Posted on 07/21/2002 7:45:34 AM PDT by Bowana
Bernadette Malone: McCain needs to rethink his priorities
NEW HAMPSHIRE doesn't need a McCain Republican in Congress.
Wayne Barrows of Exeter would like voters to think of him as a John McCain Republican. He is visiting Washington, D.C., on Wednesday so the Arizona senator can raise money for his run for the U.S. House.
But Granite Staters in the congressional district that has been represented by U.S. Senate candidate John Sununu would be better off not replacing him in Washington with a McCain Republican. The John McCain who dazzled voters two years ago with his patriotism and passion for clean government is a completely different creature these days.
Perhaps because he never got over losing the GOP nomination to George W. Bush after winning New Hampshire's primary by 18 points, McCain has grown petty and vindictive toward the President. McCain's latest outburst: He announced he would use Senate procedures to block every single man or woman nominated by Bush for a federal appointment.
Though the most important issue facing America right now is the threat of terrorism, McCain refuses to permit his colleagues to vote on even the most crucial nominees selected by Bush.
There are 252 White House nominees awaiting Senate confirmation, and many could be instrumental in fighting the War on Terror: Members of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board; an assistant defense secretary; the No. 2 official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency; federal marshals, judges and attorneys; and ambassadors to Pakistan and countries in the Middle East and Africa.
What possible reason could McCain have for standing in the way of these nominees while the United States is at war? Has he found a way to protect more American lives, but can't get the President's cooperation without this extreme measure?
Hardly. McCain is horse trading for a federal appointment far less important to the immediate well being of Americans than the ones he is blocking. He wants Bush to award attorney Ellen Weintraub an appointment to the Federal Election Commission while Congress adjourns for the August recess. A recess appointment would allow her to circumvent the difficult Senate vote she would face if Congress were in session.
Why would a Senate vote be difficult for Weintraub? Primarily because she works for the Washington law firm of Perkins Coie.
Perkins Coie is a hardline Democratic operation. It is dedicated to promoting the Left and defending its dirty laundry: New Jersey Sen. Robert Torricelli, former New Hampshire congressman Dick Swett, House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, etc.
And though he is a Republican, Perkins Coie also helped defend New Hampshire Supreme Court Chief Justice David Brock when he was impeached in 2000 for overlooking conflicts of interest among his associate justices.
If Democrat Weintraub were to become a federal election commissioner, she could create more conflicts of interest in Washington than David Brock and his "old boy network" ever did in Concord.
At Perkins Coie, Weintraub has represented the political action committees of congressional Democratic leadership — organizations set up to win House and Senate majorities. Therefore, if she didn't recuse herself from every decision involving a Democrat, shewould at the very least create the appearance of impropriety. (Let's hope the Federal Election Commission has a sounder recusal policy than Brock's Supreme Court did.)
Democrats understandably cried foul when Bush granted an FEC recess appointment to Michael Toner, a former Republican National Committee attorney. But considering McCain is a Republican, it's hard to understand why he's insisting on a partisan Democrat such as Weintraub for the Federal Election Commission. And why he is holding 252 federal nominees hostage over one woman.
The best guess Washington operatives offer is that McCain cares only about the McCain-Feingold campaign legislation that won him so much praise from liberal politicians and media. Weintraub is married to William Dauster, a senior aide to Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin. McCain and Feingold both have a huge political stake in the FEC's application of the campaign finance law they created, which is currently under judicial scrutiny. (This is yet another area in which Weintraub could have a conflict of interest as a federal election commissioner.)
Weintraub's potential conflicts of interest and hostility toward Republicans ought to make New Hampshire Republicans wonder why McCain likes torturing his own party's President and carrying water for Democrats.
All Granite Staters — Republican or not — ought to wonder why McCain feels his pet project is more important than the operation of the entire federal government.
And why Exeter's Wayne Barrows wants to be associated with that kind of politician.
Bernadette Malone is the former editorial page editor.
I think I'll add him to my list.
How about this change: McCain needs to think, period.?
OK McLameiacs, flame away.
I've got my asbestos underwear, do you?
McCain needs to resign and go home and meditate on his sins.
I nearly shot my TV again. C-Span is a disgrace this morning. The Wacko Dems had the whole program and tied up all the lines.
Sickening!!!!!!!(I needed to get this off my chest.....................apologies..................
Wirestripper
But if the new Senate is 50/50, then McCain could give the Rats control by defecting. In that case, the Repub leadership would strip him of all seniority. But, in that case, McCain would already have his 40 pieces of silver from Tom Daschle in the form of cushy committee appointments.
Bottom line, McCain will be a continual thorn until he is out of the Senate in 2006. And because the Senate is so closely divided, McCain always has the threat of defection, which would have much greater consequenses than whatever temper tantrum McCain is throwing on any particular day. So there is probably nothing we can do about him but hold our noses and wait for him to retire or be retired by his constituents. With the current composition of the Senate, the Repub leadership can and should do nothing to strip McCain of power.
UNLESS--and this is the true Bottom Line--we elect 52 Republican senators this November. If we do that, the two republicans who are really Rats, McCain and Chaffee, will have no ability to throw the Senate to the Rats, either singly or together. Because they will gain nothing by showing their true colors as RATS, they will not. Also, with 52 senators, the leadership can strip McCain of all seniority and not risk losing control of the Sentate.
This is a really good reason to get involved in the November election!!! PhiKapMom and I have a project going called TakeBackCongress.org that you will soon be hearing a lot about. Come and see us and find out how you can make a difference this November.
BTW, zip suggests that his disparaging comment about McCain will make him the subject of McCainiac blowtorches. I am curious--are there ANY remaining FREEPERS who think McCain is anything other than a complete idiot? I'd like to hear from the guy who must surely be the last living conservative McCain supporter.
Or send the Justice Department on him for his banking scandals and bribes.
McCain is up for re-election in two years, not four-- thank God.
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