(Update) McCain: "I'm going to compete in California"

Senator McCain had a conference call with a number of bloggers this afternoon, and McCain certainly made some interesting points.

In response to comments yesterday by Mitt Romney that we shouldn't "move heaven and earth" or "spend billions" trying to capture Osama bin Laden, which we commented on earlier today here, McCain said that he disagreed: "We'll devote every effort this country can make to get him," the Senator said.

On the supplemental, McCain said that he understood "the absolute drop dead date" to be sometime in early June, but he also said it was important that the president veto the current bill if for no other reason that the $20 billion in pork that Democrats have stuffed into it. He said the pork was being "used as a vehicle to buy votes," and that it was "obscene and corrupting." He also said that it would be a mistake to wait until that "drop dead date" before passing a clean supplemental.

On the issue of same sex marriage, the senator said he was personally opposed to the legislation just passed in New Hampshire that would legalize civil unions for gay couples, but that he did believe that this was a matter best left to the states--that he was a "strong federalist."

On the media coverage of the Iraq war, McCain said that "suicide bombers continue to be the focus of [press] efforts, but there is progress being made." He went on to say that "the thing that concerns me as much as anything is the Maliki government," pointing to its decision to take a two month recess this summer as particularly worrying. He also said there had been "dramatic improvement in Anbar," but that General Petraeus continued to be concerned about the suicide bombers and equipment coming into Iraq from Iran and Syria. Overall, he said that there was "measured but slow progress" taking place in Iraq.

On energy, McCain spoke of the "huge national security component to the need for energy independence," and then treated us to the only blatant pander of the afternoon by pointing to the importance of "corn oil" in Iowa as an alternative source of energy. More important, he emphasized the need for nuclear power: "We need [more] nuclear power badly."

When asked about what kind of justices he might appoint to the Supreme Court, McCain said that he would not impose a litmus test, but he did say he thought a "strict interpretation" of the Constitution was critical, and that he would look for someone with "life experience" rather than just focusing on judicial experience. Specifically, he said that he would want someone who had military or business experience, "real world experience" he said.

When asked whether he would be able to peel off any of the states that voted for Kerry in 2004, McCain said that "if you look what happened in Ohio and other midwest states [in 2004] it's not good," but that he would look to put California in play in 2008 to offset those negative trends: "I'm going to compete in California," he said, adding that Republicans can no longer afford to write off the biggest state in the Union.

And on defense spending, McCain was asked whether he was in line with Romney, who recently endorsed the Heritage Foundation proposal for spending a minimum of four percent of GDP on national defense. McCain said that he would see to it that defense spending continues to rise, but that "what we do is more important than how much money we spend," emphasizing the need for serious reform in the acquisition process. Specifically, he said that the cost overruns on the Navy's Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) were "disgraceful," that "missile defense has to be fully funded," that "the greatest challenge is to get costs under control," and that the "heads of services have to be more involved in the acquisition process."

He speculated on whether what money we are spending is being spent in the right areas, asking "are we spending enough on intelligence" and "do we need a half-billion dollar aircraft?" Presumably that is a reference to the F-22, and on that he answered his own question saying that "I think we happen to need these," but his point was clear: reforming the acquisition process will be a central theme of his defense policy. To that end, he said he would "get the smartest guys in America" into the Pentagon to get a handle on how the military deals with the defense industry.