Democrats say McCain nearly abandoned GOP
(The Hill) - Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) was close to leaving the Republican Party in 2001, weeks before then-Sen. Jim Jeffords (Vt.) famously announced his decision to become an Independent, according to former Democratic lawmakers who say they were involved in the discussions.
In interviews with The Hill this month, former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) and ex-Rep. Tom Downey (D-N.Y.) said there were nearly two months of talks with the maverick lawmaker following an approach by John Weaver, McCain’s chief political strategist.
Democrats had contacted Jeffords and then-Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.) in the early months of 2001 about switching parties, but in McCain’s case, they said, it was McCain’s top strategist who came to them.
In interviews with The Hill this month, former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) and ex-Rep. Tom Downey (D-N.Y.) said there were nearly two months of talks with the maverick lawmaker following an approach by John Weaver, McCain’s chief political strategist.
Democrats had contacted Jeffords and then-Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.) in the early months of 2001 about switching parties, but in McCain’s case, they said, it was McCain’s top strategist who came to them.
posted by BP News Bureau | 9:30 AM
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From Captain's Quarters:
McCain has denied the story in The Hill, while John Edwards -- who Daschle claims was part of the effort -- confirms it. Both Daschle and Edwards have other motives in play, and it remains questionable whether the Democratic Party of 2001 would have welcomed a pro-life hawk when they could barely tolerate a liberal hawk like Joe Lieberman just a few years later. One has to wonder how McCain would have gotten re-elected in Arizona as a Democrat as well.
However, McCain likes to antagonize his fellow Republicans a lot more than the Democrats, and Republicans have noticed it over the years. So have independents, and this appears to account for the strange anti-war attraction to McCain, the GOP's biggest hawk in the race. For them, the war looks like a secondary issue to general opposition to the GOP and the Bush administration. McCain improbably has become the outsider candidate, and Romney the establishment candidate as a result.
After New Hampshire, Romney decided to go after the "Washington is Broken" theme hard. He seems to have realized the importance of being the outsider, while McCain has oddly doubled down on the war, as Welch notes. During the last debate, McCain kept arguing that Romney didn't sufficiently support the war by not jumping immediately to the defense of the surge, but his singular focus on the war may wind up hurting him with the same people who have vaulted him into the position of being able to run it himself.
That will only work if the disconnects stay disconnected, which seems to be a very risky gamble for the general election. Will the anti-war factions who back McCain in the primary stick with him against Hillary Clinton or especially Barack Obama, or will the Democratic nominee give that faction an even better opportunity to stick their own finger in the eye of the GOP?
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