The Maverick: A Republican Before He Was Against It (Update I, Update II)

Nice rundown in the NY Times today about Republican presidential nominee John McCain almost deflecting to the Democrats, twice. The first time in 2001 is well known. The second time in 2004 as a possible VP candidate with John Kerry is news to me. George Bush's treatment of McCain in the 2000 Republican primary is probably as low as any candidate has ever stooped. The scars were deep for McCain:

In the spring of 2001, Mr. McCain was by most accounts still angry about the smear campaign that had been run against him when he was campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination in the South Carolina primary the previous year. He had long blamed the Bush campaign for spreading rumors in the state that he had fathered a black child out of wedlock, which Bush aides denied. Mr. McCain was also upset that the new White House had shut the door on hiring so many of his aides.

In 2004, I guess I never really realized that McCain was still thinking of switching or how close it had come.

But less than three years later, Mr. McCain was once again in talks with the Democrats, this time over whether he would be Mr. Kerry’s running mate. In an interview with a blog last year, Mr. Kerry said that the initial idea had come from Mr. McCain’s side, as had happened in 2001.

{...}

Two former Kerry strategists said last week that Mr. Weaver went to Mr. Kerry’s house in Georgetown a short time after Mr. Kerry won the Democratic nomination in March and asked that Mr. Kerry consider Mr. McCain as his running mate. (Mr. Weaver said in his e-mail message that the idea had come from Mr. Kerry.)

McCain never denies putting thought into switching parties. His rendition is that it was always the Democrats who approached him. Of course the Dems are saying it was McCain reaching out to them; whatever the case may be there's no denying McCain became disillusioned with the very Party he is now greatly dependent upon sending him to the White House. Switching parties isn't something you daydream about. And you don't just sit down with the Democratic nominee for president as he did in 2004 if you aren't at least somewhat serious about making the jump.

McCain has yet to win the conservative vote during an actually challenged primary. That spells real trouble for a guy who contemplated switching to the liberal/islamofascist/enemy insurgent/anti-American Party twice.

*Update:

I'm gonna have to disagree with Yglesias on this.

I think it's pretty clear that McCain's been less-than-totally honest about this stuff, but beyond that, what's the point? I'm not really sure what the point is, myself. On the one hand, to some extent it highlights McCain's unseriousness about the bulk of domestic policy issues that he's drifted around so much on those topics and was willing to consider basically jettisoning his entire record. But at the end of the day, he didn't do it and (especially in 2001) domestic issues were presumably at the center of that. He really does have a conservative record and a conservative self-conception, and wanted to stick with that.

The POINT is less than four years ago the Republican nominee for president almost became a Democrat. Maybe Yglesias is trying to say that McCain's almost switcharoo isn't that serious and in substance I understand that. But it's the little things like this that Democrats have been terrible at formulating over the years. McCain, who is having demonstrable trouble with conservative voters, can't really afford any more dents to his conservative credentials. And to conservatives, especially right wingers and neoconservatives, there's nothing worse than being a Democrat except for maybe being a Republican who wishes he was a Democrat. Remember, being a Democrat is just a step above being a terrorist and here you have the Republican torch bearer voting against the precious tax cuts and almost switching parties. How much more of a terrorist sympathizing liberal commie could this guy be?

Sure this isn't something the DNC or Obama needs to stump with but this is just a story the MSM would love if the roles were reversed. Not to mention, Hillary would have her Camp distributing all kinds of Benedict Arnold emails, mailers, text messages, whisper campaigns and the likes. And the Clinton's do know a thing or two about winning presidential elections. Yglesias is too smart not to realize how much this hurts McCain in the conservative Republican base.

**Update II:

Entire Fox morning show dedicated to covering the imploding Democratic Party. FNC never ceases to amaze me with this stuff. Here we have the Republican nominee, who can't win the conservative vote (aka the party's supposed base) who less than four years ago considered switching parties and becoming a VP candidate with the most liberal Democrat to run for office in decades, and the big story at Fox News is not that the Republicans have a situation on their hands, it's that the Democrats have two people still vying for the nominee. What Fox isn't grasping, or fails to grasp, is the fact that the Dems are experiencing the highest primary turnout in modern history. And even though Dem voters prefer Obama or Hillary, they don't necessarily have any qualms about voting for either one. Just the opposite is happening to John McCain. In their make believe world, it's the Dems who are on the verge of collapse, however.