John McCain's War on the White House

McCain's office, in one of Phoenix's countless business complexes, is a surprisingly modest room decorated in a calculatedly plain manner. Before an old wooden desk sit two ordinary-looking wooden chairs. Here he discusses the piece of legislation that has become an obsession in his last six years: McCain-Feingold. The bill, passed by the Senate, bans the unlimited "soft" money individuals and organizations can contribute to political parties and allows only "hard" money, capped at $2,000 per individual. The bill also requires the disclosure of contributors to so-called issue ads that run sixty days or less prior to Election Day. How did he pass a bill, opposed by much of his own party, that he has been trying to pass for so long?

"There was a combination of factors, including good luck," McCain says. "Napoleon said you make your own luck; still, timing was fortunate. The fact that [Senate Minority Leader] Tom Daschle held the Democrats — if there's an unsung hero, it's Tom Daschle. The pressure from the presidential campaign also helped. There was also a desire on the part of the Republican leadership to get this thing off the table, because we had made it clear we were going to keep coming back and coming back." McCain pauses. "Oh, one other factor," he continues. "Denise Rich. There was the appearance of a pardon being bought. When people heard about a million dollars going to the DNC, they thought there was a connection. By the way, I don't know if there was a connection — I don't know if I'll ever know — but the appearance was very critical."

House Majority Whip Tom DeLay has been adamant that he will kill McCain's bill — a fortunate development for the Bush forces, since, according to McCain chief of staff Mark Salter, "the White House would be very happy if the bill never came to the president." But DeLay doesn't have to kill the House version of McCain-Feingold, known as Shays-Meehan; all he has to do is alter it enough for the bill to end up in conference. Many times, bills remain in conference so long, they end up dying. "If McCain-Feingold goes to conference and the Republicans try to screw it up," McCain warns, "we'll just shut down the Senate again. I mean, look, I'm not going to let it sit in conference." Once the bill passes both the House and the Senate, it will go to President Bush to be signed into law. Will Bush sign a bill about which he has expressed ambivalence? "I hope so," McCain says, "but he's been very unclear about that. He said he'd like to have a bill he could sign, but he's not said if this one is it or not."

Next up will be McCain-Lieberman, the bill to close the gunshow loophole. "I don't understand the logic," McCain says, "that says if you go to a guy selling 500 guns in his shop, you have to have a background check, but if you go to a guy selling five guns in a gun show, you don't." Bush has been an outspoken critic of any type of gun-control legislation, dating back to his 1994 gubernatorial campaign, when he defeated Ann Richards, thanks in part to a campaign promise to let Texans carry concealed handguns. As governor he signed not only the concealed-carry bill but another law expanding it to allow guns into churches, hospitals and amusement parks. Even after the massacre at Columbine High School in 1999, he declined to support a Democratic bill that would have closed the gunshow loophole in Texas. If McCain-Lieberman comes to his desk, he will face more pressure than he did in Texas to give in.

McCain, Edwards and Kennedy have also already introduced a patients' bill of rights — a piece of legislation that Bush has expressly threatened to veto. He does not like, for example, the McCain version's $5 million cap on punitive damages, supporting a number "well below" that, according to a statement. But McCain-Edwards is still, as Salter points out, "extremely close" to the patients' bill of rights that became law in Texas while Bush was governor. Bush first vetoed that bill, then allowed it to go into law without signing it, then took credit for it during the general election. Should McCain and the Democrats pass the federal bill, Bush could be put in the position of having to sign a bill he refused to sign in Texas. "The president has said he will veto McCain-Kennedy [-Edwards]," Weaver says. "I hope that was just some hotheaded staff over in the White House who got him to say that without providing him with the facts. We'll pass the bill, and he'll have to deal with it. We do have the votes."

McCain is aware of the politics involved. "Edwards and Kennedy and I have made an agreement," he says, "and we're hoping the White House will negotiate with us. I certainly hope so, but we are going to push the legislation. I feel a total obligation here."

In addition, McCain has had concerns about Bush's tax cut, which delays relief for most taxpayers for several years. "We've always differed on the amount of money that went to the wealthiest one percent," McCain says. "I still have concerns about what we can do for working men and women and working families. I also think that now, as opposed to during the campaign, when the economy was booming, we need a quick stimulus. I've heard a $60 billion proposal, an $80 billion proposal. But again, I'd like to see it go to the working men and women."

To rally public support for causes like gun safety and the patients' bill of rights, McCain plans to use a media campaign, as he did on campaign finance. For McCain-Feingold, he spearheaded newspaper ads and television commercials in targeted states, among them Florida and Texas, urging voters to lobby their senators to pass the bill. For McCain-Lieberman, McCain will participate in a similar coordinated media effort, contending that the Second Amendment not only gives Americans the right to bear arms but also requires gun owners to use guns in a responsible way. For McCain-Edwards, another media effort will be launched. The theme will be simple: Because of HMO misconduct, America needs a patients' bill of rights.

The hot-button national issue McCain will tackle next is already seen by many political observers as a Bush weak point: the environment. "I'm becoming more of an environmentalist," McCain says. "Since the campaign, he's become engaged in the question of global warming," Salter says. "Is the greenhouse effect really happening? Are things melting? There's obviously a scientific dispute. But the senator has come to believe in the concept of global warming." As a result, on May 1st, McCain held the fourth in a series of hearings on global warming through the Commerce Committee, which he chairs — the first steps to eventual proposed legislation.

McCain's deepened concern about global warming occurs at the same time that Bush has broken a campaign promise on it. Last fall, Bush said he would seek mandatory regulations for carbon-dioxide emissions (a major contributor to global warming). But in February, he announced that he won't push for emissions reductions and that he will not support the Kyoto international agreement on green-house-gas emissions. McCain's hearings may bring more public attention to this issue.

"Of course, John McCain is hurting Bush," says one Republican. "After the primaries, the Bush people all said, 'We hate John McCain.' Anyone for John McCain was on the Bush hit list. McCain has just used that as fuel for the fire. He said, 'OK, I'll get you good.' And that's what he's doing. I mean, Bush will be forced to sign that damn thing" — McCain-Feingold — "which he doesn't want to do."

This portends a feud. "I'm sure they hate each other because they fought for the same job, and one won and one lost," says Jim Pinkerton, the director of research for Bush's father's 1988 presidential campaign, who later worked in the senior Bush White House's policy-planning office. "I should say, more precisely, I'm sure Bush dislikes McCain and McCain hates Bush." Part of this conflict might arise from the profound differences in style between the two camps. "The McCainites are Shi'ites," says Mark McKinnon, Bush's media consultant during the presidential campaign. "They are true believers. They are passionate. The McCain guys are more like soldiers, while the Bush crowd is more family. The people around President Bush are longtime loyalists. They're real solid professionals. They're organized and disciplined. A very disciplined bunch."

Behind the scenes, Bush supporters in the White House have attempted to block John Weaver from being hired in several 2002 races. So far, the only obvious public response to McCain has been from the rightwing media, principally Rush Limbaugh. On a regular basis, Limbaugh, who enjoyed a close relationship with the Bush forces during the presidential campaign, pounds away at McCain for being a Democrat in disguise. "He's hysterical," McCain says about Limbaugh that day in his office. "One reason he attacks me is that there is nothing worse than a heretic. In the Middle Ages, the Church always punished the heretic a lot more than they did the followers of Islam. Followers of Mohammed could be saved, but a heretic ..." McCain stops. "You have to ignore him [Limbaugh]. The best way to not let it get to you is, don't listen. If you let it get to you, you get down on that level, and that's one thing I can't do. So I block it out — ninety percent of the time. The other ten percent, I mutter to myself, 'Gggggggrrrrrrrrr.' "