Date: Sun, 10 Jun 2001 09:27:45 -0400 From: bobhunt@erols.com Subject: [lpaz-repost] (fwd) He's hungry for media attention To: Individual-Sovereignty@egroups.com, sierratimes@egroups.com, lpaz-repost@yahoogroups.com
On Sun, 10 Jun 2001 05:31:43 -0400, "Alexandra H. Mulkern" <amulkern@Radix.Net> wrote:
The Arizona Republic
He's hungry for media attention
Scott Bundgaard
June 10, 2001
Each of us owes a debt of gratitude to John McCain for his service to our country. Regardless of how his political decisions are evolving, McCain suffered greatly in behalf of the cause of freedom.
It is sadly ironic that the man who fought - and nearly died - for our freedom now fights to inhibit our basic freedoms with his proposals to restrict campaign contributions (the First Amendment) and gun ownership (the Second Amendment).
More Americans would appreciate McCain working to cut our taxes, not our rights.
There is even greater irony in watching someone who has built a remarkable political identity around the virtue of courage become addicted to media adulation. In politics, one measure of courage and skill for all conservatives may be how skillfully they withstand a generally hostile and aggressive media. Arizona's senior senator is now being identified by Wall Street Journal columnist Paul Gigot as "John McCain (R-Media)."
Over the last month, Democrats targeted Republican moderates to switch parties. Once Sen. Jim Jeffords defected, McCain lashed out at the Republican Party, stating: "Tolerance of dissent is the hallmark of a mature party, and it is well past time for the Republican Party to grow up."
I've differed myself with Republican thinking on some issues, but never faced recriminations from other Republicans for those few occasions. The only "payback" I've experienced came from McCain, who orchestrated a convenient Democrat-turned-Republican opponent to run against me - unsuccessfully - because I supported George W. Bush in the presidential primaries. Some have suggested McCain needs to "grow up."
The Republican Party has grown to fulfill the "big tent" vision of Ronald Reagan. Liberal Republicans like Jeffords have been elected as Republicans at all levels of government. Jeffords voted against Reagan's 1981 tax cut, just like McCain recently voted against Bush's historic tax cut in a supreme challenge to Republican orthodoxy. Republicans are tolerant of independent thinking within our big tent.
However, McCain elicited a chorus of "boos" when his name was mentioned during the recent visit by President Bush at a Memorial Day event honoring veterans. Phone calls to the state Republican Party headquarters from people upset at McCain's preachy public policy weather vane are significant in number.
Callers wonder why McCain has teamed up with liberal Democrats like Barbara Boxer, Hillary Clinton, Tom Daschle, John Edwards, Russell Feingold, Richard Gephardt, Edward Kennedy, Joseph Lieberman and Charles Schumer to slap the Republican Party around. Let's be honest, McCain is in cahoots with the Democrats for dual purposes: To grab headlines and to derail President Bush's agenda. Why? Because the politics of pettiness is more self-aggrandizing and certainly gets more media attention than the politics of supporting our president, Senate GOP leadership and sound public policy.
McCain's rating with the American Conservative Union has plummeted since 1997 when he began his run for president. Despite that fact, McCain's defection from the GOP would be based less on ideology than on the act that his relationship with both the president and Senate GOP leadership is dysfunctional at best.
Is there any doubt McCain's evolution has more to do with NBC, CBS and CNN rather than the ABCs of building a better tomorrow? John McCain is about one thing anymore. John McCain.
Did the Republican Party leave McCain or did McCain leave the Republican Party and its principles? It's largely irrelevant because he is intoxicated by attention. McCain now resembles little more than an aging prizefighter, carrying on simply to maintain the significance he established during his prizefights in the presidential primaries, lookin' for a fight and a little attention.
Scott Bundgaard is a Republican state senator representing District 19 and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. The views expressed are those of the author.
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