John McCain and the Senate

Divid Frum today posted a question about the effect on reformers of frustration with the political system. He intended the comment to apply to Sarah Palin.

Periodically there is an eruption of reform. The leaders of these eruptions have to be brave and charismatic. They excite intense loyalty among their followers – and provoke keen resentment among those who have enjoyed the old ways of doing business.

But it also often happens that this same bold leader has a strong messianic streak. They see no difference between themselves and their movement. They draw fierce lines between friends and enemies. They intensely resent criticism. They see no contradiction between their demand for total openness from others – and secrecy for themselves. They can be paranoid and vindictive – because after all, their enemies are enemies of the great cause.

I think this applies to John McCain. He has spent 25 years trying to cope with the traditions of the Senate as they apply to the present circumstances in politics. It is one reason why he and Joe Lieberman are such close friends. Prior to the 2000 election, Lieberman was a maverick like McCain. He supported school vouchers and opposed ethanol subsidies. He made the very good points that the teachers unions had obstructed any effort to reform schools and the ethanol subsidies had benefited corporate farming interests, like Archer Daniels Midland company at the expense of urban motorists like those represented by Lieberman. Once he was chosen by Al Gore as his VP nominee, Lieberman altered his positions to accommodate Democratic Party orthodoxy.

Once there was a tradition of Senators advocating positions that were good for the country. Senator Lister Hill, the son of a physician and named for the discoverer of antisepsis, was an advocate of building hospitals in the days when medical care was a good government issue. John Stennis was an advocate for national defense, although both of them were segregationists in the days when the South was segregated. Harry Truman was an obscure Senator, chosen by the political boss of Kansas City to be a Senator. After Pearl Harbor, there was a great deal of anger at the failure of intelligence and concern about war profiteering and corruption. Truman was placed in charge of a committee on the conduct of the war. It was called the Truman Committee and its honest and serious investigation of the Roosevelt Administration’s activities catapulted Truman to fame and the vice-presidency in 1944. It didn’t matter to him that the President was of his own party.

Today we see Senators like Trent Lott, whose interests were chiefly with pork barrel spending. Lott was an advocate for his state and the shipyards of Pascagoula, Missisippi, even supporting building ships that were not wanted by the navy.

The Senate majority leader, Trent Lott, wanted a half-billion dollars to start building a $1.5 billion ship called the LHD-8 at the Ingalls Shipyard in Mississippi, his home state.

The Senate, at his behest, approved the money this summer. But the House did not. Last month, House aides asked the Navy how much money really was needed to start the project. Last week, the Navy drafted an answer: $295 million, a lot less than Senator Lott wanted.

One of Senator Lott’s senior aides, a retired Navy officer, obtained the draft and faxed a handwritten memorandum on the senator’s stationery to an admiral at the Pentagon.

The memorandum said $295 million was ”the wrong answer.” The right answer — the answer that ”the Navy needs to support” — was ”at least $375 M to $500 M,” it said. ”We have worked too hard to give up on the $500 M now.”

The implication, according to several people involved in the process, was that the Navy should alter its testimony to support Senator Lott’s position. It has not.

McCain has fought a lonely fight against unnecessary spending. Some of his difficulties with his Republican colleagues comes from these lonely battles. His honor has always been his first concern, as archaic as that seemed in 2008 politics. In this very fair profile of McCain, we still see the leftist slant.

Galanti, like several other ex-POWS, was a supporter of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the group that spread unfounded accusations about John Kerry in 2004. The “Swift Boat” attacks against Kerry were a delayed reaction to what some veterans saw as Kerry’s betrayal of their cause upon his return home from Vietnam. “I have some pretty strong feelings about those sorts of people,” Galanti said.

Anyone who followed the story, knows that the swiftboat skippers told the truth about Kerry. This admission is code for the writer’s political stance, just as you could tell the communists in World War II by their reaction to the Hitler-Stalin nonaggression pact in 1939, then the German invasion of the USSR in 1942.

Now McCain has found a kindred spirit in Sarah Palin. I think that is a factor in his choice of her as a running mate. The fallout from this decision is still coming. Governor Palin has been furiously attacked from the left but she has found unlikely allies. The basic message, as I see it, is that McCain has found an ally in his lonely quest and is invigorated. She has been the subject of furious attacks but seems able to shake them off. They are a great combination and McCain has finally someone besides Joe Lieberman who can stand beside him and fight for what he thinks is important.

I have heard and read that he might be threatened by her popularity but I don’t see it that way. I think he has been grateful to share the burden and is no longer condemned to fight his battles alone. This is a man who was willing to defy his captors. Threats from a wimp like Obama are unlikely to deter him and will only give him more incentive.

Of course, the lies are out there.

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5 Responses to “John McCain and the Senate”

  1. doombuggy says:

    >>>>Today we see Senators like Trent Lott…

    I think there is a turning point here, where Congress became a place to vote yourself and your backers a bunch of money.

  2. cassandra says:

    It takes a lot of cajones to go against…anyone. It’s so easy to go along. Politicians especially are so friendly and welcoming to potential new allies. The Senate is such an elite club. There’s so much to gain if you’re not a thorn in their side. It takes a special kind of person who is strong enough inside to just let all the coldness and attacks and ostracism roll of their back. Not sure I have it myself but admire those who do.

    I’ve seen it on a local level, too, where a grizzled old veteran pol takes to a bright new star on the scene. They see themselves in the new face and can get quite sentimental, not romantic but almost parental about the person. It is a uniquely humiliating experience to face the rejection, anger and indifference of the voters. Going through that creates a bond.

    And I think most the ‘ol boys realize now that a woman politician can go places they can’t and say things they can’t, play against type etc. I think a woman conservative has a unique advantage on every level – local, state and national.

  3. bahce says:

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