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McCain goes from heckler to deal maker
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 AP World reacts to Obama’s victory From the U.S. president-elect’s ancestral homes in Kenya and Ireland to his namesake town in Japan, election fever grips the globe. |
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Crossover appeal
John Zogby, a pollster Mr. McCain often consults, told him that the race had inverted his political profile: Democrats and independents liked him more than Republicans did. But he was also one of the most popular politicians in the country, and his biography as a war hero had kept a solid floor under his conservative support.
“It suggested that he would be able to finesse conservatives,” Mr. Zogby recalled in an interview. He told Mr. McCain that continuing to buck his party would be “very astute.” (The 2008 primary was a close call, but Mr. Zogby argues that he was vindicated: Mr. McCain won.)
Mr. McCain needed little encouragement. He still smoldered over what he considered the dirty 2000 primary, especially the slander campaign he believed had been waged against him. He had been liberated from party loyalty, Mr. Graham said.
“There was almost a sense of freedom,” Mr. Graham said. “It reinforced his impulse: I am going to be me.”
Mr. McCain’s friends say the senator has always been drawn toward conflict. On Senate breaks, one of his favorite pastimes is official travel to war zones. Within days of returning from a trip to Iraq and Afghanistan, Mr. McCain rushed up to tell Ms. Collins, “Did you see there is still trouble in Sudan? We need to go there next!” she recalled.
Mr. Graham said, imitating Mr. McCain’s husky, hurried voice, “If there is a ‘500 people killed in government protests’ article in the paper, John will always call me up: ‘We need to go there! Sounds like it’s interesting!’ ”
Now a similar impulse drew Mr. McCain into Senate battles as well, Mr. Graham said. “The man will run across the street to get in a good fight,” he said.
Mr. McCain wasted no time. For most of his career, he had kept his distance from Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, wary of his record of pulling Republicans into grand compromises. “I have watched other people fall under that guy’s sway, but I am not going to,” Mr. McCain used to tell his aides, recalled Mark Salter, his chief of staff.
After the 2000 election, however, Mr. McCain pulled up a chair at Mr. Kennedy’s desk near the back of the Senate floor. “Ted,” Mr. McCain said, according to a Kennedy aide present, “patients’ bill of rights, I want to work with you.”
Mr. McCain had opposed the proposals, which would make it easier for patients to sue insurers, and the White House promised a veto. But soon he was huddling with Mr. Kennedy and the bill’s other sponsor, Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, each morning, plotting strategy.
“He would say, ‘O.K., this guy in my caucus is a lawyer and he is going to say this. Who do we got that is a lawyer to talk to him?” Mr. Salter said. “ ‘Who do we got? Who do we got?’ It is like laying out a battle plan.” When the bill passed with nine Republican votes, Democrats credited Mr. McCain. (The measure died in conference with the House, though.)
Stepping over party lines
Soon he was cooperating with the Democrats on so many issues that he made a habit of stopping by Mr. Daschle’s office “to tell me what was going on in his caucus, give me advice, give me reports on a lot of the things he was working on, how the negotiations were going,” Mr. Daschle said. “Of all the Republicans with whom I worked, he was the most cooperative.”
When Mr. Daschle and Mr. Kennedy tried to persuade Mr. McCain to switch parties, Mr. McCain listened and his advisers spread the word around. Speculation about whether he would defect increased his leverage with Republican leaders.
Mr. McCain collected on debts earned during the election, too. He refused to stump for Republicans unless they agreed to support his “reform agenda,” and he boasted that his unwillingness to campaign for Senator Slade Gorton of Washington contributed to his narrow loss in 2000.
After their rapprochement, Mr. Lott often began supporting Mr. McCain, too: on a campaign finance rule, during the immigration debate and in criticizing Donald H. Rumsfeld, then the defense secretary. “When people looked up and saw those two working together, a lot of them were shocked,” Mr. DeWine said.
Other times, however, Mr. McCain used his bipartisan appeal to put pressure on his Democratic friends on behalf of the White House. “He was a tremendous resource,” said Nicholas E. Calio, a former White House legislative liaison to the Senate, adding that Mr. McCain helped round up Democratic votes for trade agreements, domestic security measures and the Iraq war.
Mr. McCain lobbied his Democratic friends to vote to authorize the invasion, even berating them, several Democrats said. “He was very forceful,” said former Senator Bob Graham, Democrat of Florida. “He told me the issue was over: ‘We ought to get on with the vote, stop this meaningless pontification.’ ”
When Mr. McCain campaigned for President Bush’s re-election in 2004, Democrats accused him of hypocrisy. “After what happened to him eight years ago and some of the statements he made, I couldn’t quite understand the things he was doing, the appearances he was making with the president,” Mr. Durbin said.
But Mr. McCain was still a frequent impediment to the White House. In 2005 and 2006, for example, he spearheaded battles to prod the administration to sign laws banning the use of torture on military detainees. His talks with Vice President Dick Cheney on the subject degenerated into shouting matches, aides on both sides say. He felt that negotiating about torture with Mr. Cheney “was like negotiating bank reform with Bonnie and Clyde,” Mr. Weaver, the former McCain adviser, said.
Other times, Mr. McCain worked behind the scenes. In 2005, Mr. Frist, then the Republican leader, staked his reputation on a standoff with Senate Democrats over several of the president’s judicial nominees that escalated into threats about rewriting Senate rules or shutting down all debate.
Both Mr. McCain and Mr. Lott publicly supported Mr. Frist. But both also had an interest in his failure, Mr. McCain because Mr. Frist was a potential presidential rival and Mr. Lott because he had taken his leadership post.
Mr. McCain, who had never taken much interest in judicial confirmations or Senate traditions, set out to lead a bipartisan group that could find middle ground. Participating risked the wrath of partisans and interest groups on either side, and the senators involved pledged confidentiality.
But several now say that the Democrats involved negotiated on behalf of their leaders, and that the Republicans, including Mr. McCain, worked against Mr. Frist.
Mr. Lott publicly disavowed the effort. But he helped recruit some Republican allies to complete the group, and helped fashion the ultimate deal, according to several involved.
The group, dubbed the Gang of 14, emerged from Mr. McCain’s office with a deal to confirm some of the judges and stop Mr. Frist from rewriting the rules. Editorials across the country hailed Mr. McCain as a champion of bipartisanship and moderation. And political analysts began to write off Mr. Frist.
Mr. Lott, who declined to comment about his role in the Frist episode and the details of the 2000 race, commended Mr. McCain. “I don’t want to call it Machiavellian, but it was quite a snooker play,” he said.
Mr. Weaver was more grandiose. “Lyndon Johnson would be proud of that move,” he said.
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