John McCain: Maverick Reformer and all-around great guy

Just in case you missed it, Rolling Stone has one very interesting article on Republican Presidential nominee John McCain.

McCain, as they point out, is a real maverick who stands firm against earmarks/pork barrel spending:

As the Navy's top lobbyist, McCain was supposed to carry out the bidding of the secretary of the Navy. But in 1978 he went off the reservation. Vietnam was over, and the Carter administration, cutting costs, had decided against spending $2 billion to replace the aging carrier Midway. The secretary agreed with the administration's decision. Readiness would not be affected. The only reason to replace the carrier — at a cost of nearly $7 billion in today's dollars — was pork-barrel politics.

Maverick McCain bucked his boss by plugging an unnecessary replacement to the Midway into a bill vetoed by Jimmy Carter. When that failed, McCain and his lobbyist friends shoved it back down Carter's throat the following year.

McCain proved his "reformer" mettle in Congress during the Reagan/Bush era where his voting records was decidedly against campaign reform (voted against it twice), for the Nicaraguan Contras, and very much against unnecessary, even frivlolous, "social entitlements" for the proletariat. According to RollingStone, McCain is proudest at screwing over non-wealthy sick old folks:

He cites as his "biggest" legislative victory of that era a 1989 bill that abolished catastrophic health insurance for seniors, a move he still cheers as the first-ever repeal of a federal entitlement program.

He was, as he is now, very much in support of tax cuts for rich folks like himself.

During this time, McCain caught the deregulation bug that lead to the country's currently McCain-strong economy and became a strong abolitionist:

McCain voted to confirm Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. In 1993, he was the keynote speaker at a fundraiser for a group that sponsored an anti-gay-rights ballot initiative in Oregon. His anti-government fervor was renewed in the Gingrich revolution of 1994, when he called for abolishing the departments of Education and Energy. The following year, he championed a sweeping measure that would have imposed a blanket moratorium on any increase of government oversight.

As a Senator, in the late 80's, he became the renegade Lobbyist's tool & economic wiz he is today as a charter member of the Keating Five. In order to remake his image, he decided to work with Democrat Russ Feingold to enact the type of campaign finance reform he had previously fought against. Of course being the maverick he is, in his current campaign for the president, McCain has shown he doesn't feel particularly beholden any sort of FEC regulation himself.

All I can say is that I have no doubt that John McCain will be just as good a President as he was a navy pilot.

Can't get enough of John "Have I mentioned I was a Hero POW lately" McCain? Take a ride on the straight double talk express.

Tags: McShame politics conservatism economy foreign policy domestic policy

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