The Courage of John McCain

Don't let me be President? I'm taking my ball and going home.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) was close to leaving the Republican Party in 2001, weeks before then-Sen. Jim Jeffords (Vt.) famously announced his decision to become an Independent, according to former Democratic lawmakers who say they were involved in the discussions.

In interviews with The Hill this month, former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) and ex-Rep. Tom Downey (D-N.Y.) said there were nearly two months of talks with the maverick lawmaker following an approach by John Weaver, McCain’s chief political strategist.

Democrats had contacted Jeffords and then-Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.) in the early months of 2001 about switching parties, but in McCain’s case, they said, it was McCain’s top strategist who came to them [...]

Daschle noted that McCain at that time was frustrated with the Bush administration as a result of his loss to George W. Bush in the 2000 Republican primary.

Daschle said that throughout April and May of 2001, he and McCain "had meetings and conversations on the floor and in his office, I think in mine as well, about how we would do it, what the conditions would be. We talked about committees and his seniority ... [A lot of issues] were on the table."

Yes, this is the end of John McCain having any hope of winning a Republican nomination; the conservative movement is tribal, and anyone caught wanting to switch sides will be thrown off the island.

But I like that the party switch wasn't motivated by any gradual change in principles or beliefs, but motivated by whining like a little brat because he didn't get to be President.

Frankly the tactics of the Bush team in South Carolina would make it hard for the victim of those tactics to continue to support them. But that would suggest going independent, not signing up with a party whose beliefs you don't share. And then wrapping your big arms around Bush in 2004, when you were willing to step on all of your beliefs and everything you hold dear a few years earlier, well that's just a profile in cowardice.

UPDATE: There is the possibility that this was McCain's chief of staff John Weaver just freelancing. But clearly the Senator was involved at least at some level.