John McCain was excited.
It was late January, and the following day, he and a group of bipartisan senators were set to announce their framework for comprehensive immigration reform. He picked up the phone and called an old friend in Arizona.
“We got it yep, yep,” McCain said, according to Grant Woods, who detected a long-lost measure of energy in the Republican’s voice.
The next morning McCain called Woods again: “We’re going over there,” the senior senator from Arizona said, referring to the Capitol Hill unveiling. “It’s going to be good.”
His optimism was warranted. The bipartisan effort was generally well-received across the country and across ideological lines. And McCain’s participation — as well as that of rising Republican star Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) — gave the plan a level of legitimacy and a promise of success not seen since the 2007 McCain-led effort to reform the immigration system, which ultimately failed.
The reception back home was not nearly as positive, as McCain has learned in often-hostile town hall meetings over the past two days. And it’s not surprising.
In 2010, in the heat of a close race for reelection, McCain boiled down his stance on immigration reform into one memorable phrase: “Complete the danged fence,” a reference to tightening border security. Now, in light of his enthusiasm for broad reforms that could include a pathway to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants, critics have accused McCain of flip-flopping and selling out.
McCain’s 2010 primary opponent, J.D. Hayworth, called McCain’s often-stated belief that immigration reform could benefit Republicans “misguided and false.”
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, whose office phone hold message includes the prompt, “If you are aware of any illegal immigration activity, call the hotline to report it,” said: “I don’t think this is the first time on an issue that he’s changed. Check his records.”
McCain has dismissed his critics with characteristic vehemence, even calling one town hall attendee a “jerk.”
The long search for the Real John McCain continues.
McCain in 2013
The 76-year-old will be 80 when he is again up for reelection in Arizona in 2016. “I have seen a number of occasions around here where people have stayed too long,” McCain said during a recent interview in his Russell Senate Building office. “I have seen people who were real giants in this institution deteriorate, and unfortunately, we remember them at the end.”
Endings matter in politics. If McCain is approaching the exit, this term could determine how he will be remembered. (“In the way people think of him,” former GOP Arizona senator Jon Kyl said, “in the near term, it matters a great deal.”)
Right now, like it or not, the five-term senator is stuck in “get off my lawn” territory, lashing out at his friend-turned-foe Chuck Hagel, President Obama’s nominee for defense secretary; incessantly tugging at what McCain is convinced is a coverup of the September attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya; lambasting the president; and railing against indiscriminate defense cuts. If hard-core conservatives feel burned by McCain’s resurgent reform spirit, the media that he once called his “base” have essentially written him off as an angry and sour loser who once went through a maverick phase but has, in the words of “Daily Show” host Jon Stewart, gone on a “seven-year quest to negate every good thing he’d ever done.”
John McCain, Republican senator is still raising questions and hackles
This article
John McCain, Republican senator is still raising questions and hackles
can be opened in url
http://newsentitlement.blogspot.com/2013/02/john-mccain-republican-senator-is-still.html
John McCain, Republican senator is still raising questions and hackles
