McCain vs. the GOP on Global Warming

The Politico says the GOP Senators will have a hard time reconciling their positions on global warming with John McCain's:

John McCain’s tempestuous relationship with his own party will be on full display when the Senate dives into a major global warming debate next week.

The question facing Senate Republicans: Are they ready to embrace their presidential nominee’s more liberal ideas for climate change ideas like a cap-and-trade system, or will they stick to the conservative, hands-off approach to global warming backed by President Bush?

It’s a debate that may very well divide Senate Republicans and show voters yet another fissure in an already beleaguered party. Democrats don’t seem eager to offer a smooth path toward any bipartisan compromise that would give McCain political cover on the issue, and a key procedural vote has already been scheduled for June 2.

On global warming and other issues, McCain’s office is engaged in an intensive behind-the-scenes message coordination effort with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), whose press office holds daily phone calls to map out the message of the day.

Every Tuesday, McCain’s senior advisers meet with GOP senators at the National Republican Senatorial Committee to chart their agenda. And about once a week, McCain himself chats with McConnell.

Republicans say the task of unifying GOP senators with McCain is akin to herding cats — and it points to the party’s larger national problem with presenting a unified message.

“Have you noticed it’s hard to coordinate anything with Sen. McCain?” asked Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas). “I don’t know if we can ever sing off the same sheet of music, but in terms of subject matter, we are trying to coordinate and do some of the Greek chorus stuff with him.”

Last week, a significant number of Senate Republicans bucked Bush by voting both to override his veto of the Farm Bill and to support a GI Bill introduced by Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.). McCain didn’t vote, but he made it clear that he agreed with Bush’s positions on both measures.

By contrast, the debate on a bipartisan climate change bill sponsored by Sens. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) and John Warner (R-Va.) offers McCain a chance to stake out a position different from the president’s and see if his party will follow. The catch is that many Republicans are uncomfortable with McCain’s talk of a cap-and-trade program for reducing carbon emissions.

“John McCain was into climate change before it was cool,” Graham said. “But that’s the one issue where the majority of the conference may go the other way.”

If the GOP caves and gives in to McCain just because he's the nominee and they don't want to make him look ineffective, they all deserve to lose. Whether climate change is "cool" or not, accepting the idiotic premises of the left is not the way to win elections because the conservative base will desert them, and rightfully so.