...Apart from campaign finance reform, on which McCain is a standout, his record on a number of critical social and civil rights issues, including judicial nominations, places him firmly in the Republican Party's right-wing camp. It was McCain, for example, who lined up with fellow Republicans in supporting President Bush's ideologically far-out nominees to the federal appeals courts. Moreover, McCain has:

• Voted against a bill declaring the third Monday in January a federal holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

• Voted to cut off federal assistance to public schools that prohibit prayer in school.

• Voted to strike provisions of the Racial Justice Act that would prohibit the death sentence in state and federal cases if a defendant could prove with statistical or other evidence that the race of the victim played a role in sentencing.

• Voted against a 1996 bill to prohibit job discrimination based on sexual orientation.

• Voted against measures to increase the minimum wage, against a woman's right to choose, and with Bush 91 percent of the time last year.

What's more, in wooing McCain, Kerry sought to put on the Democratic ticket a GOP senator who voted for articles of impeachment that would have sent President Bill Clinton packing from the White House.

So why did Kerry pursue McCain?

The Massachusetts senator obviously feels a need to compensate for his liberal voting record. What better way to do that, I suppose, than to tap a conservative budget hawk such as McCain who also appeals to mainstream, suburban independent and Republican voters?...