I would too if I wanted the nomination in 08. McCain knew he was gonna run again.
The fact that Kerry—a man who’s spent more time with McCain than anybody here—considered him as a running mate, that’s all I need to know.
Capitol Hill staffers rate their bosses. McCain got no glory from those who work with him.
“Every election year we survey top aides on both sides of the aisle—administrative assistants, press secretaries, legislative directors, and chiefs of committee staffs—to get their up-close and personal, and anonymous, views. While there may be lots of partisan backbiting among congress members, their staffers seem far more capable of putting politics aside and making honest judgments. It wasn’t unusual for aides in both parties to name one of their own as “spineless” or give the “workhorse” nod to someone across the aisle. “
Worst Follower 2. John McCain (R-Ariz.)
Show Horse 2. John McCain (R-Ariz.)
Hottest Temper 2. John McCain (R-Ariz.) , known to snap at staff when the cameras are off
http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/mediapolitics/1666.html
http://www.nrlc.org/Election2000/mccain/prolife_case_against_mccain.html
The Pro-Life Case Against John McCain:
McCain Has Denigrated the Pro-Life Issue Elsewhere,
[snip] When Rudman retired from the Senate in 1992, he loudly bemoaned the important role of Christian conservatives in the Republican Party. He wrote, “Politically speaking, the Republican Party is making a terrible mistake if it appears to ally itself with the Christian right” — a group that he identified as rife with “antiabortion zealots,” among other undesirables.
Yet in the South Carolina primary, McCain now says he deserves the support of those same Christian conservatives and other pro-life voters. It won’t wash.
McCain quite recently (on the Don Imus radio show, on November 23) ridiculed citizens who decide which candidate to vote for on the basis of the right-to-life issue – he referred to them as “otherwise intelligent people.” We suspect that the pro-life voters of South Carolina are quite intelligent enough to see through McCain’s current attempt to play them for suckers.
From a 2000 NYT article:
In the end, Mr. McCain decided not to run for Congress in 1976, but after Jacksonville he got an assignment that put him in the center of the political world anyway: he was appointed Navy liaison to the Senate. Normally, the liaison officers are glorified travel agents for senators making overseas trips — “baggage carriers,” they are snidely called — but Mr. McCain’s personality and renown as a war hero made his cramped office a magnet for key senators.
“He was a fascinating character,” recalled Gary Hart, then a liberal young senator who often dropped by Mr. McCain’s office. “He was current on the issues and could engage on every level. And he was very funny.”
One of the attractions for some liberals was that Mr. McCain held no grudge against the antiwar movement. William B. Bader, then a Senate committee staff member, remembers sitting next to Mr. McCain on an airplane as they accompanied a delegation of senators on an overseas trip.
“One senator after another came back to talk to John,” Mr. Bader said. “The senators who came back were the biggest doves, and I think psychologically they wanted to make their peace with the war.”
Mr. McCain became particularly close to William S. Cohen, then a senator from Maine, John Tower, then a senator from Texas, and Mr. Hart.
http://partners.nytimes.com/library/politics/camp/022700wh-gop-mccain.html
Even before he was a “foot soldier for the Reagan Revolution” he was a friend of the liberals.