In a fit of misplaced pique, John McCain goes house on Barack Obama over his relatively innocuous decision to skip McCain’s proposed “bipartisan” task force on lobbying revisions (and, by extension, Obama’s point that the Ballad of Casino Jack is primarily a GOP scandal.) I’ve been generally sympathetic to McCain’s work for campaign finance and lobbying reform throughout his career, but, frankly, the outrage of this letter is way outta line. I just posted on this in the comments at National Journal, so I’ll just repost here:
“I’d be more impressed with McCain’s alleged commitment to bipartisan reform if (a) he could find Dems other than Joe Lieberman and Bill Nelson* — not exactly the Democratic mainstream — to back his “task force” play, (b) he didn’t consistently allow himself to be used as the “mythical maverick” smokescreen for GOP lobbying abuses, and (c) he displayed half as much righteous outrage when the Dubya administration eviscerated his anti-torture legislation, violated both the FISA Act and the National Security Act of 1947 with their illegal wiretaps, and generally stood in the way of serious campaign finance reform. Sure, McCain talks tough at Barack Obama, but everytime Dubya comes a-knockin’ at his door, he folds like an accordion, even despite the ugly incident in the South Carolina primary six years ago.
The Republican Party controls the White House, the Senate, the House of Representatives, and — arguably — the Supreme Court at this moment. Is it really McCain’s contention that Barack Obama, a freshman Senator in the minority party, is the one stopping real lobbying and campaign finance reform from happening? Please. If McCain wants real reform, he should be directing his wrath at the people in charge. Otherwise, he’s even more guilty of putting the partisan game above the public interest than is Obama.” Update: Obama answers.
Your comment isn’t showing up over there… slow system? censors?
It said something about first-time-posters getting okayed by a human being…so I assume that’s the hold-up.
There is a big difference between Bill Nelson (D, FL) who McCain referenced, and Ben Nelson (D, NE). Bill Nelson is very much in the Democratic ‘mainstream’.
I’ll gander you still aren’t ‘impressed’ though.
You’re right: My bad. The Bill/Ben Nelson bit caused confusion in the Alito fight too. (I’ve fixed the entry above.)
That being said…No, I’m still not impressed. My larger point still stands. If McCain wants to see real lobbying reform happen, he’d do better to direct his wrath at his own Republican power structure, rather than throwing a snit at a freshman senator in the minority party.
That he doesn’t only reaffirms McCain’s own partisanship, as well as his repeatedly evinced tendency to fold when push comes to shove. As Hiram Johnson said of William Borah, McCain only “shoots until he sees the whites of their eyes.”