Clash of the Senate Titans

February 7, 2006

I’ve been trying to figure why John McCain was so infuriated by Barack Obama, but I’m afraid I’m lost. Given what we know, it looks like McCain just lost his cool, and leveled a classless attack, for no good reason.

An outraged Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) today called Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) insincere and partisan, suggesting the Illinois freshman as much as lied in private discussions the two had about ethics reform last week.

Here’s what happened: Obama wrote a letter (.pdf) to McCain late last week, thanking McCain for including him in bipartisan talks on lobbying reform. Obama noted that McCain supports the idea of a Senate task force to study the issue in more detail, but Obama recommended a different course. Obama said that he and other Dems “believe the more effective and timely course is to allow the committees of jurisdiction to roll up their sleeves and get to work on writing ethics and lobbying reform legislation that a majority of the Senate can support.” Obama’s preferred approach would pursue many of the same goals as McCain’s approach, but would do so through the committee process, instead of a task force.

This, apparently, infuriated McCain.

“When you approached me and insisted that despite your leadership’s preference to use the issue to gain a political advantage in the 2006 elections, you were personally committed to achieving a result that would reflect credit on the entire Senate and offer the country a better example of political leadership, I concluded your professed concern for the institution and the public interest was genuine and admirable. Thank you for disabusing me of such notions with your letter. … I’m embarrassed to admit that after all these years in politics I failed to interpret your previous assurances as typical rhetorical gloss routinely used in political to make self-interested partisan posturing appear more noble. Again, sorry for the confusion, but please be assured I won’t make the same mistake again.”

Obama has no idea what McCain is talking about. Neither does anyone else.

Apparently, McCain is under the impression that Obama wanted to withdraw from bipartisan discussions altogether, which doesn’t make a lot of sense in light of Obama’s actual correspondence.

What’s more, it’s worth noting that McCain not only lost his cool with his harsh and sarcastic letter, but he also leaked all of this to the press in an obvious attempt to embarrass Obama. If he flew off the handle and called Obama to complain about a misunderstanding, that’s one thing. But McCain gave up on the pretense of class, wrote a bizarre letter, and shared it with reporters.

As of late yesterday, Obama continued to take the high road.

Dear John:

During my short time in the U.S. Senate, one of the aspects about this institution that I have come to value most is the collegiality and the willingness to put aside partisan differences to work on issues that help the American people. … I confess that I have no idea what has prompted your response. But let me assure you that I am not interested in typical partisan rhetoric or posturing. The fact that you have now questioned my sincerity and my desire to put aside politics for the public interest is regrettable but does not in any way diminish my deep respect for you nor my willingness to find a bipartisan solution to this problem.

Good for Obama. I’m sure there was a temptation to respond in kind, but at least someone still has a little decency on Capitol Hill.

As for the substantive point, is McCain right? I don’t think so. McCain’s contention is that a task force will help expose problems in need of attention through lobbying reform. Republicans tend to prefer this approach because it will make the process longer, and may delay action until after the elections. Senate Dems tend to believe everyone already knows the problems that need a remedy and see a task force as unnecessary. There are already proposals on the table and standing committees can start working by debating their relative merits. McCain didn’t even bother to defend his approach; he preferred to attack someone who dared to disagree with him, not over reform goals, but on how best to get there.

Bipartisan lobbying reform is off to a great start, isn’t it?

I think McCain has lost it.

I never have understood him. Embracing Bush after being seriously trashed by him in the primaries. Politics doth make strange bedfellows, but that trashing was below belt and not easily forgiven by a sane person.

  • It shows you what a jealous twit McCain is. An upstart fancypants comes in and tries to get something done, and McCain loses his mind, hopefully temporarily. Im all for process and all that, but sometimes, hewing to tradtional methods just shows you how outdated you are, and why productivity can sometimes be so low.

  • McCain wants a task force headed by — John McCain. The media attention that would get would be invaluable to his presidential bid. John McCain — gonna clean up dirty DC. John McCain the reformer. He’s been building that image for years now (whether it’s really true or not, the press believes it and continues to spread it). Obama’s approach would rob him of that stage.

  • Yeh, if he had only been so indignant when Rove had Bush smear him as a vet. Frickin idiot….had his chance to be prez and blew it.

  • Mr. Smith (Obama) goes to Washington…

    ” I confess that I have no idea what has prompted your response. …..”

    You mean that when you want to solve the problem of corruption in this town, you really are fixin to just pretend that you are solving it? That all you elected government officials are influenced by big money? Senator McCain, Please tell me it ain’t so.
    (Barack Obama tearfully exits stage left to meditate at the Lincoln Memorial).

  • McCain is furious because Obama isn’t Lieberman. Is McCain getting Rumsfeld/Cheney/Bush disease? Does he think that anyone who disagrees is a dangerous enemy? I mean, that letter was bordered on insanity.

  • McCain is scared because he wants to be seen as the leader of all bi-partisan charades on the hill. His entire (and undeserved) image is the middle-of-the-roader, and he cannot have anyone, especially a popular, fresh (read uncorrupted), well spoken Senator from Illinois encroaching on that.

    This is just one of many events that shows what a partisan hack and spiteful old man McCain really is. Unfortunately, since McCain is consistently viewed as an everyman popular politician, I think it’ll have ill effect for Obama.

  • “….I confess that I have no idea what has prompted your response. But let me assure you that I am not interested in typical partisan rhetoric or posturing. The fact that you have now questioned my sincerity and my desire to put aside politics for the public interest is regrettable but does not in any way diminish my deep respect for you nor my willingness to find a bipartisan solution to this problem.” – B. Obama

    Dem’s would do well to adopt this passage as a default response to all manner of RepubCo B.S. Acknowledge RepubCo’s freaked-outness, confront their inflamed and nonsensical partisan sensibilities with irrefutable logic and velvet wrapped condecension and then take a step forward and hold that ground.

    McCain is one of them. He is not a fence sitter. He is not a moderate. He is a deluded, demented, bald faced RepubCo wannabe King. Screw McCain.

  • Yeah, I tend more not to trust McCain than to think that it’s just ego. It’s either one or the other, though. Granted, I don’t focus on McCain too much, but this is the impression I get.

    I stopped trusting McCain a while ago. When you’re first introduced to him via the media’s consistent sound-bite about him, you think, “Oh, that;s kind of cool, that’s kind of different.” I think it’s real hard to pay attention to what he says and how he acts over a longer period of time, though, and not to begin to feel differently towards him.

  • People tend to think that McCain plays the position of “bi-partisan guy” in service to some higher calling than mere politics, and maybe even in service to liberal values–

    I think perhaps he’s actually playing “bi-partisan guy” in service to ideological conservativism or ideological Republicanism. Or maybe he’s basically a Republican, but he just likes to play the maverick sometimes. Maybe it’s a little bit of both.

    A realistic scenario to me seems to be, being the maverick is McCain’s personality, but when the GOP bigwigs call him up and say, “You’ve got to do this,” or ‘You’ve got to be this, right now,” he’s not going to say no to them, because he sees them as the bosses + the good-guys. So going and being the maverick is sort of this eccentric little role he’s allowed to play, so long as it doesn’t mess things up too much. I think he’s demonstrated where he stands when the chips are down.

    You can point to different things he’s done, and say, “Well McCain sponsored this legislation,” but what does that really mean? That if the dems are going to do that legislation anyway, the repubs want to make sure that they’ve got one of their boys having a say in it, and seen as a repub who can hold that point of view on the issue (even if it’s just for show)? Maybe that’s all it means.

  • McCain is a “maverick” because he doesn’t spew the usual GOP talking points. He is also perceived as more patient and a better listener to people whose views oppose his. While none of this makes him a liberal, or even a “moderate,” you get the feeling he’s someone you can reason with (as opposed to, say, Frist, Santorum, Cornyn, Kyl, et. al.).

    That said, every once in a while something clicks in his brain. You could see it a number of times in the run-up to the Iraq war when he would sound reasonable until someone would say something that he thought questioned the troops’ morale, our support for them, or whatever. Then he’d get a glint in his eye and start verbally eviscerating the questioner.

    It’s the same thing with Obama. Perhaps there IS no real reason for McCain’s crazed fury. Something just clicked.

    Remember this incident if this guy gets elected President in 2008.

  • This was probably the most ill-advised stunt anyone on the Hill has pulled in a long time. It’s put a major hurt on McCain and a major boost for Obama in the arena of public opinion.

    If McCain’s head is already exploding in 2006 before the primaries have even started, I don’t give much for his chances in 2008.

    As others have said, it reveals too much of his desire to lead the political circus through ineffective committees rather than actually legislating, like what we pay him for.

  • I don’t know– I think I’ve probably heard the story a hundred times over the course of my life, how some guy seemed like “such a good listener, so patient and reasonable” or whatever before he screwed someone over. Simply the fact that people want to deal w/ others who seem like thery’re really respectful, reasonable and willing to compromise make those qualities ones a dishonest person might want to emulate to gain a person’s trust.

    Divisive issue that has the potential to make all sorts of dialogues look really ugly, along partisan lines? Just dispatch McCain. See? It’s a partisan issue no longer– No reason to get worried about people starting to say the word “Republican” too derisively.

  • Good points, Swan.

    Catch McCain in the new movie “Why We Fight” — he’s being interviewed about his feelings on Halliburton, and he’s talking about corruption, how the whole thing bothers him, then all of a sudden he gets a phone call “from the Vice President.” All smiles, oops guys, gotta go!

  • Looks like the wheels came off of Luke Skywalker’s little red bandwagon. He thinks he stands a good chance at the nomination in ’08 so publicly dissing a prominent black politician could only help him with the knuckle-dragging shmucks that will vote for him in the primary and general election. *Sigh* Just another turd in the punch bowl, I’m afraid.

  • Josh’s analysis may be correct. Before reading it, I tended to think that McCain was PO’d because Obama was not going to play by his rules. McCain’s letter was so over-the-top that I thought Obama must have been the one to give it to the press. Why would McCain want such a rant made public (without any background regarding the behavior for which McCain seeks to brand Obama a scoundrel)?

    In my eyes McCain is trying to square up his record on the Abramoff scandals. His hearings did much to expose the greed of Abramoff and Co, but I will never forget his declaration that his hearings were not going to bring down any of his colleagues. If people remember that, his cred is tarnished. If he leads a “Task Force” to deal with the rotten apples, he burnishes his reputation with those who graze mostly in the political middle and answer poll questions regarding viable candidates based upon name recognition (which McCain has in spades, of course). The press learned to love McCain in 2000 because he gave them access and let them feel they were hangin’ with the Top Gun. This is the opposite of their love for Bush, who treats the press with absolute disdain (please love us), doles out condescending nick names (maybe he loves us (me)), and uses access to reward or punish (can’t let him NOT love us).

    As to who comes out the better for this dust-up, I think that depends upon how it is played in the MSM. McCain has many groupies in that territory; we’ll have to see if Obama’s “rising star” narrative can compete with McCain’s “straight shooter / maverick” one.

    I’ve watched John McCain for several years now. He has gone from someone whom I thought was interesting and maybe admirable to just another pol.

  • You guys are FOS. McCain didn’t blast Obama because he lost his temper, or was infuriated. He did this same b.s. a couple of years ago, when he and Obama were involved in another bipartisan deal – pretended to blow his stack at Obama for Obama’s supposed treachery and insincerity, and supposedly betraying McCain’s trust. It was done in a transparently phony way, demonstrably unprovoked, which led some of these internet authorities to say (and they’re probably right) that McCain was sowing the seeds for an effective campaign, later on, if necessary, to make Obama look treacherous and untrustworthy. This is another instance of the same deal. Remember? You could look it up, on the internets. It’s part of a strategy to stop Obama. That’s the only explanation that fits.

    Or, do you think those people wouldn’t stoop to something like that? If so, you probably think Ken Lay’s dead, too.

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