The Most Well Connected Poorman in America: John McCain: Can He Mend Fences with the Right?

Thursday, Oct. 08, 2009

John McCain: Can He Mend Fences with the Right?

By Jay Newton-Small

At a White House meeting Oct. 6, Senator John McCain of Arizona urged President Barack Obama to make a decision about additional troops in Afghanistan quickly and not make it a "leisurely process." Senator Carl Levin of Michigan noted that it had taken Obama's predecessor George W. Bush three months to order a surge in Iraq. Then Obama spoke. "John, I can assure you this won't be leisurely, as nobody feels more urgency to get this right than I do."

Is McCain about to re-enter the fray? If so, it is a journey that has been nearly a year in the making. Since his defeat by Obama 11 months ago, McCain has spent much of his time in a self-imposed exile. He returned to Washington without a long list of bills he was keen to pass. He could see that his Democratic friends felt no need to cut deals while they held a lopsided margin in the Senate. Several veteran aides who helped guide him in campaigns past have left town or consult from a greater distance. Longtime advisers and Senate colleagues report that he has struggled to regain his footing and voice. "He probably won't run [for President] again," says Senator Joe Lieberman, one of McCain's closest friends — which may be why he has found it difficult to move on. (See pictures of McCain's campaign farewell.)

Those who know him best say that if McCain has regrets about the race he ran or his choice of Sarah Palin to be his running mate, they do not show. He tells his staff over and over again, "Don't look back in anger." Several of his former advisers say he is still sore at many of his fellow Republicans who mocked his selection of Palin or who McCain believes did not work overtime to help him. His friends blame the media and the economy for McCain's loss, while former aides grumble about Palin and the general embarrassment she engendered for the GOP. By all accounts, McCain — who declined to include Palin on a list of potential 2012 candidates during a Tonight Show appearance in April — is dreading what Palin might say in Going Rogue, her book due out next month. "The part I'm looking forward to most is the part where it energized our campaign and her selection put us ahead in the polls," McCain told a crowd at a recent Washington conference. "The part I am looking forward to least is some of the disagreements that took place within the campaign." (See the top 10 Sarah Palin spoofs.)

McCain may soon face an even bigger challenge. Former Arizona Congressman J.D. Hayworth, a favorite of conservatives who has been critical of McCain's work on immigration reform, told TIME he is thinking of challenging McCain in next year's GOP Senate primary. "There's a great deal of respect for John as a historical figure," Hayworth said on Oct. 5. "But he's long been at odds with the conservative base of the Republican Party and more recently with Arizonans." Hayworth cites a recent poll that found 61% of Arizona Republicans think McCain has lost touch with his party. "It's not a visceral dislike. It's just, I think, a disappointment." If Hayworth runs, he would join two other conservatives trying to unseat McCain. In a sign of the incumbent's concern, he has already raised $4.7 million to defend himself, and he has more than $20 million left over from 2008. Prevailing in the primary would all but secure McCain a fifth term in the Senate: Democratic leaders in Washington say they aren't bothering to recruit a local Democrat to face him.

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Maverick No More?
The challenge on his right flank helps explain why McCain has been withering in his criticism of Obama. To some of his former admirers on the left, McCain's gracious election-night concession speech seemed to signal the return of the true McCain: a buoyant dealmaker more interested in crossing the aisle than in scoring partisan points. But McCain's campaign edge hasn't gone away. "A lot of people, including me," says Mark McKinnon, a longtime adviser, "thought he might be the Republican building bridges to the Obama Administration. But he's been more like the guy blowing up the bridges." (See 10 health-care-reform ads.)

In addition to pressuring Obama on Afghanistan, McCain has criticized the President for what he calls Obama's hypocritical hiring of lobbyists. He blasted the White House's decision to kill a missile-defense project in Eastern Europe planned by Bush. McCain has declined to join bipartisan talks on climate change, though he has written similar legislation in the past. And on health-care reform, an issue that he criticized Obama for being fuzzy about during the campaign, McCain has said, "Americans have made it abundantly clear that they do not want government taking over their health-care decisions."

Because McCain is targeting Democrats instead of Republicans, he has warmed — for now, anyway — his relations with party colleagues. GOP leaders who once lived in fear of McCain's bombs now toast him at party conferences and join him in chummy colloquies on the Senate floor. McCain spent part of his summer vacation touring the country with minority leader Mitch McConnell, a longtime nemesis on campaign-finance reform, and the two men inveighed against the evils of Obamacare. "He's been constructive. He's been part of the team," says Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee. "He's provided the kind of adult, grownup leadership that we need in the Republican caucus." When asked for examples of McCain's maverick nature, Alexander flashes a smile, saying, "I can't think of any." Does that mean Republicans are at last falling in love with McCain? "John dove back in on his issues," says Senator Johnny Isakson, a Georgia Republican. "But I don't see him trying to take the role of de facto head of the party." (See pictures of Republican memorabilia.)

McCain can still be an irritant to both sides. During a private GOP lunch last month, McCain ripped into Thad Cochran of Mississippi, the top GOP appropriator, who has long been McCain's archrival on earmarks. (As is his custom, Cochran remained stoic throughout the ordeal.) Just a month after the death of his friend Ted Kennedy, McCain took to the floor and railed against a $20 million earmark for a center for the study of the Senate in Kennedy's name at the University of Massachusetts. "I can't let my affection for Senator Kennedy affect my principles about earmarks on appropriation bills," he told TIME as he left the floor.

Such quixotic struggles give some hope that McCain will soon reclaim his maverick mantle. His appearances on the Sunday talk shows are more frequent, and the man who proudly admitted during last year's campaign that he didn't use e-mail is now Twittering and toting a BlackBerry. (One recent tweet: "Great meeting & tour of the Capitol with [actress] January Jones, who is an advocate for sharks. I am a huge fan of Mad Men!") McCain's Oct. 6 exchange with Obama on Afghanistan was the clearest sign yet that the irascible "Mac" may truly be back. "The old captain," says McKinnon, "still has a lot of fight left in him."

— With reporting by Michael Scherer / Washington

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