IBD cited McCain's " 'maverick' positions" on taxes and immigration, failed to note his reversal on those issues

In a June 26 Investor's Business Daily article, staff writer Sean Higgins wrote that the Supreme Court ruling that overturned a handgun ban in the District of Columbia "is a potential lifeline for [Sen. John] McCain, who has failed so far to unite conservative voters behind him," many of whom, Higgins asserted, "still resent his 'maverick' positions on taxes and immigration." Higgins did not mention, however, that McCain has reversed his positions on taxes and immigration, adopting positions more closely conforming to the views of the GOP base on both issues. While McCain opposed President Bush's tax cuts in 2001 and 2003, he now supports making the tax cuts permanent, while misrepresenting his stated reason for previously opposing them. And on immigration, McCain stated during the January 30 Republican presidential debate that he would no longer vote for the immigration bill he co-sponsored with Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) if it came to a vote on the Senate floor. McCain now says that "we've got to secure the borders first" -- a position at odds with his prior assertion that border security could not be disaggregated from other aspects of comprehensive immigration reform without being rendered ineffective.

As Media Matters for America has noted, numerous news articles have uncritically reported McCain's past positions on issues such as immigration and taxes without noting that he has since reversed himself.

In contrast to Higgins, Elisabeth Bumiller reported in a March 3 New York Times article that McCain has made a "striking turnaround ... on the Bush tax cuts, which he voted against twice but now wants to make permanent," and has "moved from his original position on immigration." Bumiller also noted that "McCain went so far at a debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in January to say that if his original proposal came to a vote on the Senate floor, he would not vote for it."

Similarly, The Boston Globe's Brian Mooney wrote in an April 20 article that McCain's maverick image "has been scuffed on his way to becoming the presumptive Republican presidential nominee," adding: "The policy shifts are evident: He abandoned comprehensive immigration reform last year as it threatened to sink his candidacy and is supporting tax cuts for the wealthy he had criticized for years and twice voted against in the Senate."

Additionally, in a June 20 Politico piece, contributing columnist and Washington journalist Gebe Martinez reported on McCain's reversal on immigration:

McCain, the Arizona senator, dismayed Latinos last year when he stepped back from his immigration bill that would have tightened the borders and legalized undocumented immigrants. As boos and hisses from angry Republican conservatives grew louder at campaign events, he switched course and vowed to "first" secure the borders. Were his failed bill to come up again, he would not vote for it, he said.

[...]

Trying to regain Latino support, McCain has chastised Republicans who stoke the fires of the immigration at election time. And at a private meeting with Chicago-area Latinos last week, he promised to push for a comprehensive immigration bill.

"It sounds like he's trying to have it both ways, and it's not convincing anyone," said Frank Sharry, who also was involved in immigration bill negotiations when he headed the National Immigration Forum.

This is not the McCain Hispanics thought they knew. Even after the 2001 terrorist attacks placed an emphasis on national security, McCain's speeches to Latino audiences and on the Senate floor prioritized the compassionate side of the immigration argument.

He understood that border security "first" means "deportation only" in the eyes of immigrant activists, and he championed a broader approach.

As the Senate mulled immigration in 2006, McCain often stood in the Capitol's corridors, pounding his fist in the air, arguing that border enforcement would not work without simultaneously penalizing employers who hire workers illegally, creating a temporary worker program and finding a way to bring 12 million illegal immigrants "out of the shadows" of society.

"It won't work! It won't work!" he protested of suggestions to do enforcement first. The stool cannot stand on one leg.

From Higgins' June 26 Investor's Business Daily article:

Sen. McCain, R-Ariz., is "clearly for Roberts- and Alito-type justices," [Sen. Sam] Brownback [R-KS] said, mentioning two of the conservative justices who voted with the majority.

That is a potential lifeline for McCain, who has failed so far to unite conservative voters behind him. Many still resent his "maverick" positions on taxes and immigration. The court ruling, which McCain had called for in an amicus brief, may help him rally those voters.

The reaction of Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., to the ruling was muted but still critical. In a statement, the Democratic presidential nominee said that "crime-ravaged communities (need) to save their children from the violence that plagues our streets through common-sense, effective safety measures."