{"id":10960,"date":"2008-02-04T10:17:40","date_gmt":"2008-02-04T16:17:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/?p=10960"},"modified":"2008-02-04T10:17:40","modified_gmt":"2008-02-04T16:17:40","slug":"gop-2008-making-peace-with-the-unhappy-warrior-karl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/?p=10960","title":{"rendered":"GOP 2008: Making peace with the unhappy warrior? [Karl]"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bill Kristol<\/a> writes in the New York Times:<\/p>\n

The prospect of John McCain as the likely Republican presidential nominee has produced a squall of anger on the right. Normally reserved columnists and usually ebullient talk-radio hosts vie to express their disgust with McCain, and their disdain for the Republicans who are about to nominate him. The conservative movement as a whole appears disgruntled and dyspeptic.<\/p>\n

Now I have nothing against a certain amount of disgruntlement and dyspepsia. The ways of the world, and the decisions of our fellow Americans, occasionally warrant such a reaction.<\/p>\n

But American politics tends to be unkind to movements that dwell in anger and relish their unhappiness. In the era from Franklin D. Roosevelt to John F. Kennedy, liberals tended to be happy warriors \u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and that helped their cause. The original civil rights movement succeeded in part because it worked hard to transcend a justifiable bitterness. Liberalism faltered when it became endlessly aggrieved and visibly churlish.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Kristol might have added that Ronald Reagan also had great success as\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0a happy warrior known for his sunny optimism.<\/p>\n

It is, however, an odd argument to make in arguing for conservatives to reconcile with\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0the legendary “Senator Hothead.”<\/a>\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 McCain has apparently managed to moderate his rage somewhat since the nickname was bestowed on him by a friendly<\/em> media in 2000, but apparently not as much<\/a> as he has moderated his political stands:<\/p>\n

Last spring, at a closed-door meeting of senators and staff, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas tried to amend the immigration bill to make ineligible convicted felons, known terrorists and gang members. Agitated that any attempt to amend the bill would jeopardize its slim chance of passage (ultimately, the bill failed), McCain snapped, “This is chickens\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u20ac\u0153.” Cornyn shot back that McCain shouldn’t come parachuting in off the presidential-campaign trail at the last minute and start making demands. “F\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u20ac\u0153 you,” said McCain, in front of about 30 witnesses. (A Cornyn aide says that the Texas senator was unbothered by the incident. “I think he just thought, ‘Here’s John being a jerk’,” says the aide, who declined to be identified speaking for Cornyn.)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

McCain’s\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0Senate colleagues<\/a>, faced with McCain’s likely presidential nomination, are trying to reconcile themselves, but Sen. Thad Cochran, described as one of the more “genteel” members of the body, is supporting Mitt Romney, telling the Boston Globe<\/a>:<\/p>\n

“The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine,” Cochran said about McCain by phone. “He is erratic. He is hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

McCain is apparently vindictive<\/a> enough that some will only speak on condition of anonymity:<\/p>\n

“John has an enemies list longer than Nixon’s,” says a former Pentagon official who did not want to get on it. “And, unlike Nixon, McCain really does try to get you.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As noted earlier today, Cindy McCain<\/a> also has an enemies list.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 It’s two lists for the price of one.<\/p>\n

Perhaps McCain’s temper is not a deal-breaker.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 But it does not convey the image of a sunnily optimistic “happy warrior.”\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 And it suggests that the reconciliation going on in the Senate may be less the product of McCain mellowing than the product of fear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bill Kristol writes in the New York Times: The prospect of John McCain as the likely Republican presidential nominee has produced a squall of anger on the right. Normally reserved columnists and usually ebullient talk-radio hosts vie to express their disgust with McCain, and their disdain for the Republicans who are about to nominate him. The conservative movement as a whole appears disgruntled and dyspeptic. Now I have nothing against<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":636,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/636"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10960\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}