Dowd: Is There a Real McCain ?

[jaysunb]

By Maureen Dowd

Syndicated columnist





WASHINGTON — The Maverick's buck stops here.

John McCain is no longer the media's delight and his party's burr, bucking convention with infectious relish.

The man used to be such a constructive independent that some of his Republican Senate colleagues called him a traitor. Now he's such a predictable obstructionist that he's in the just-say-no vanguard with the same conservatives who used to despise him.

On Tuesday afternoon on the floor, Sen. Mitch McConnell, who contemptuously fought McCain's campaign-finance-reform bill all the way to the Supreme Court, oozed admiration toward his Arizona colleague, as McCain did yet another grandstanding fandango on the health-care bill.

Watching him, one can only wonder: Is McCain betraying his best self? Who is the real McCain?

Even some of McCain's former aides are disturbed by the 73-year-old's hostile, vindictive, sarcastic persona — a far cry from The Honorable Man portrait so lovingly pumped up in books by his former aide and co-writer Mark Salter.

After he lost to W. in a nasty primary battle in 2000, McCain delighted in poking at the new Republican president. But he was a trenchant critic of W.'s budget-busting tax cuts and other policies because his objections were consistent and honestly felt. (Or so we thought.)

Now he delights in attacking another man he ran against and lost to: a new Democratic president who had once hoped, based on McCain's past positions, that his former Republican rival might be of help in such areas as the economy, national security, immigration and climate change.

With President Barack Obama, McCain's objections seem motivated more by vendetta than principle.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2010581338_dowd24.html




For some reason this 12/23 column seems to be scrubbed from it's original NYT's web page, but thanks to silverweb :http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=7329776&mesg_id=7329793

[necso]

1. Strange.

Probably a glitch.

I can't imagine that the Times would do anything like after-the-fact censorship (or something even more stupid, outrage-generating).

[jaysunb]

2. I can't find an explanation...

I agree that it would be very odd to remove it, but after reading it I have to wonder. :shrug:

[burning rain]

3. He's a huge phony.

From his election to the House to his first run for the presidency in 2000, with rare exceptions such as his advocacy of campaign finance reform, he was pretty much a standard-issue rightwinger (and notably nasty on race). He did the "modern hip Republican" thing in 2000 for sake of free media to try and compensate for W's money advantage. He tacked back toward W in 2004, doubtlessly knowing he'd have to be in good graces for 2008. McCain is a sham.

[yourout]

5. And he has turned into a angry Senile old son of a bitch.

[burning rain]

6. "Senile" isn't a charitable way of putting it but his mental faculties are clearly in steep decline.

Just for his own and his family's sake, I'd hoped that his erratic expressions during the campaign ("my fellow prisoners," "I'm a proud liberal Republican," etc.) simply reflected an old dude's nervous exhaustion in a presidential campaign, but his bizarre embarrassments since then indicate otherwise. I feel some sadness for him even as I revile the SOB.

[applegrove]

4. McCain became a neocon when they convinced him that taxes result in more income.

He used to stand out in terms of not drinking the koolaide. Now he is a footsoldier in the mean army of right wingers and neocons.

[snot]

7. The actual person died several years ago; no need for this merciless mercy-killing.