Posted on 01/31/2008 7:52:48 PM PST by Hoodat
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.
At the end of their March 31, 2001 lunch at a Chinese restaurant in Bethesda, Md., Downey said Weaver asked why Democrats hadn’t asked McCain to switch parties.
Downey, a well-connected lobbyist, said he was stunned.
“You’re really wondering?” Downey said he told Weaver. “What do you mean you’re wondering?”
“Well, if the right people asked him,” Weaver said, according to Downey, adding that he responded, “The calls will be made. Who do you want?” Weaver this week said he did have lunch with Downey that spring, pointing out that he and Downey “are very good friends.”
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
I’m not supporting McCain. But folks running around here thinking Romney is the Second Coming is mass insanity.
Let me try to explain what happened here.
Way too many perverts and degenerates fell in love with Rudy Giuliani and either openly supported him (e.g., Ted Olsen, Steve Forbes) or climbed into the closet with him (e.g., Rush Limbaugh, Club for Growth, Sean Hannity and the others at Fox News). Their love affair with Rudy made it impossible for them to openly support the only two conservative candidates in the race - Thompson and Hunter. Without support, those two conservative candidates were beaten by guys like Romney and McCain.
Predictably, the public rejected Rudy and now all of the Rudy lovers are heartbroken and wondering how they got stuck with McCain and Romney.
I did that for 15 years. I finally gave it up because my taxes were killing me. I enrolled in college, earned a degree, and now I work for someone else. But yeah, I know the responsibility of being an employer. And I also know that McCain doesn't.
Thought I heard my name mentioned.
Perhaps McCain will now wait....should he be elected President....to change parties.
I don't think people are saying Romney is anywhere near perfect, yet if McCain is to be stopped from becoming the nominee he is the only option, and now is the time to be pragmatic.
This cant be true, he is the conservative candidate that is going to unite the party! /s
The liberals must be loving this election. They can’t lose.
Nah! It’s McCain/Clinton ‘08. He already knows he’s on his way out.
That’s OK he can stay. I have already abandoned the Rhino party for independent over the amnesty stuff.
Till the republicans get rid of the arrogant bureaucratic vision less RHINO’s the party is going nowhere, might as well sit it out
Yep. I wonder if it is just from spite, or Communist brainwashing while a POW, or if there is a money trail ?
Cost-cutting is the ONLY economic conservative position McCain offers, and it is a LIE. All McCain’s talk about being a cost-Hawk is BS when you consider that amnesty for illegal aliens will essentially open up all the socialist ‘safety net’ programs for them. Huge expansion of Foodstamps, Welfare, Medicaid, Housing Assistance, etc. will AUTOMATICALLY happen if amnesty passes. Not to mention that low-income workers take much more out of SS/M than they ever contribute. So a McCain presidency also means huge tax increases necessary on the SS/M side.
With McCain in the Whitehouse, not enough Republicans will fight amnesty. With a Dem in the Whitehouse, especially Hillary, amnesty CAN be defeated.
We are NINE TRILLION DOLLARS in debt ! We cannot afford to import the world’s poor and provide them with welfare. The ONLY reason they haven’t crushed our economy so far is that they are NOT eligible for most of the welfare programs out there. Amnesty would make them ELIGIBLE !
Look, I don’t want McCain as the nominee, but for heaven’s sake, Romney is a walking disaster area, a pathological liar, and 100% sleaze who routinely employs bribery. If he wasn’t independently wealthy, I’d consider him a paid agent of the Democrat party. He was one of our worst Governors in the past 25 years, and after he buried the MA GOP went running off looking to be promoted. He isn’t fit to be a dog catcher. I’ve known him 14 years and the thought of him as President and leading the GOP is absolutely terrifying. He WANTS to destroy it and the Conservative movement.
Great! We’ve got the choice of one sh*tbag or another. GWB, thanks alot.
This all could’ve been avoided if Fred were the nominee. Look at what having two liberals as front-runners has done to us. We’re all at each others’ throats. Mission accomplished for the left. Exactly what I predicted.
The problems with Romney ,who governed liberal and now talks conservative, are real. But McCain's open and constant betrayal since 2000 are even worse. He hates the conservative base and has made that clear since he lost the nomination in 2000. That is a significant difference.
I wholeheartedly agree. We have two choices now. Romney or McCain. Huckabee will NOT be the nominee. Romney, I believe, has changed his positions in the last few years after leaving the lala land of Mass. I think if I lived there, I would be a little warped too. McCain, I believe, has NOT changed. He is mean, vindictive, and has co-sponsored some of the most damaging bills to ever be enacted. McCain/Feingold is a disaster and has drastically limited our free speech rights. Bush was crazy for signing that bill. Then the McCain/Kennedy amnesty bill. Isn’t that enough to work with. We have only one choice. I wish we had another Ronald Reagan but we don’t.
This is sad. But we’re supposed to support McCain out of fear for the Democrats...but he IS a DEMOCRAT!
A mole can do a lot more damage behind the scenes than a foot soldier can by himself across the line...
Romney he was creating jobs in the private sector something McCain’s disasterous immigration and cap and trade policy’s will destroy
McCain has never created a job and he’s never worked for anyone other than the federal government
he’s damned lucky he didn’t go to prison for his involvement in the Keating 5 and he was an habitual adulterer
and he has a very nasty habit of using foul language toward his own fellow republican senators that disagree with him v on policy
there’s your principled conservative Reagan republican
Drudge is throwing the kitchen sink at McCain.
First the Gook article from 2000 and now this from a year ago (first reported in the Wash. Post in 2001).
After all that McCain has done against Republicans over the last decade, if they allow him to gain the nomination for the presidency, it will be time for the party to cease to have any relevance.
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