidate today.