But then, you would too if you had to spend as many hours as I do paying far too much attention to such personalities as Lamar Alexander, Trent Lott, Orrin Hatch, Bob Smith, Elizabeth Dole, Tom DeLay, Dick Armey and Denny Hastert. McCain, as the worn-out Washington cliche goes, is the Republican whom liberals can tolerate and the political reporters can enjoy. Progressives appreciate the way this former Vietnam POW who was first elected to the Senate by Arizona voters in 1986 irritates the hell out of the Republican leadership.
Political journalists fall for what comes across as a style of candor and directness.
He appears to be telling you what he really thinks. Recently, I watched McCain, who s seeking the Republican presidential nomination, work a reporters lunch that two weeks earlier had hosted Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat. An hour with McCain is actually entertaining. As soon as he sat down before these journalists most of whom represent media based in California McCain declared his intense dislike of California. The state, he said jocularly, steals Arizona s water, and to make matters worse each summer he is forced to trek to San Diego to visit his constituents, all those Arizonans who flee to Southern California to escape the oppressive heat of the Grand Canyon State.