America Dodged A Bullet When John McCain Lost

John McCain's Lasting Anger
by Shushannah Walshe


Old friends like Wes Gullett, a former aide in Arizona, say it is not anger that drives McCain but passion on issues, especially those involving the military, that he feels he knows best.
"John McCain is John McCain," Gullett said in an interview. "People mistake John McCain's passion for anger and he's a passionate guy on many, many issues. What drives him is his passion, and it's easy to say, 'Oh, he's angry.' I don't believe that."
Another former campaign aide said McCain's 2008 loss is not responsible for his changed stances, but it does fuel his contrarian side: "I don't believe the 2008 election has changed his position on the issues, but it has certainly energized him in his opposition to the Obama administration."
On Monday on MSNBC's Morning Joe, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) said she spoke with McCain "a lot" about DADT.

"He just had a concern of the welfare of the military. He felt that doing this at this time could undermine military readiness," said Gillibrand, who voted in favor of repeal. "I just think it is a generational issue. I think he had concerns about how it would affect troops and he's very sincere."
Fred Sainz, the vice president of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay rights organization, praised McCain and the sacrifices he made for the country, but said he is on the wrong side of history. "History will unfortunately record this as part of his legacy, and I think that's sad for someone who sacrificed so much for his country," he said. "I think some of it is just that he's old. Ideologically he's just not there."
Grant Woods, an old friend who has known McCain for 28 years and was his first chief of staff, said McCain believes Secretary Gates' support for a DADT repeal was "political" and that fundamentally McCain does what he pleases.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., during a break in the committee's "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on Dec. 2, 2010. (Photo by Alex Brandon / AP Photo)
"He doesn't mind popping people in the nose and taking the consequences," he said. "My opinion is that it just depends on who is getting popped in the nose. For a long time there it was various elements of the Republican Party and a lot of people, especially in the media, loved that. They saw it as courageous. He didn't see it as courageous; he always does what he wants to do. Now he's doing what he wants to do."
Woods said McCain would be more helpful if the White House reached out to him, but "they haven't talked to him at all."
McCain also voted no Saturday on the Dream Act, which would have granted citizenship to thousands of foreign-born college students. He initially sponsored the legislation. Gullett said McCain constantly faced voters on the campaign trail last year asking about border security and that affected his stance. His communications director, Brooke Buchanan, explained that on immigration, McCain believes the border needs to be secured above all else, citing the increasing border violence over the last four years. "His opinion has evolved with time," she said. "Don't we expect our leaders to base their opinions and policies, don't we expect them to change with the time? And that's what Sen. McCain has been doing. It's truly in the best interest of our country."
Woods said "it hurts" McCain to vote against legislation like the Dream Act after years of working on reform but said the senator felt betrayed when Latinos overwhelmingly supported Obama in 2008. "When you carry that fight at great sacrifice year after year and then you are abandoned during the biggest fight of your life, it has to have some sort of effect on you," he said.
And friends hasten to point out that McCain has traditionally always been a conservative, despite that pesky maverick label.
"Fundamentally John McCain is very conservative. His voting record is consistently conservative. The whole maverick concept, yes he is, because he wasn't a total litmus test guy, but he has a consistently conservative voting record," Gullett said. "It's not like he is some kind of liberal. I think people forget because they want to forget. He's had a lot of center votes, but he is fundamentally a conservative."
Of course, for most of the time that McCain was annoying Republicans, it was another former rival who was leading them.
Shushannah Walshe covers politics for The Daily Beast. She is the co-author of Sarah From Alaska: The Sudden Rise and Brutal Education of a New Conservative Superstar. She was a reporter and producer at the Fox News Channel from August 2001 until the end of the 2008 presidential campaign.