You know all the arguments about whether Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is really a conservative. And whether he is a Republican-in-Name-Only. (I did a Google search for “John McCain” and “RINO” the other day and got 195,000 hits.)

But let me add this. I’ve been to a bunch of McCain rallies in the last few months — in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Florida and Arizona — and I found a lot of conservatives who support John McCain.

They are people who voted for George W. Bush twice. The older ones voted for Ronald Reagan twice. They believe in lower taxes, less government regulation and a strong defense.

They haven’t agreed with McCain down the line — not supporting, for example, his expansion of existing government regulation on political activity — but they agree with him on most big issues.

And, as conservatives, they’ve made the calculation that, of all the GOP candidates who began running for president way back in 2006, McCain is the best choice.

At McCain’s Super Tuesday victory celebration in Phoenix this week, I ran into Frank Lococo and Raymond Jamieson.

They are lawyers from Milwaukee, in Phoenix to attend a professional conference.

When it turned out that McCain’s rally was going on in the same hotel as the conference, the two friends decided to drop by and have a look.

We struck up a conversation. It turned out that both men are longtime subscribers to National Review. They check the magazine’s website daily for their fix of conservative political opinion. And Jamieson told me he treasures three books signed by William F. Buckley.

By any measure, they are solid conservatives. And both told me they support McCain.

“For me, one of the most important issues is the pro-life issue, and he is solid pro-life, he’s never flip-flopped on it,” Lococo said. “He’s also very strong on foreign policy, Iraq policy, and for me those are the two most important issues right now.”

“He is stout on national defense, which I believe is the signal issue of our time and will be for the foreseeable future,” Jamieson added.

A moment later, Lococo threw in another issue: “I believe that appointing judges is in a lot of ways the whole enchilada for the presidential election, because when you’re dealing with Congress, things can go every which way, there is compromising, but being able to appoint judges to the federal bench and the Supreme Court is huge.” McCain rival Mitt Romney, Lococo told me, might be “a Justice Souter in waiting.”

That’s why they support McCain. But it’s not to say they don’t have their problems with the senator from Arizona.

“I will tell you that on things like taxes and immigration, his positions drive me to distraction, because I think he favors a general amnesty,” Jamieson told me. “But when I think about people who call themselves conservatives and are attacking McCain, I think, why don’t they step back and ask themselves, what are the alternatives? The alternatives are a fellow [Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.)] who National Journal gave the No. 1 liberal senator ranking. For goodness’ sake, McCain has gone off the reservation on a few issues, but on the issues that really, really matter, he’s been stout.”

Well, certainly, I don’t think anyone would argue that McCain is less conservative than Obama. But the GOP primary is Republican against Republican, and I brought up the criticism McCain has received from top talk radio hosts Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham and Mark Levin. What about that?

“I wish it would stop,” Lococo told me. “I’m a little surprised by Sean Hannity. Actually, he’s really made me angry about it, because he’s had Sen. McCain on for years on his show, always treated him with respect, and when they disagreed it was not venomous like it is now. I was listening to Hannity in the car today, and I had to turn it off, I couldn’t listen any more, because it was like he was talking about Hillary Clinton or Al Gore or John Kerry.”

Now, it should be said that conservatives who oppose McCain do so on absolutely legitimate grounds. On campaign finance and immigration, especially, McCain’s opponents have solid, principled arguments.

But those conservatives who support McCain have solid, principled arguments, too.
Neither side has a monopoly on conservatism.

York is a White House correspondent for National Review. His column appears in The Hill each week.
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