posted on June 3, 2001 07:30:53 PM new
Perhaps the most patient senate member of the republican party, a victim of some of the country's dirtiest political tricks and mudslinging by the bush campaign, a man who believes in his causes yet finds them subverted by bush agendas which sometimes seem born out of pure spite and vindictiveness on the part of bush, et al, is at the doorstep about to cross over, or at least leave the republican party:
US Senator John McCain is
readying himself to leave the Republican
Party, throwing President's Bush's young
administration into fresh turmoil. In a
widening rift with George Bush and the
Republicans' dominant conservative wing,
sources say the Vietnam veteran is also
considering a new run for the presidency
in 2004.
Although McCain's defection from the
party is not considered imminent, he has
been in talks with senior Democrats,
including Ted Kennedy and the new
Senate leader, Tom Daschle, about
switching political allegiance. Last month
moderate Republican Jim Jeffords
defected, stripping the party of its narrow
Senate majority and throwing Bush's
legislative agenda into chaos.
McCain, who upset Bush in the New
Hampshire election primary last year, is
watching closely to see if Bush now
adopts a more moderate approach before
making his decision to bolt. If McCain
loses on issues like campaign finance
reform, advisers say he will more than
likely quit the party. In the interim he is
seeking to form a moderate faction within
the Republicans.
posted on June 3, 2001 07:38:35 PM new
But publicly, he is denying all this. What's going to happen, is that he is going to get fed up with the B.S. and lose that infamous temper of his, and bye-bye Bushie and Republicans. But he won't reinvent himself as a Democrat. I think we'll see another Independent. It fits his "maverick" image.
posted on June 3, 2001 07:54:12 PM new
Bush the Younger did not have a heap of experience in governing or diplomacy when he became president. He had spent his time in his father's White House, not on issues but as loyalty enforcer.
Perhaps that is why he failed to understand that there's a big difference between internal discipline and external, between making sure your own folks are in line and those on Capitol Hill are on board.
He reckoned he could humiliate Jim Jeffords in plain view of his whole state without ramifications. He figured he could mug John McCain in South Carolina and dis him in Washington without any penalty. McCain allies claim the Bush White House even refused to hire anyone who had worked on the McCain campaign.
"One young man got a red flag from the White House because they found out he had donated $250 to McCain in the primary," said Mr. Weaver. "He was asked if he could explain himself.
posted on June 4, 2001 06:41:13 AM new
Yeah he will stand on the south shoulder of Aligator Alley and take a leak in the bushes.
That will be his contribution to the Everglades.
posted on June 4, 2001 07:09:40 AM new
McCain will not tolerate the same type of mistreatment that Jeffords
received. I agree with KatyD. McCain will be the next independent in the US Senate.
posted on June 4, 2001 07:30:12 AM new
Why am I not surprised?
The Republican Party has been split between the conservative and moderate factions for years.
They seem only able to get and keep the party together long enough to win the White House and even less occasionally the Congress.
Upon which they immediately take to their traditional philosophic and political infighting.
The conservative wing can't seem to understand that the moderation and accommodation that carried them into power must be maintained in order to retain and effectively exercise that power.
The conservative wing HAS NEVER and WILL NEVER have the mandate to carry out their agenda.
posted on June 4, 2001 07:39:49 AM new
No, and they act as though Jeffords is a criminal. No doubt they had all of the eavesdropping capabilities of the investigative agencies at work trying to find out what was happening at McCain's house. Probably even programmed a satellite to stay overhead. Bush himself called for a chat, even after as much as ignoring McCain since the election.
Republicans act as though they won a mandate both in the presidential election and by the fact of the congressional majority. But half a million more Americans voted for Gore than for Bush, and the best estimates are that 15,000 votes for Gore were thrown out in Florida. In the senate they won nothing. The truth is that the people elected sufficient democratic senators to almost overcome the previous republican majority of 55 to 45. They lost five seats.
posted on June 5, 2001 11:16:24 PM new
I can't wait for the day when some of the more respectable politicians such as McCain leave both parties to be independants. The 2 party system is becoming a joke.
posted on June 5, 2001 11:38:16 PM new
jlp - yes, but I often wonder what big difference there would be even if there were 5 different parties to choose from. Would the competition make them all a more honest bunch? Or is it that honesty and politics just can't mix?
posted on June 5, 2001 11:40:19 PM new
You are correct, there has never been an honest government in the history of mankind. Greed is too ever-present in the human psyche.
posted on June 5, 2001 11:44:17 PM new
What the difference would be is America would be privileged to have a circus like all the European parliaments, where the Drink Milk Party, and the Nazi Party, and the Communist Party, and the United Potato Farmer Party, and the Zoologist Democrat People's Party all have representation in the legislature. And the president would be accountable to a weird conglomeration of all of these groups. In other words, we wouldn't have a functioning government to speak of. I'm not saying that's necessarily the end of the world but a two party system is better then the crap alternatives, unless you think a functioning government has no place at all.
posted on June 6, 2001 12:13:23 AM new
The only difference in european parliamentory systems as described is that lobbyists have names, use their voices instead of money, and don't do their work outside the view of the public.
