Doug Bandow

John McCain: Fibbing About Voting for George Bush?

Did he or didn’t he?  Sounds to me like John McCain is telling a big fib about voting for George Bush in 2000.  Reports the New York Times:

On her Huffington Post Web site on Monday, Ms. Huffington, the liberal blogger, said she had heard Mr. McCain say at a Los Angeles dinner party shortly after the 2000 election that he had not voted for the president he has now publicly embraced in his own quest for the White House. The McCain campaign swiftly quashed the account and said Ms. Huffington had a book to promote and would make anything up.

“She’s a flake and a poser and an attention-seeking diva,” Mark Salter, one of Mr. McCain’s closest aides, told The Washington Post.

Now two other guests at the same dinner, given by the actress Candice Bergen, at her home in Beverly Hills, say they heard much the same thing as Ms. Huffington. Both of them, the former “West Wing” actors Bradley Whitford and Richard Schiff, were asked by Ms. Huffington to speak to The New York Times. Mr. Whitford said he would be supporting the Democratic nominee and had donated to Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama; Mr. Schiff is supporting Mr. Obama.

Mr. Whitford, who played Josh Lyman, the deputy White House chief of staff on the NBC series, said in a telephone interview on Thursday that he was sitting across from Mr. McCain and next to Ms. Huffington at the small dinner and that he was startled to hear the senator sharply criticize Mr. Bush. The senator has long blamed the Bush campaign for smear tactics against his family in the 2000 South Carolina primary, but by the end of the campaign Mr. McCain was publicly supporting his rival.

“McCain was just sort of going off on how much he disliked Bush and the horrible things that the Bush campaign had done to his family in South Carolina, and his exasperation with Bush about his ridiculous tax cuts and he really wanted to talk to him about it, but he said the guy doesn’t have the concentration, and you talk for 10 minutes and then the guy wants to talk about baseball,” Mr. Whitford said.

Another guest then asked Mr. McCain, Mr. Whitford recalled, whether he had voted for Mr. Bush. “And he put his finger in front of his mouth and mouthed, ‘No way,’ ” Mr. Whitford said.

Republicans Against McCain: Busier than Ever

John McCain continues to have trouble unifying Republicans behind him.  Reports the Boston Globe:

Across the country, at state and county GOP conventions, diehard supporters of maverick Ron Paul are staging uprisings in an effort to secure a role for Paul at the national convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul.

And in the four primaries since clinching the nomination in early March, McCain has yet to reach 80 percent of the vote, as Paul and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee continue to siphon away votes, even though Huckabee has withdrawn from the race.

The lingering anti-McCain sentiment among some voters and the continuing Paul insurgency suggest that McCain has not fully quelled hostility from some elements in his party.

Paul remains the lone holdout who is still actively campaigning. He has indicated he is unlikely to endorse McCain, and his zealous supporters have turned out in large numbers to battle for delegates at recent GOP gatherings in Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, and Oklahoma.

John McCain–Mr. Sanctimony Meets Lobbyist

Ya’ gotta’ love him. Sen. John McCain sanctimoniously prances around, acting like the scourge of Washington-as-usual.  But his campaign is overrun by lobbyists.  And it turns out he has pushed legislation that has benefited some of his campaign backers.

Reports the Washington Post:

Sen. John McCain championed legislation that will let an Arizona rancher trade remote grassland and ponderosa pine forest here for acres of valuable federally owned property that is ready for development, a land swap that now stands to directly benefit one of his top presidential campaign fundraisers].

John McCain is a Whiner

On top of being tempermentally unsuited to the presidency.

The McCain campaign complains that Barack Obama was attacking John McCain’s age–if McCain wins, he will be the oldest man ever elected president.  But actually, Obama was attacking McCain’s tendency to go postal on staff and colleagues.  Just the kind of man one wants in control of America’s nuclear force.

Reports ABC News:

ABC News’ Ron Claiborne Reports: The McCain campaign lashed out at Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, for what it called an insulting dig at Sen. John McCain’s age.

In an interview on CNN, Obama accused McCain of trying to “smear” him by saying that the Palestinian militant group Hamas favored his candidacy.

“And so for him to toss out comments like that I think is an example of him losing his bearings as he pursues this nomination,” Obama said.

The McCain campaign said the “losing his bearings” comment was an underhanded reference to the fact that McCain is 71 years old.

Hillary Clinton on Her Way Out?

The Clinton campaign, if not Hillary Clinton, may realize that the game is about over.  Reports the Los Angeles Times:

She’s darting around the country like a full-fledged presidential candidate, but within Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s circle of advisors and donors, the conversation has turned to how she can make a dignified exit from the race.

Outwardly, Clinton operated Thursday as if the disappointing results from Indiana and North Carolina never happened. She made stops in West Virginia and South Dakota, while her husband held a conference call with top fundraisers. Before dawn, one of her advisors, Mark Penn, crafted a memo outlining future campaign strategy

But for all the signs of normalcy, much of the infrastructure that keeps the New York senator’s campaign going — the aides, donors and political allies — is resigned to the hard reality that the Democratic nomination now appears out of reach.

One Clinton aide said Thursday: “There is a profound sadness” among the staff. “I don’t think anyone sees that there’s a clear path to victory here.”

Richard Schiffrin, a national finance co-chairman for Clinton, is scheduled to meet with other fundraisers and her next week. Schiffrin said he would tell her: “Let’s look at the situation as it exists and think about whether there’s a credible path to the nomination, and if there isn’t, what’s Plan B?”

He added: “The bottom line is she’s going to make a decision that in my view will be in the best interests of the party and the country.”

This is good news.  There is nothing more important than defeating John McCain–the unpredictable war-monger set to win the Republican nomination.  But she is a poor alternative, a fellow hawk who would bring eight years of  baggage into the White House.  Exhibiting class in clearing the way for Barack Obama to run a serious campaign in the fall would help redeem her flawed political career.

Bill Clinton Endorses Barack Obama

So writes the inimitable Andy Borowitz:

In what some Democratic Party insiders are calling a particularly ominous sign for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, former president Bill Clinton today became the latest superdelegate to switch from Sen. Clinton to her rival, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill).

Sources close to the former president said that Mr. Clinton had been mulling such a defection for weeks, as early as the night of the Iowa primary, but that he only decided to make his decision public today.

“The American people want change,” Mr. Clinton said at a press conference in New York. “Lord knows I do.”

The former president said that “sometimes, at the end of a race, you have to put an old horse down,” adding, “I’m not speaking metaphorically.”

Mr. Clinton fueled speculation that he was seeking a role in an Obama administration, saying, “I know my way around the Oval Office, and I know how the super-secret double-lock works.”

The former president said he would relish a return to the White House, calling his tenure there “good times.”

For her part, Sen. Clinton said that the defection of her husband would not deter her from staying in the race, adding, “To my knowledge, he’s the only white voter Sen. Obama has.”

Conservatives Tell GOP to “Go to Hell”

Erick at RedState is prepared to toss the Republican Party overboard.  Alas, as he points out, the GOP seems to have learned nothing from its well-deserved loss in 2006.  Explains Erick:

Here’s the thing — the GOP has been great in the minority battling Nancy and her gang. They’ve been great at floor strategery to embarrass the Speaker and screw with the blue dogs, putting them in awkward positions.

But they have done absolutely nothing to show that, were they back in the majority, they would change their ways and recommit to smaller government. And at the end of the day, that’s what it all boils down to. Everyone knows that the Democrats are worse than the Republicans on a host of issues. But everyone also knows that the Republicans, in their final few years in power, were tools of big business interests — and those big business interests were only committed to lining their pockets and expanding government spending on their behalf.

The GOP is the party of the entrepreneur. That has become, along with social conservatives, their natural base. But in leadership, the GOP ignored both for the highest bidder and until Tom Cole shuts the heck up about what a great guy Don Young is, well, to hell with them.

If they won’t clean their house up now, I’m prepared to sit back and let the voters do it for them in November. Remember: I’m all for being on the team, but not when the team is solely interested in me filling out the roster, but not letting me on the field.

Poor John McCain

The Washington Times points out how John McCain lags behind George W. Bush in 2000 in winning support from Republicans.  Reports the Times:

Sen. John McCain wrapped up Republicans’ presidential nomination long ago, but a substantial percentage of voters — about one-fourth — still showed up to vote against him in the three most-recent Republican presidential primaries.

Based on the contests in Pennsylvania, Indiana and North Carolina, Mr. McCain is doing better at winning supporters in his own party at this stage of the race than Bob Dole in 1996, but he trails the performance of then-Gov. George W. Bush in 2000 — the last two contested Republican presidential races.

In Tuesday’s North Carolina and Indiana primaries, Mr. McCain won 74 percent and 78 percent, respectively. That compares with Mr. Bush’s 79 percent in North Carolina in 2000 and 81 percent in Indiana. Pennsylvania was the exception, where he got 73 percent versus 72 percent for Mr. Bush.

With just a handful of small-state contests left, Mr. McCain has won less than 45 percent of the 19 million votes cast in the Republican primaries so far. In 2000, Mr. Bush won 62 percent of Republican votes.

Why Would Any Sane Person Vote Republican?

The Republican Party has become the party of big government, high spending, and endless war.  Maybe that explains why it keeps losing Republican districts in special elections.  And why it lags in the polls.  And why its presumptive presidential nominee has a chance only because many voters don’t view him as a regular Republican.

But the congressional GOP doesn’t get it.  Reports Politico:

Faced with dire predictions of an electoral bloodbath in November, House Republican leader John A. Boehner responded Wednesday by creating a committee to advise the National Republican Congressional Committee.

Rep. John Kline (R-Minn.), who will serve on the committee, said its existence will show that Boehner and NRCC Chairman Tom Cole “understand” that they need to work closely together.

Critics likened the plan to placing a Band-Aid on a gaping wound.

“It’s a joke,” one Republican member said. “And not even a well-written one.”

Members and aides said the 12-member committee was established as a rapid-response vehicle to coordinate strategy, fundraising and member outreach in specific congressional districts as well as to plot long-term campaign strategy with NRCC aides and others.

But the makeup of this new advisory board — it includes many members of the NRCC’s current executive committee — prompted a number of Republicans to privately ask whether this newly constituted group will be able to reverse a troubling trend that has seen the party lose special elections in Republican districts in Louisiana and Illinois.

Ya’ gotta’ love it.  It’s as if the captain of the Titanic formed a committee to discuss strategies to deal with the leak.

It couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of unprincipled opportunists!

John McCain’s Republican Problem

I’m running around Serbia and Kosovo this week, so I’m pretty much out of touch.  Today I was down in Mitrovica, one of the flashpoints in Kosovo.  More on that later.

 With yesterday’s election I am most struck by the results on the Republican side.  John McCain is the guy who can’t close the deal.  Although he truly is inevitable, he received about 74 percent and 77 percent in North Carolina and Indiana, respectively.   About one-quarter of Republicans insist on voting against him whenever they have a chance. 

Maybe after giving us George W. Bush and anointing John McCain, at least a few Republican voters are demonstrating that they can learn from past mistakes.