John Mccain: From foe to ally for Obama in battle with Republicans
WASHINGTON — When Republican JohnMcCain accidentally stumbled into U.S. President Barack Obama’s meeting with Democratic legislators earlier this week on Capitol Hill, he was met with cheers, loud applause and an invitation to grab a seat by the commander-in-chief himself. No wonder. McCain, Obama’s rival for the White House in 2008, has become one of the president’s staunchest Republican allies in recent weeks as the Arizona senator butts heads with the obstructionist Tea Party wing of his party.
Has Maverick McCain returned?
As he’s negotiated deals on a host of issues with Democrats and the Obama administration, the 76-year-old McCain has chastised fellow Republican lawmakers like Ted Cruz and Rand Paul — famously branding them “wacko birds” at one point.
The Arizona senator even mocked Paul’s rumoured presidential aspirations this week, saying it would be a “tough choice” for voters to decide between the Tea Party darling and Hillary Clinton in 2016.
In a piece titled “Can Anyone Stop John McCain?” the rightwing National Review branded McCain “Obama’s secret weapon.” The story said conservative Republicans fear he’s posing a “lethal threat” to the party’s hopes to win a showdown against the president over the federal budget in Congress this fall.
Cruz has suggested McCain and his moderate ilk in the Republican party are “scared” of being beaten up politically if they back the Tea Party’s hardline stances on everything from immigration reform to so-called Obamacare.
Conservative Republicans are deadset against a path to citizenship for the country’s 11 million illegal immigrants without tougher border security measures, and they’re threatening to shut down the government in September if Congress doesn’t vote to defund health-care reform law that was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court a year ago.
McCain, a former Vietnam prisoner of war, scoffed at Cruz’s assertion in an interview with ABC News, broadcast Friday.
“Debate on the issue as hard as you can, but don’t say that your opponents, people who disagree with you, are scared. It’s been a long time since I’ve been scared.”
And McCain reiterated his frequent admonishment since the November 2012 election: Republicans will not win back the White House if Congress fails to pass significant immigration reform.
McCain has been sitting down with several Senate Republicans in recent weeks, and the White House, in an attempt to come up with a deal that would prevent, once again, another government shutdown or a loan default. The government runs out of money on Oct. 1, and Congress must vote to approve more funding before then to avoid a shutdown.
Last month, McCain negotiated another deal that allowed Obama to fill seven top administration officials despite Republican vows to stop him.
And how does McCain view his new role as a top bipartisan dealmaker?
“I still relish the role of a grumpy old man,” he joked, but insisted he’s always been guided by his principles and is neither a maverick nor a crank.
“I have always been result-oriented, and now I have more opportunities than maybe we had in the first two years of the Obama administration.”