McCain stays a pesky thorn in Bush's side

The senator doesn't apologize for aggressively pushing his agenda, much of it at odds with the White House.

By MARY JACOBY

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 18, 2001

WASHINGTON -- Is now the winter of John McCain's discontent?

This is no small question for the Bush administration and its allies, who are keeping a wary eye on the Arizona senator for signs he is plotting to steal the crown.

In the minds of McCain's detractors in Washington, the unsuccessful 2000 Republican presidential candidate is living out a kind of Shakespearean tragedy, not unlike some modern-day Richard III, consumed with bitterness and in pursuit of power at all costs.

It has not even been a month since President Bush was sworn into office, and McCain is already working against his party leadership on two high-profile issues: managed care reform and gun control.

"He has charted a course of action absolutely designed to put him at odds with President Bush and the Republican congressional leadership," conservative activist Paul Weyrich said. "There's no question it is going to undermine the president's agenda."

Or, as Shakespeare's treacherous Richard put it, "I am determined to prove a villain." This line about sums up how anti-McCain Republicans feel about the Arizona senator's recent actions:

McCain has joined liberal Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., in sponsoring a managed care reform bill that Bush opposes. Conservatives say the bill needs more restrictions on the rights of patients to sue health maintenance organizations for negligence.

But liberals, including Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, strongly back the legislation. "Say the word, President Bush, and we can make this bill law," the New York Democrat said in her maiden Senate floor speech last week.

With the 2000 Democratic vice presidential nominee, Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, McCain has reintroduced legislation to impose a waiting period on purchases of weapons at gun shows, crossing another ideological line in the sand for conservatives, who prefer instant background checks instead.

McCain has said he has enough votes to block a Republican filibuster on his signature issue, campaign finance reform. Republican leaders are ferociously opposed to the bill's comprehensive ban on unregulated "soft money" contributions. The GOP says the ban would put it at a disadvantage with labor union-backed Democrats at election time.

With his Democratic co-sponsor, Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, McCain is holding town hall meetings on campaign finance reform in the states of Republican senators who do not support his version.

The pressure tactic infuriated Arkansas Sen. Tim Hutchinson, who faces a difficult re-election campaign in 2002. McCain promoted potential Democratic challengers to Hutchinson by inviting them onto stage during his forum last month in Little Rock.

"People think they'll cause trouble, and they're frustrated," Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., said of McCain's Democratic-backed initiatives. "But I don't know how they'll play out."

Weyrich calls McCain's agenda "a deliberate strategy to set himself up for the next (presidential) election" and "retribution for the fact he lost the Republican nomination in 2000."

Yet McCain has said he does not intend to run again for president. His advisers say it would be foolhardy to challenge the incumbent for the Republican nomination in 2004.

His next realistic shot at the White House would be 2008. But by then McCain, who has battled skin cancer, would be 72 and perhaps too old to mount another campaign.

McCain laughs off criticism. "I'm there with the Trotskyites, the communists and the media," he said, trotting out an old line from the presidential campaign to describe how other Republicans view him.

His intention, aides say, is not to undermine Bush or position himself for another presidential bid. It is simply to break partisan gridlock and get things done.

"McCain is an activist legislator," said the senator's chief of staff, Mark Salter. "This is about bipartisanship. He's going to do what he can before he's out of public life."

Yet the bad blood between the two camps is unmistakable.

There is no contact on a staff level between the Bush administration and McCain's office, although regular communication could diffuse tensions. And McCain loyalists complain they are being frozen out of the hundreds of political jobs that open up in the executive branch with a change of administration.

The behind-the-scenes tug-of-war was on display earlier this month over McCain's managed care bill. Bush opposes that bill because it allows patients to sue health maintenance organizations in state courts, where awards tend to be bigger than in federal courts.

As McCain was preparing to unveil the managed care bill he crafted with Kennedy and Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., top Bush adviser Karl Rove called a key House Republican to the White House.

Rep. Charlie Norwood, R-Ga., who had been the most high-profile House GOP backer of the so-called patient's bill of rights, later announced he was reserving judgment on the legislation he had championed so heavily in the last Congress.

According to reports, Rove also asked Norwood not to attend McCain's Feb. 6 press conference on the bill.

"We emphasized to the congressman, as well as others, that the president deserves his chance to put forward a patient bill of rights that is going to be strong and bipartisan," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said of the Norwood meeting.

Fleischer said conflicts with McCain were "not an issue." Then he chided the press corps for dwelling on the Norwood defection.

"This is part of old Washington versus new Washington," Fleischer said. "In a new Washington, which President Bush is going to try his hardest to create, you just put your head down and you work with people."

To which a White House scribe rejoined, "So you won't tell any more people not to attend press conferences in the future?"

The consensus among establishment Republicans is that Norwood made a smart move. The junior House member has shown himself to be a team player and can expect Bush to return the favor one day.

What irritates the GOP establishment is that McCain does not play the same game. He seems almost quixotically independent. He is the only Republican senator, for example, not to endorse recently defeated GOP Sen. Slade Gorton of Washington for a federal judgeship.

Yet his loose-cannon quality is also the source of his popularity, which McCain clearly hopes will translate into legislative power.

As the surprise winner of last year's New Hampshire and Michigan GOP presidential primaries, McCain claims a mandate from the independent and centrist voters who propelled his candidacy against a vastly better funded Bush.

The anti-candidate who refused to be scripted and campaigned in a bus dubbed the Straight-Talk Express is striving to remain true to expectations.

The problem, though, is that the confrontational style that made him into a political celebrity hampers his ability to cultivate the allies he needs in Congress to pass legislation.

Republican Rep. Ric Keller, who won an Orlando-area seat by only 5,000 votes, is one of 13 House Republican freshmen who are not supporting McCain's campaign finance bill, even after the Arizona senator campaigned for them last fall.

Keller has told supporters in Washington that he was angered by McCain's characterization of his position on the bill as "bulls---" to a reporter the day before the election.

Like Bush, Keller supports a concept called "paycheck protection," which would prevent labor unions from using a member's dues for partisan political purposes without getting permission. McCain left this provision out of his bill because Democrats are inalterably opposed.

Keller confirmed that McCain had made the comment to the reporter but insisted there were no hard feelings. "I'm a huge fan of him on a personal level," he said.

But, Keller added: "I don't think it's fair to say because McCain campaigned for you, you have to vote with him 100 percent of the time."

Similarly, freshman Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., won an open seat by only 111 votes after McCain campaigned for him.

But Rogers told the Detroit News that he would not support McCain's campaign finance bill, in part because he believes Bush should be driving the Republican agenda.

"You can be disruptive to a point where it has a negative impact on the good things that need to be done," Rogers said. "Somebody needs to remind (McCain) that he lost."

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright