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Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Coming To Terms With The New Boss

posted by on April 30 at 13:15 PM

The New York Times takes us into the raging id of the hard-right Congressional Republican, now faced with reconciling their often less-than-cordial relationship with Republican nominee John McCain:

“For the pure, die-hard, dyed-in-the-wool Republican, they probably have a little bit of heartburn,” said Representative Ray LaHood, an Illinois Republican and McCain supporter retiring from the House at the end of this year

Mr. McCain also liked to ridicule Congressional earmarks, the pet projects on which Republicans were feasting. And he led a Senate investigation into the bilking of Indian tribes by the lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a source of great embarrassment and trouble for Mr. DeLay and other Republicans.

“They just hated McCain’s style of politics,” said Charles Bass, a former House member from New Hampshire who now leads a moderate Republican group.

And yet for many House members trying to shake off the Republican reputation of Byzantine wheeling and dealing during the DeLay years, they find themselves having to applaud McCain’s prior stances, even when that stance was at the time firmly placed on their collective throats:

Many Republicans have now concluded that it is only Mr. McCain’s willingness to challenge recent Republican orthodoxy that has left him in a position to credibly contend for the White House, given public dissatisfaction with Republican leadership.

“If he hadn’t disagreed with us, he wouldn’t have a chance of being president,” said Representative Zach Wamp, Republican of Tennessee. “He is the one guy who can be the candidate for us this cycle.”

Noam Scheiber of The New Republic believes that should the McCain candidacy look dead in the water at any point, the Congressional knives will likely come back out.

RSS icon Comments

1

If the Republicans are looking for somebody who has stood firm against Republican folly, yet is also willing to work with them when they're right, perhaps the candidate they are dreaming of is none other than Barack Obama.

Posted by elenchos | April 30, 2008 1:30 PM
2

In a perfect world, the knives WILL come out when McCain tanks (as he is sure to), and the Republicans will carve themselves to pieces for another fifty years.

Posted by Fnarf | April 30, 2008 1:50 PM
3

"And he led a Senate investigation into the bilking of Indian tribes by the lobbyist Jack Abramoff"

this hightlights the importance of having an obama/mccain race. mccain has been fairly progressive on indian issues, clinton mainly follows and mouths the usual platitudes. to date she doesn't really have a big indian country backing while obama does. i feel that if obama was upset then alot of important swing states would tip to mccain.

Posted by Jiberish | April 30, 2008 2:01 PM
4

This is nothing more than a cheap way to try and buy votes by hoping they can get media types to cut and paste this crap (nice going kid) and lull undecided voters into thinking McCain's a moderate. Opposing Jack Ambramoff and Ted Stevens???? They're both going to have been indicted soon. That makes McCain a man of principle and a moderate, are you f'ing kidding me?

Posted by left coast | April 30, 2008 5:46 PM

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