John McCain's War on the White House

It started In New Hampshire," one Republican says about the Bush-McCain war. "The Bush camp doesn't want any challenge to its supremacy. That's why they didn't like Bob Dole and Ronald Reagan. The mere fact that McCain challenged Bush in the primaries was enough to cause bad blood — and he bested them in the New Hampshire primary. The Bush people are also aggravated that the McCain people act like he's still running for president and that they refuse to acknowledge Bush as the leader of the party."

"McCain felt Bush took unfair advantage of him in the South Carolina primary," adds Ed Rollins, a political consultant and commentator. "This is a guy who lived by a code, and he feels that that code was violated." Members of the McCain camp are still reeling. "[The South Carolina primary] was the ugliest thing I've ever seen," John Weaver says. "Among his staff, his advisers and his friends, it is something we will never forget — not ever."

South Carolina was indeed ugly. In a radio spot paid for by a national antiabortion group, McCain, who is pro-life, was depicted as a secret supporter of abortion rights. "So if you want a strong pro-life president, don't vote for John McCain," the announcer warned. Around the same time, J. Thomas Burch Jr., chairman of the National Vietnam and Gulf War Veterans Coalition, told an audience that McCain — who spent five and a half years being tortured in the Hanoi Hilton — had not helped veterans after his return to America but had "come home and forgotten us." Bush stood silently at Burch's side, never challenging his accusations.

There was more, too. At McCain rallies, Bush infiltrators inched up next to McCain fans and suggested he was no war hero. Some Bush supporters — not obviously connected to the campaign — circulated fliers saying that McCain was "the fag candidate" and that he would hire openly gay people for his administration. Another flier said McCain had fathered an illegitimate child. Then Bush appropriated McCain's signature issue, saying that he — Bush — was the real reformer. Indeed, Bush was a "reformer with results," as the Bush campaign began to advertise.

McCain's answer to all of this was to run an ad that said Bush "twists the truth like Clinton." When the public response seemed to indicate that McCain had gone too far, he pulled the ad. "What we did was disarm ourselves," Greg Stevens says. The end result: Bush beat McCain 53-42. McCain was furious. "I will not take the low road to the highest office in the land," he said in his concession speech, one of the harshest speeches he has ever made. "I want the presidency in the best way, not the worst way. ... My friends, I say to you I am a uniter, not a divider. I don't just say it, I live it."

After Bush won the nomination, about sixty House members signed a letter to Bush asking him to pick McCain as a running mate, and according to several sources close to him, McCain would have accepted if asked. He did campaign for Bush in the general election, especially on the West Coast. But then, once elected, Bush ignored him for a Cabinet post, even though some party higher-ups felt McCain should have been considered for secretary of defense.

Not surprisingly, then, when McCain showed up at the White House during the first week of the Bush presidency for what he believed was a private meeting with Bush in the family living quarters, he was snubbed. Bush met with him, along with members of the Bush staff, in the Oval Office. After this, in March, McCain went on to submit McCain-Feingold as he had planned, even though some Republicans wanted him to wait until the fall.

Today, does McCain want to say anything about the South Carolina primary, the turning point in the presidential campaign? "Anything I say, I will portray myself as a sore loser," he offers, "and Americans don't like a sore loser. I'll let history judge it."

The PSA has wrapped, and I am riding with McCain as his state director, Lawrence Pike, drives him to a dental appointment. As we move through the streets of Phoenix, McCain talks about his life and career.

"I'm sure in some ways I deserve that label," he says about the frequent claim that he's a political maverick, "because I've taken some positions that are at best independent and sometimes in contradiction to the majority of my party. My view is, I really am of the party of Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt. Roosevelt was the Great Reformer, the Great Environmentalist. I think that I adhere closer to these principles than some of my colleagues."

"How do you respond when people say that, given the circumstances of your life, you're an American hero?"

"My great privilege was to serve in the company of heroes," McCain says bluntly. "I was able to observe a thousand acts of courage and compassion and love. That's the great privilege of my life. I've made many, many mistakes in my life, both in prison and out of prison. I'm far from a perfect individual. I'm far from a hero in my view, because of the many failings I have shown from time to time."

"You mean you don't consider your life heroic?"

"No," McCain says. "Not in the slightest."

"So how do you feel when someone says you're a hero?"

"Embarrassed. Slightly embarrassed."

We've arrived at the dentist's office.

"How would you describe your relationship with President Bush?"

"I think it's cordial," McCain says, "and I will do everything in my power to work with him as president of the United States, recognizing that my first obligation is to the American people."

"Did you want the vice presidency?"

"No. If Bush had sat down and said, 'I need you as vice president in order to run the country,' of course I would have said yes. But I made it clear to him that I didn't want to be vice president. So I pretty well ensured the question would never be asked. And it was never asked."

"Did you want to be named secretary of defense?"

"No," McCain says. "I'm very happy in the Senate. I think that's where the action is. That way, I can always speak my mind."

From RS870 — June 7, 2001