Like the mistreated girlfriend who just can't quit the abusive fighter jock, the national press is again scritch-scritch-scritching at John McCain's door. His concession speech — actually fumbling and average before a typically thuggish Phoenix crowd — was "dignified," "his best speech of the campaign," and "where was this guy during the campaign?". Now the media are busy predicting the re-emergence of the "old McCain" to do good things for the republic, maybe even build bridges between the conservatives and the Obama administration.
Illusions die hard. John McCain worked hard throughout his career to cultivate the national media — and for all our bravado, even the toughest in the working press can be seduced (whether they bend their principles as a result is another matter). He called them "his base" before the campaign required him to run as a hard-right extremist, right down to the media-blaming rhetoric.
Unfortunately for the media, they finally got a taste of the real, real McCain: a rather undisciplined, herky-jerky, shoot-from-the-hip opportunist, and most of the time a doctrinaire gunslinger for bankrupt, discredited conservatism. When he supported George Bush on torture after opposing him, he cut the last thread of my willingness to believe he was a "maverick" even on a few issues.
As I have written before, the real McCain was always on display in Arizona, where he showed nothing but contempt and bullying for the local press. His years in Congress were notable for the shame of the Keating Five scandal. Less well known was his willingness to continue the same MO, doing favors for powerful businessmen, including pushing through swaps of federal land to profit rich developers. Otherwise, you would never have known that John McCain even represented Arizona. He was a face on Fox News or the Late Show, giving the party line about national issues or mugging it up. McCain seemed to have no notion of how much the state had changed during his time in office, or how inadequate the conservative mantra was to the reality of the state.
The maverick shtick never impressed. He was against a few Republican policies when he knew there was no chance his opposition would matter. He alienated the right-wing talkers with campaign finance reform, but the real plutocrats never worried and found a way around it. At the end of the day, he hugged and supported George W. Bush despite the president's scurrilous attacks on McCain in the 2000 primaries. He did manage to irritate and alienate many colleagues in the Senate, making notions of him as leader of the loyal opposition or a coalition-builder suspect.
Sadly for Arizonans, McCain never evidenced any engagement or even curiosity about the real issues facing the state. Somehow that got in the way of pristine conservative principles. Barry Goldwater never had such blinders when it came to vital projects such as the CAP. McCain, however, did little-to-nothing to assist with Arizona's current challenges. An engaged senator could have steered high-end federal facilities and jobs to the state; pushed federal research dollars there; made sure the urban areas received their share of funding for infrastructure; encouraged federal money for Arizona universities, etc. Right-left-center: this is the way business is done in America. Texas conservatives have certainly made sure their state has received huge windfalls from Washington. McCain did none of that, and Arizona is even further behind, even more of a Sonoran Appalachia, because of it.
On immigration, McCain pushed — until forced to disavow it — a plan to regularize the illegals. But this would have most helped Arizona's bottom-feeder employers. McCain was absent as the problem was gathering, when action might have prevented the current crisis. He remains absent from the desperate need to create ladders up for the immigrant underclass that is there now, and not leaving.
John McCain ultimately resembled nothing so much as the angry old gadfly who shows up at, say, Scottsdale City Council meetings to rant against light rail or rave about his property rights. Interestingly, Sarah Palin closely resembled the Chandler/Gilbert religious politicos — ignorant yet belligerent — that have taken over the Arizona GOP.
Maybe the media's ardor will finally prove to be true and some different McCain will emerge. Don't count on it.
Read Rogue's McCain-Palin archive for reality-based news.
Last night, I saw our senator on Jay Leno’s show. When he was asked about Obama’s taking office being historic, the condescending sneer on McCain’s face was very telling.
When McCain backed down on the torture issue, knowing what he had endured in Vietnam, that was when I backed away from him but fast. I lost every shred of respect for him then, and I knew he was only interested in getting Republican backing for his campaign.
As much as the national media loved him, McCain had some rather harsh rules for them. Such as, no criticism, no tough questions, and no real investigation of his own deals. McCain played the “tortured conscience” card often and well, but when push came to shove, it was ordinary moral conscience that took the hit. His own, of course, and the journalists who covered for him.
Anyone who saw McCain up close knew what a jerk he was. Not a jerk in the sense that your drunk brother-in-law can be. Rather, more like a mean and tyrannical prick. But he also brought that element of towel-snapping bonhomie that W used to control the pecking order, with himself conveniently placed on top. Most of his fellow senators didn’t like him for good reason. Reporters, on the other hand, craved his attention.
The epilogue is already written. McCain’s ride into the sunset will be festooned with laurel wreaths and togas. Still, I doubt he’ll take on his party’s talk-radio base again. As the insulted hero, he’s got a bigger legend to fry. Obama can buy him off with some flattery, but McCain’s narcissism requires something bigger. Who knows what horse McCain will ride to new glory?
McCain leveraged his soul like a hedge-fund manager to get his shot at president, and now the devil will take what’s owed.
Has anyone asked McCain why he caved to the fundies after trashing them?