Did McCain want to switch parties in 2001?
According to this report in The Hill, several Democrats claim that Sen. John McCain discussed with them the idea of switching parties in 2001, shortly before Sen. Jeffords abandoned the Republicans. The Jeffords switch gave the Dems a majority.
Former Democratic Senate leader Tom Daschle makes this claim, as does former Rep. Tom Downey, who at the time was a lobbyist. Supposedly, two months of negotiations ensued after a top McCain aide, John Weaver, made an approach to his friend Downey on the Senator's behalf. Ted Kennedy, Harry Reid, and John Edwards all participated in the alleged courtship. Senator McCain denies the report, insisting "I never considered leaving the Republican Party, period.”
In any case, I'm glad that McCain remained a Republican. He was a huge asset to the party in 2004, and remains one today.
JOHN adds: This is an old rumor from 2001 that apparently is now being recirculated by the Democrats. Is there any truth to it? McCain flatly denied it at the time; in June 2001 he said, "I have no intention of leaving the Republican Party, nor have I ever displayed any intention." Today, one of his spokesmen told us, "John McCain never considered leaving the Republican party. Any statement to the contrary is inaccurate and merely election year politics."
My guess is that after the 2000 election, McCain was understandably at odds with President Bush; like most Senators, he has friends on the other side of the aisle and probably did grumble to them about the Bush administration. In early 2001, the Democrats were desperate to convince a Republican to change parties, and McCain, as the loser to Bush in the 2000 primaries, was a natural choice.
With hindsight, the thought of McCain in the Democratic Party is ludicrous. Imagine a pro-life Joe Lieberman, and you're still only part way there. Given the way the Democrats have abandoned the war effort both in Iraq and globally, whatever grievances McCain has had against the Bush administration over the years are relatiely insignificant.
Will these reports hurt McCain with the Republican party's base? Probably not much. The base already doesn't consider him a very loyal Republican; that's the price you pay if you want the media to praise you as a "maverick." But the marginal impact of this story is no doubt small.
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