Interesting. Maverick McCain is a squish on border security and has worked with the Democrats on the McCain-Feingold abomination, but he does have a long career as a true tax-cutter according to Kevin Stach.

Mr. McCain took over Barry Goldwater’s Senate seat in 1987. In 1989 — in the face of rising deficits — Mr. McCain voted for a pro-growth cut in the capital-gains tax to 35% and to expand tax-advantaged Individual Retirement Accounts.

In 1990, those rising deficits led President George H.W. Bush to abandon his “no new taxes” pledge and seek out a budget deal with Senate Democrats. The negotiations were so politically sensitive that Office of Management and Budget Director Richard Darman and congressional leaders decamped to Andrews Air Force base. They ultimately brought back a deal that included a trade-off: supposedly binding budget levels in exchange for what was then the largest tax increase in history.

Many Republican budget hawks in the Senate — including Bob Dole, Pete Domenici, Warren Rudman, Alan Simpson, Strom Thurmond and Orin Hatch — strongly pushed this package. Yet Mr. McCain and other supply-siders such as Connie Mack, Trent Lott and Phil Gramm broke ranks with George H.W. Bush and the GOP leadership to vote “no.”

Throughout the 1990s, Mr. McCain was a reliable, down-the-line tax cutter. In 1992, he voted for an amendment by supply-side hero Sen. Bob Kasten to require a super-majority in Congress to raise taxes. That same year, he joined just 37 other senators in pushing for Sen. Connie Mack’s proposal to cut the capital gains tax to 15%.

Stach even makes a good case for McCain’s actions on the Bush tax cuts in 2001. Read the whole thing.

While I wouldn’t expect any McCain critics, and I count myself among them, to just fall in line after reading this article, compare McCain’s record to Barack Obama’s rhetoric. There is a clear difference between the two on taxes. McCain cuts them, Obama raises them. McCain wants to cut government spending; Obama promises to raise it.

He still needs to dump Juan Hernandez.