Rhetorical Flourishes

As chairman, McCotter is an outspoken champion of conservative political principles and frequently chides his party to stay true to form.

"We must bury our ideological dead," he told his Republican colleagues in a December 2007 floor speech following their loss of the House majority to Democrats. "A transformational majority sinned and slipped into a transitional cashocracy-promises, policies, principles all bartered, even honor."

In his speech, McCotter blamed his party's woes on its failure to maintain a coherent political philosophy as evidenced by Newt Gingrich's 'Contract With America,' which McCotter argues was incomplete because it didn't outline a future GOP roadmap.

"The Contract with America was their riff on the culture of corruption, and they put some things on there that had popular appeal for reforming Congress internally, and that's pretty much where it ended," he said. "There wasn't any philosophical basis that would help guide the Republican Party through the revolution."

Calling the Contract's tenets "dated," McCotter warned that "if the current Republican minority buys into the myth and makes the contract the basis of a derivative Republican agenda, the party will be condemned to another 40-year Magical Mystery Tour through the Republican wilderness."

Such strong language is typical for McCotter. In October 2007, he warned that the GOP "would lose its soul" if it voted with Democrats to expand the children's health-insurance program called S-CHIP. In July 2009, he co-wrote with House Minority LeaderJohn A. Boehner (R-Ohio) a warning that Obama's health-care reform plan would create "a more permissive environment for euthanasia, mercy-killing, and physician-assisted suicide."

Abortion Rights

McCotter's vigorous opposition to abortion rights and family planning has earned him a 100% score from the National Right to Life Committee in every one of his terms in office.

He sponsored a September 2008 resolution condemning the United Nation's Human Rights Committee and Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women for its promotion of reproductive choice in Ireland. The resolution did not receive a floor vote.

McCotter was also a co-sponsor of a January 2009 prohibition on transporting minors across state lines in circumvention of laws requiring the involvement of parents in abortion decisions; a January 2009 state authorization to provide low-income families with alternatives to abortion services; a January 2009 restriction on assistance to foreign organizations that perform or actively promote abortions; and a February 2009 prohibition on the use of federal funds to support population-control or family-planning activities. None of these bills ever made it out of committee.

The Economy

McCotter is resolutely against big government spending. He co-sponsored two resolutions in January 2009 to block automatic pay raises for members of Congress, and he sponsored a March 2009 mandate that federal spending not grow any faster than GDP.

McCotter strongly opposed the 2008 Wall Street bailout on grounds that it represented an intrusion of government into the economy and a loss of economic freedom.

"It has always been the temptation, especially in a crisis, to sacrifice liberty for short-term promises of prosperity," he said. "It was no mistake that in the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, the slogan was 'peace, land, and bread.' Today you are being asked to choose between bread and freedom."

The Michigan lawmaker did, however, urge the release of Wall Street bailout funds to domestic automakers in December.

He voted for a December 2008 bill (which cleared the House, but failed in the Senate) to distribute $14 billion in emergency loans to U.S. auto companies. In a floor speech, he cited his state's struggling economy and its dependence on auto companies as a staple of employment.

"I live with the people who will be affected. ... To me, this is not abstract," he said.

In April 2009, McCotter again implored lawmakers to think of auto workers when he slammed the Obama administration's decision to push Chrsyler into bankruptcy.

"Unconscionably, too many people in our country consider our auto workers and retirees are disposable people, statistics not souls," he said.

Foreign Policy

McCotter backs an assertive U.S. foreign policy and zealous counterterrorism measures. When Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited the U.S. in September 2007, McCotter demanded that he visit Ground Zero and apologize for Iran's support of Al Qaeda.

McCotter has also been a frequent critic of China. He sponsored a December 2005 resolution condemning China's persecution of religious groups, He also sponsored a February 2009 bill of support for China's Charter 08 movement (Charter 08 is a manifesto for democracy in China; 303 Chinese intellectuals have signed it). In April 2008, in the runup to the Beijing summer Oympics, he unsuccessfully tried to bar any U.S. government officials from attending the ceremonies.

Russia has also received harsh words from McCotter. In June 2007, he sponsored a resolution demanding that Russian military forces withdraw from Moldova. He also sponsored a September 2008 resolution calling Russian deployment of military units in the Western hemisphere "reckless, provocative, and in violation of the Monroe Doctrine."

Taking aim at autocracy everywhere, he sponsored a July 2009 bill to withdraw "normal trade relations treatment" from countries that have poor records of religious freedom and workers' rights.

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