The Real McCain

[Thom Little]

Over the Senate's August recess, John McCain returned to Arizona to quash a brewing conservative insurgency in his home state. The Arizona Republican Assembly, a grassroots right-wing group, had recently censured McCain for "ignoring the opinions of his constituents expressed in numerous polls and personal pleas." The anti-immigrant Minuteman vigilantes had rallied on the Arizona-Mexico border in protest of his progressive immigration policy. Discord gripped the state GOP leadership. So the man who in 2000 dubbed himself "Luke Skywalker fighting his way out of the Death Star" headed straight into enemy territory, organizing a town hall meeting with rank-and-file conservatives in the desert town of Mesa. "Many of those in the crowd Thursday wore stickers with a circle and a slash--the symbol for 'no'--across the words 'McCain 2008,'" the local East Valley Tribune reported.

But the senator they saw projected a far more conciliatory image than the trash-talking maverick portrayed in the national media. Before the event he had endorsed teaching "intelligent design" alongside evolution in public schools, and he had expressed support for a rigid state ban on gay marriage that denies government benefits to any unmarried couple. After brief opening remarks, McCain took questions for more than two hours, referring to Reagan as "my hero," invoking the support of other conservatives on issues such as stem-cell research and immigration, and strenuously defending President Bush's Iraq policy.

The détente with conservatives that began with his vigorous embrace of Bush during the 2004 campaign has become a full-on charm offensive. "If he decides to run for President, the friendship has to be re-established," says McCain political consultant Max Fose. "There haven't always been town halls. There hasn't always been a dialogue." McCain isn't just reaching out on the home front. His office holds regular meetings with conservative leaders in South Carolina, where his approval rating sits at 65 percent. He has met with the Rev. Jerry Falwell, whom he denounced as one of the religious right's "peddlers of intolerance" after the 2000 South Carolina primary. After the antitax Club for Growth began running ads against McCain in New Hampshire, a state he won in 2000, he reversed positions and supported a procedural repeal of the estate tax. He has endorsed conservative Republican Ken Blackwell for Ohio governor. At the suggestion of conservative activist and longtime nemesis Grover Norquist, he campaigned for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's failed referendum initiatives in California, particularly the "paycheck protection" provision targeting unions' political activities. McCain's likely to be the most requested Republican campaigner in 2006 races. "He's the closest thing to a rock star in the Republican Party today," says Michigan Republican Party chair Saul Anuzis.

Unfortunately, most campaigns are a battle between who a politician is and who he needs to be to win. There have always been two sides to McCain: the conservative loyalist and the unpredictable maverick so often featured in the media. In preparation for 2008, McCain has largely chosen to unveil and market the conservative side. Many conservatives are warming to his routine; some are even beginning to like and trust him. It's fair to assume, though, that the more orthodox conservatives agree with McCain, the more he risks alienating moderates and forfeiting the independence that makes him unique and suggests he could become a great President. It's an uncomfortable predicament for a pragmatic problem solver with sky-high approval ratings and crossover appeal. "He'll have to decide whether he wants to be CBS's favorite senator or the Republican nominee," says Norquist. "He can't do both."

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20051212/berman

[aquart]

1. Creep.

[unsavedtrash]

2. He will be campaigning in my state for racist Wallace Jr. in week or so.

[realFedUp]

3. Arianna got it right....Russert Watch: Where's the Real McCain?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/russert-watch-wheres-th_b_11678.html

Russert Watch: Where's the Real McCain?
Arianna Huffington
Dec. 4, 05

snip
If today's show was any indication, the Straight Talk Express has gone seriously off the road.

snip

In fact, the transmogrification of McCain into "McCain" has been progressing unabated all year. Had Russert bothered, he could, for example, have asked McCain about his recent endorsement of a constitutional amendment in Arizona to ban gay marriage and deny benefits to unmarried couples of any kind. Or his new-found support of teaching "intelligent design" in schools. Or his 100 percent approval rating from Phyllis Schlafly's "Eagle Forum." Or his recent meeting with Jerry Falwell, the man McCain called in 2000 "a peddler of intolerance." Or his support for Senator Lindsay Graham's bill to limit the right to habeas corpus. Or his recent appearance at a fundraiser for Alabama Lt. Governor candidate George Wallace, Jr. who has given four speeches to the white supremacist group the Council of Conservative Citizens.

As John Dickerson wrote recently in Slate:

This support for Bush is yielding support for McCain in turn. Just three weeks ago, McCain's political action committee took in $1 million in just one week. Many of the professional Republicans who helped to kill his candidacy when he ran against Bush in 2000 now write him $5,000 checks—the full amount allowed by law.
But none of these facts were brought up by Russert on this morning's Meet the Press. Perhaps it's too early to say whether "McCain" will triumph over McCain. Maybe the real McCain will return. But the only way I see that happening is if what's happened to him is at least acknowledged. If he's allowed to shill for Bush and kowtow to the religious right without paying any price, without Russert and others in the mainstream media even challenging him, you can bet we've seen the last of the real McCain.

It's a shame that he seems to want to be the captain of the new Bullshit Express, but that doesn't mean we have to go along for the ride.