Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) will launch a new push Tuesday to ingratiate himself with social conservatives who mistrust him but whose support is vital to his hopes of winning the White House.

Right-wing leaders, who know he needs their backing, are working on a list of demands to pin him down on choosing judges with a conservative philosophy.

Seeking to overcome the right’s persistent mistrust, McCain will speak Tuesday on the importance of nominating conservative jurists to the federal courts, including the Supreme Court.

Along with abortion, this is one of the few areas where the candidate agrees with leading social conservatives.

These leaders are coalescing around the idea that the GOP should pledge in its official platform that the president should nominate only judges with clear conservative records.

This demand is a response to President Bush’s Supreme Court nomination of former White House counsel Harriet Miers, a loyalist with scant experience of constitutional jurisprudence. Conservative opposition derailed her nomination.

Conservative leaders also want the party to embrace language that would instruct Senate leaders to make the confirmation of nominees a higher priority. Conservatives say Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) must press Democrats harder to confirm several controversial nominees, such as D.C. Circuit Court nominee Peter Keisler and 4th Circuit Court nominee Robert Conrad Jr.

Manuel Miranda, a former aide to ex-Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), circulated a draft Monday of principles for the GOP platform committee to consider. Several conservative leaders quickly endorsed it.  

Paul Weyrich, chairman of the conservative Free Congress Foundation, said he supports including the language on judicial nominees in the party platform.

“I think the more we particularize that whole issue, the more people focus on the topic,” Weyrich said.
Making detailed guidelines on judicial nominees part of the platform would also help social conservatives hold McCain to account if he is elected president.

“You can compare what the party says with any subsequent action by its nominees,” said Weyrich.  

The proposed language differs from what Republicans adopted at their 2004 convention in important ways. The 2004 platform mostly listed conservatives’ grievances with the decisions of liberal judges, such as a federal court ruling that barred reference to God in the Pledge of Allegiance.