Observers Say McCain Sealed His Fate in the GOP with 'Compromise' Role
by Bill Fancher and Jody Brown
June 2, 2005
(AgapePress) - A leader of the modern conservative movement says the bipartisan deal to end the filibusters of President Bush's judicial nominees was all about the presidential election of 2008.
Arizona Senator John McCain was one of the seven Republicans involved in brokering the recent controversial "compromise" that suspended a Democratic-led filibuster and allowed judicial nominee Priscilla Owen to finally get an up-or-down vote before the full Senate. The deal called for allowing two other nominees to go before the Senate for a confirmation vote, but permitted Democrats to continue their filibustering tactics on future nominees.
Paul Weyrich, the founder and director of the Free Congress Foundation, has been on the Washington scene for decades. Weyrich is convinced "pure politics" were behind McCain's efforts to broker the judicial compromise that ended the filibusters before Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist could lead a change of Senate rules ending the unprecedented blocking tactics.
"I think John McCain could not stand to see Bill Frist [become] a hero to the conservative movement, which he would have been had he been able to deliver," says Weyrich. He feels the Arizona senator's hopes of someday moving into the Oval Office took over.
"To try to derail Frist's possible campaign for the presidency, McCain was willing to undercut his president, undercut his majority leader, undercut Republicans in the Senate, and undercut the country," Weyrich says matter-of-factly. "It is the kind of raw, nasty politics that most of us abhor [and] the kind of issue that is not going to be forgotten. In my opinion, this absolutely seals his fate in Republican primaries and conventions."
Weyrich is not alone in that assessment. Grover G. Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform, told FreeRepublic.com that by his actions, McCain has essentially written himself off as a potential nominee.
"When McCain brokered the deal to betray his Republican colleagues by negotiating a private surrender to the Democrats, he publicly declared he has no interest in the presidency," Norquist said. "No Republican could expect to win the GOP nod after betraying his party's rank and file on one of their most central concerns."
McCain's bid to gain the GOP nomination in 2000 failed, but the high-profile lawmaker has been suspected of having presidential aspirations for 2008. Weyrich contends that if Frist had been successful in leading a change to the Senate rules, it would have propelled him past McCain in the race for the 2008 nomination.
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