Leadership Conference on Civil Rights

John McCain has a record of reasonableness on judicial politics. He voted to confirm Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer, the two Supreme Court justices nominated by a Democrat. And, in 2005, he joined a bipartisan group of senators known as the "Gang of 14" that cut a deadlock-breaking deal on judicial nominees.

So it was disappointing, if not surprising, when McCain made clear in a speech this week that he has adopted the ideological rigidity demanded by social conservatives in picking judges and justices.