Posted on 07/11/2006 11:35:49 AM PDT by SDGOP
Esquire Puts One Of Their Own On The Cover -- McCain
mccain2.JPG Sen. John McCain is the subject of a very positive yet appropriately elegiac profile in the coming issue of Esquire. Written by Chris Jones , it's slated for the cover.
The thesis: McCain is worried about the country he loves. And he's running for president, certainly for the last time, to save it. And because of who he is -- because of his iconoclasm, his war experiences, his conviction – “you’re inclined to believe him and to believe that he’s correct.”
Esquire is an upscale, un-conservative gentleman's magazine. The title is very provocative: "One Of Us."
There's also a side bar about McCain's chief political adviser, John Weaver.
Here are two, somewhat out-of-context choice cuts from the profile, just to give its flavor.
McCain: "People always ask me if I'm still mad about what happened in 2000. What in the world is the point of being mad at something that happened six years ago? Did I like it? No. Was I angry at the time? Yes. Did I spend ten wonderful days after I lost feeling sorry for myself? Yes. There's nothing better than feeling sorry for yourself. But there's no point to it, either. I mean, how would it sound if I said, 'Dear citizens of Arizona: I'd like to run for reelection and represent you in the United States Senate. By the way, I'm still pissed off over South Carolina, so I'm sure you'll understand when I spend a lot of my time getting even.' It's over."
McCain: "I understand the frustrations a lot of Republicans feel. We're not representing their hopes and dreams and aspirations. We worry about Ms. Schiavo before we worry about balancing the budget. We're going to take up this Family Marriage Amendment again. Why? The Republicans will vote one way, and the Democrats will vote another, and everybody knows it! It's pointless. I've never seen Washington as polarized as it is today."
McCain: "I would never say this publicly, but some of these talk-show hosts -- and I'm not saying they should be taken off the air; they have the right to do what they want to do -- I don't think they're good for America."
McCain: "I urge my friends who complain about the influence of the religious Right, get out there and get busy. That's what they do! Now, if we believe in the Republican party of Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt, the big-tent party, then we have to get out there and show that. The fact is, some of us have sat idly by while those very active people have basically set the agenda for our party. I get attacked everyday because I'm working with Ted Kennedy. How can I work with Kennedy? Because I want to get something done."
More excerpts after the jump.
For weeks, McCain has plugged the immigration-reform package that he put together with Ted Kennedy and that will be voted on in the Senate next week. He has been attacked for creating a path to what he calls "earned citizenship" -- his critics call amnesty -- but now it's his turn to go on the offensive. McCain: "Are we a xenophobic, nativist country? Everybody in this room has an ancestor who came here for the same reason these people came here." Taking sips from their glasses of white win, many of those standing next to the piano [McCain is at a fundraiser in Darien, CT] nod, suddenly one with the Mexicans."
McCain: "I think the biggest mistake we could make is to underestimate Hillary Clinton. She's smart and she's tough. She's very disciplined in all ways -- unlike her husband -- and I think she's formidable. Plus, she already has $20 million in the bank. If we don't get our act together..."
He also believes that time is running out, not because he is growing old -- or not just because he is growing old -- but because our politics and even our sense of common identity have degenerated so quickly. The fact is, John McCain believes we are the ones who need saving, not him. Even with his audience's prodding, he refuses to speak ill of Mrs. Clinton. But in his artful, season way, McCain has given his audience his considered sales pitch for his brand of hawkish, no-bullshit conservatism, marbled with just enough compassion and reason and bipartisanship to set him apart from other Republican breast beaters. Tonight in Connecticut, McCain is of Connecticut. Tomorrow he will be of Delaware, and on Sunday he will be of Maine.
[On a charter plane ....]
"And as usual, there is an odd intimacy among the small group on board, often no more than a couple of longtime aides like Weaver. They share the newspaper, a couple of Heinekens, small talk. Tonight, shortly before touchdown, McCain becomes aware that his hair is standing up. "John," he says to [chief political adviser John Weaver, "I think my hair is out of place." He announces this out loud because he cannot lift his arms above his shoulders. Weaver, casually dressed and a soft-spoken Texas gentleman, reaches across the top of McCain's head, smoothing it. There is a tenderness in the gesture, as there is whenever Weaver straightens McCain's collar or brushes the lint from his jacket. There is tenderness, but there is also a kind of sadness."
I hope McCain does a few more interviews like this.
Then we won't have to worry about anyone in the GOP taking his presidential aspirations seriously.
Indeed. You think from these latest stumbles that he is being advised by James Carville?
McCain's plan is to ride to the White House on a great tidal wave of passionate Republican moderates.
I saw an Esquire magazine in the dentist's office a week ago. I'm still trying to figure out what it is.
Hell as bad as this thing is I think he may actually be getting advice from hillary.
More of the MSM shoving McCain down our throats. He is mainly beloved inside the covers of money-losing publications.
If he won the nomination I'm afraid I just wouldn't vote. I'd have to take a bucket with me to puke in if I pushed that button.
It was the strawberries. That's where I had them...
You might be able to call Esquire Un-Conservative, but you can hardly call them gentlemen.
What's with Esquire and the crotch-level photos?
Surely you jest?
Ummm, NO I'M NOT!
Bill Clinton the most influential man in world..ohhhhhhhhh puhleeeze. And as for the Dirty Hands on Bill Clinton, they have never been clean.
McCainiac Hypocrisy
Meet John Weaver, the Big-Money consultant who hates Big Money.
August 16, 2001 3:00 p.m.
According to Roll Call, McCain consultant John Weaver gets $15,000 a month from the PAC. In the course of his selfless guerrilla war on Big Money, Weaver also spent more than $10,000 to stay at the Hotel George on Capitol Hill (he lives in New Hampshire).
If John Weaver really thinks Big Money politics is corrupt, one would think he'd go out of his way to avoid becoming a Big Money Washington consultant. It is on this principle that, say, televangelists don't cavort with strippers, or when they're caught doing it, at least act really embarrassed.
Weaver, however, is not embarrassed. His excuse is that he's the only honest man in Washington. "It's the difference between people who are in Washington to get something done and people who are in Washington who want to be someone," Weaver told Roll Call.
http://tinyurl.com/lqq97
Some Republicans at this point seem hell bent on forcing a Rino on the party, McCain, Guliani, etc.. Have they forgotten what happens when they turn their backs on their base ("Read my lips!")?
Esquire, the magazine for very tender "men" who are able to get in touch with their inner woman.
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