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In case you haven’t heard by now, The Hill has essentially buried John McCain’s campaign for the Republican nomination.
It’s hard to see how the already floundering McCain can survive the revelation that not only did he consider switching to the Democratic caucus in 2001, his people approached the Democrats to begin conversations on the matter. By way of comparison, Lincoln Chafee and ultimate turncoat Jim Jeffords only began to mull treason after entreaties from the Democrats to do so. When you come out looking like a worse Republican than Lincoln Chafee and Jim Jeffords, it can’t be good.
As Allah sagely points out (what else would you expect from a deity?), many of these allegations aren’t exactly new. They’ve been around since Tom Daschle’s book came out in 2003. But literally no one read Daschle’s book except maybe his editor, so no one noticed the bombshell. (Odd that no one read Daschle’s memoir – you would have thought the reminiscences of the South Dakota dynamo would have made for a surefire blockbuster. But the public’s loss is your gain. If you follow the link to Amazon, you can get your copy for a penny!)
For what it’s worth, McCain denies the charges that the flirtations were serious and that he hiked up his skirt first. He claims that the Democrats came to him. While he may have been flattered and even a little bit curious, he quickly turned them down and returned to the loving embrace of the Republican Party perhaps feeling a little dirty but never having strayed.
A bunch of prominent Democrats dispute McCain’s version of the dalliance, and suggest the talks were serious and protracted. They say McCain was concerned about what kind of seniority he would have, and that his nose was out of joint because the Bush administration didn’t hire enough of his people. Tell me those claims don’t have the ring of truth.
Regardless, perhaps this should be a non-story. As Tom Daschle puts it,
“Everyone has known John McCain to be independent, to take his own course. That was a time in his life when he at least weighed the possibility of becoming an independent, but he rejected it, so I can’t imagine that can ever be used as a political liability.”
True enough. Even if this story is a complete fabrication, John McCain’s willingness to shiv his party between the shoulder blades is a well established fact. It’s hard to believe that there are Republicans out there who are unaware of this basic, undeniable fact.
Nevertheless, this incident illustrates a perfect storm of McCain’s shortcomings in a way that none of his other bi-partisan adventures do. The vanity, the immature pique of anger, the utter indifference and disloyalty to the people who voted for him and the party that supported him – they’re all on naked display. And it ain’t pretty.
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