Remember when John McCain was pro-gun control, pro-terrorist, anti-torture, anti-drilling and anti-GOP?
That the Republican Party has stood behind John McCain in his run for the Presidency tells us more about the Republican Party than it does about McCain. Because for the Mythical Maverick, country and party have never come first and that’s always been blatantly obvious.
Of course, the GOP must be aware that McCain has truly been a Maverick in name only. Because when McCain has “butted heads” with his party, his efforts have routinely failed - mainly because his opinions change with whichever way the wind blows.
After all, McCain was pro-gun control back when gun control wasn’t cool:
Maneuvering through the sensitive political aftermath of the Granada Hills day camp shootings, Republican presidential candidate John McCain called Monday for congressional hearings on the polarizing subject of gun control but distanced himself from any specific solutions to firearm violence.
Answering questions after a speech to the Anti-Defamation League in Los Angeles, and also before reporters and editors at the Los Angeles Times, the Arizona senator alternately welcomed a new look at gun control and grew indignant about the prospect of it.
“Look, my dear friends, don’t think that just gun control is the answer,” McCain told the reporters and editors, whom he met as he kicked off a two-week campaign effort in California. “If you do, you are not talking to the same people I’m talking to. The use of the gun is the manifestation of some very serious illnesses and problems in American society, and we’ve got to address it in its broad contexts.”
McCain will co-sponsor legislation that would tighten restrictions on handgun purchases at gun shows. Bush opposes any new restrictions on gun sales but supports immediate background checks at shows.
In 2008, however, McCain is courting the NRA with fervor, hoping they forget his previous past gun-control stances.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Senator John McCain reached out to the National Rifle Association on Friday and warned 6,000 people at the group’s annual convention that a President Barack Obama or Hillary Rodham Clinton would put the rights of “law-abiding” gun owners at risk.
In 2001, McCain was giving a switch to the Democratic Party a few thoughts:
But if Bush struggles as president, and if McCain loses on key issues such as defense funding and campaign finance reform, advisers say he may challenge Bush in the same way the reformist Teddy Roosevelt, McCain’s hero, battled a conservative Republican, William Howard Taft, in 1912.
This weekend, McCain is hosting the Senate Democratic leader, Thomas A. Daschle (S.D.), at his home in Sedona, Ariz. His office called it a “social event,” but McCain has met privately to discuss party switching with at least three Democratic senators — Daschle, Edward M. Kennedy (Mass.) and John Edwards (N.C.).
On Thursday, four McCain loyalists — campaign strategist John Weaver, legislative director Daniel McKivergan, Weekly Standard magazine publisher William Kristol and Hudson Institute scholar Marshall Wittmann — met over lunch to debate whether McCain should quit the GOP.
McCain met in recent weeks with Will Marshall, a top official of the Democratic Leadership Council, to discuss similarities over national service, tax and environmental policies. “I was struck by how much we were in common,” Marshall said. “It’s an intriguing development.”
In 2004, however, McCain was ready to kiss and make up with the GOP and George Bush in order to pave the way for his 2008 Presidential run:
But this is a week for the maverick Republican to warm himself in the campfire glow of the GOP reservation. When McCain declares, “I’m here to rally the troops for President Bush,” or says Bush is a leader of “great clarity,” his words become increasingly effusive, just as his criticisms of the president are more muted.
Here in 2008, McCain is fully on board with the GOP, it seems, as he’s running under their hyper-conservative platform.
Of course, such is the way for the Make-Believe Maverick.
A former torture victim, McCain was as anti-torture as any Republican. Until, of course, it became politically expedient for him to be pro-torture.
Other failed or reversed stances of McCain include:
McCain rails against Islamic terrorists, yet is on record as being pro-Domestic terrorism. The anti-domestic terrorism measure passed despite McCain’s efforts.
While the 2008 Republican National Convention was all about the fact that McCain was a POW, it was less than a decade ago when McCain said being a POW wasn’t really the defining moment of his life: It was long ago and far away,” McCain said, referring to his time in a Vietnam prison camp. “Obviously it made me appreciate freedom, democracy, etcetera. And yet at the same time, it wasn’t the defining experience of my life. I had many defining experiences in my life.”
McCain pushed hard for George Bush’s plans to privatize Social Security. These days, McCain’s stance on Social Security is nearly indecipherable.
He supported Bush’s immigration plans until it became a political liability. Immigration is now another issue which McCain refuses to define his stance.
And let us not forget McCain’s insta-flop on drilling for oil in environmentally protected areas.
Basically, if you want to have a little fun, find an issue where John McCain has “butted heads” with his own party and then follow that issue until it’s conclusion. You’ll see that the vast, vast majority of the time, McCain has either failed or just changed his views when faced with political pressure.
In the end, it really doesn’t tell us much about McCain. He’s spent 26 years in the Senate, after all, and has earned his party’s nomination for the Presidency. And managed to do that despite being one of the Keating 5. Like most long-term politicians, McCain has always done what it takes to survive.
It does tell us quite a bit about Republicans in general, however. And what it tells us is this - with their support of John McCain, they care much more about defeating Democrats and “pissing off liberals” then they care about either their party or their country.
–WKW