Posted on 04/09/2008 9:40:58 AM PDT by The_Republican
Mo reached out to me in 50 different ways," McCain recalled. "Right from the start, he'd say: 'I'm going to hold a press conference out in Phoenix. Why don't you join me?' All these journalists would show up to hear what Mo had to say. In the middle of it all, Mo would point to me and say, 'I'd like to hear John's views.' Well, hell, I didn't have any views. But I got up and learned and was introduced to the state."
Four years later, when McCain ran for and won Barry Goldwater's Senate seat, he said he felt his greatest debt of gratitude not to Goldwater—who had shunned him—but to Udall.
For the past few years, Udall has lain ill with Parkinson's disease in a veterans hospital in Northeast Washington. Every few weeks, McCain drives over to pay his respects. These days the trip is a ceremony, like going to church, only less pleasant. Udall is seldom conscious, and even then he shows no sign of recognition. McCain brings with him a stack of newspaper clips on Udall's favorite subjects: local politics in Arizona.
A nurse entered and seemed surprised to find anyone there, and it wasn't long before I found out why: Almost no one visits anymore.
In his time, which was not very long ago, Mo Udall was one of the most-sought-after men in the Democratic Party. Yet as he dies in a veterans hospital a few miles from the Capitol, he is visited regularly only by a single old political friend, John McCain.
"He's not going to wake up this time," McCain said.
It was one man saying to another, party political differences cut only so deep. Having made that step, they found much to agree upon and many useful ways to work together.
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
What is the point that you are trying to make? He was a Democrat but he was OUR Democrat. When Sam Steiger, Arizona's colorful and iconic conservative congressman was in Congress his best friend there was a Representative from New York. A man by the name of Charles Rangel.
I don’t see how being friends with one of AZ’s most liberal and generally annoying politicians makes McCain worth anything. OK he kept visiting his friend up until the day he died, that’s sweat, but remember Mo’s record in Congress is one of overpower the government and taking rights from the people, and McCain continued one of Mo’s worst causes by adopting campaign finance reform (First Amendment destruction) as his own. I wouldn’t vote for Mo if he was alive and running and I’m not voting for McCain either.
Choice two: Put John in. Turn the RNC into an even more liberal (read that democrat) body. Turn Congress into the direction of John's beliefs. Watch new candidates run as a McCain ‘conservative’. Watch the House and the Senate Republicans back almost everything McCain proposes. And then watch the Democrats support it as well.
I'm trying to warn folks who think a McCain loss is the worst possible eventuality. It is not. Under a Democrat administration Conservatism would grow and thrive as we all tried to block evil. Under McCain, that won't happen.
Elect McCain and conservatism will cease to be a movement. It will on exist as a theory after that.
please note that i did say there was very little that was “good” about him. not that there was nothing “good” about him. the fact that he is neither Obama or Clinton is an up check... but I am sick of voting for the “candidate” who will do the least damage.... so very very tired......
What you said, bump.
If you consider that McVain has been the single most effective anti-conservative in my lifetime, I'd consider supporting McCain to be a sacrifice of conservatism on the altar of the GOP elites.
I don't think I'll be doing that this year. There is still a chance he could pick a fantastic VP, maybe make a legit appeal to conservatives...but I doubt that.
At this Kafka-esque moment, I'm even thinking that Hillary is the one of the three able to do the least damage to the country as president. The argument I'd make--she's a highly ineffective executive and wants the office but won't know what to do with the power. She's the "crook we know" and anything pernicious we'd have a good chance at stopping with an energized opposition.
McCain as president would just continue to find ways to sell out conservatives.
Also, both Hillary and Obama seem rather cowardly with confronted with the difficulty of setting timelines for an Iraq pullout.
“... but I am sick of voting for the “candidate” who will do the least damage.... so very very tired......”
So don’t. There will be conservative 3rd party candidates on the ballot.
I’m done voting for major party candidates based on the idea that one might be slightly less horrible than their opposition. We need a viable conservative third party (or two), and the only way third parties can move ahead is if some voters decide quit handicapping the horse race and vote for the candidate that best represents their views.
In the long run, choosing the lesser evil is still choosing evil.
I took my picture with him in 96’ but am too embarrassed to show it on this forum, or pretty much anywhere. Maybe I can impress my liberal coworkers with it?
Where's Mo's son Mark, the Colarado Congressman?
Bull Crap
Thanks for the comments. I agree with your thoughts on this.
Last week I began to sense that neither Hillary or Obama would pull our troops out of Iraq. I just saw a clip of Obama stating that he had no intention of pulling them out right away, but did want some kind of an end game scenario.
Folks are blinded to the kind of damage McCain could do to our cause, by the idea that Hillary or Barak could ever do that type of damage. They simply couldn’t.
If McCain had any party discipline, common sense and respect for the base, then he would get such sympathy from people like me.
Don't worry, it will only be little guys like me criticizing McCain when the McCain-Feingold kicks in 60 days prior to the general election. You can just ignore our gripes at that time because McCain made sure of that.
Why don’t you explain what you disagree with and why.
I did. I disagreed with your comments in that post. What you are advocating now was tried in 2006 and see where that got us.
I agree, except that at this point, I'm still convinced that I will not vote for him. I could change my mind, but I'm not sure what the hell could happen between now and then to change my mind.
If he were a RINO who was wrong on just a few issues, then I'm with ya. However, it is easier to point out similarities of Conservatives and McCain than is differences.
“McCain is a good man!”
McCain is NOT a good man, he neither a man nor is he good. I would seriously doubt that he is good American or even good. After briefly meeting Mr. McCain I came away that he was an egotistical and arrogant. I will not be voting for the Republican this year for the first time in 25 years.
From Jimmy Carter came Ronald Reagan if we get a leftist like Obama then so be it - either way we are going down the same path with McCain, maybe just a little slower.
Your criticism of McCain is getting increasingly harsh.
Staffers for McCain and Feingold are most likely working extra to help draft McCain-Feingold II which will "remedy" critics like you.
This nation can survive a democrat in the White House. It survived eight years of Bill Clinton.
What this nation cannot survive is a fatal blow to conservatism.
If McCain is elected which way does the RNC go, right or left? I think it goes left. It has to support it’s president. It’s not going to criticism him. It wasts to hold power, and so it must support McCain, just about whatever he does, even if hoping to do better in 2012 or 2016, which we both know it won’t. It wants power. That’s all it wants.
Does Congress go right or left? The Republicans in Congress who want access to the President will move toward the left to accomodate him. Seeing the success of a leftist running for the presidence, the perception is that’s what America wants now. I’ve even seen that expressed on this forum. So what position does a new candidate run from, right or left? Obviously the left...
What happens in the governor’s positions? Anyone wanting a chance for advancement to the national level must consider that a leftist won the presidency. They’re not going to run from a conservative position.
What happens to the state houses? What happens at the local level.
Who advocates for conservatism in this environment?
For all intents and purposes, conservatism ceases to be a functional political force under a McCain presidency.
If you don’t believe that, you wait until next year and folks here are hawking every idea John McCain pumps out, and those who object are vilified.
Sorry you can’t see this.
I appreciate your response.
It’s primary season and he’s already won the nomination. People are still contributing to Hillary and Obama because they are competing for their nomination.
I don’t expect McCain will ever get the money Obama and Hillary are getting, but given that McCain has won the nomination, and is going to use public money for the general election, it’s not surprising that people aren’t giving him a lot of money now.
Maybe in July when the democrats have a candidate who is attacking McCain, people will want to fight back with more money.
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