2008 Woodie Awards
Seasoned war veteran on Republican ticket
Rodrigo Diaz
Issue date: 4/2/07 Section: News
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Then try to picture signing up for more military service and being re-enlisted shortly after release. These are not the merits of a fictional hero whose story was created to inspire patriotism; they are the events of Sen. John McCain's experience as a soldier during the Vietnam War.
McCain, who became a Navy liaison to the Senate and more recently an Arizona Senator, has become known for his tendency to defy his political affiliations with the Republican Party.
One of his most notorious deviations from party lines was in 2005 when a Democratic filibuster on President George W. Bush's Supreme Court Justice nominations threatened to stall legislation for weeks and embroil the Congress in a costly debate.
However, a group of Senators from both parties nicknamed the "Gang of 14," spearheaded by McCain and Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson, were able to transgress party obligations. They stopped the cloture that would have started the process of what was dubbed the nuclear option.
The vote was stalled by a compromise devised by McCain and Nelson that would allow some nominees to go through while maintaining the judicial filibuster of the Democrats.
Political moves such as these have at times angered the Republican base that he has long been courting, but have also gained the support of voters who believe politicians should make decisions based on what they believe is right.
These same sorts of decisions have also been portrayed in a different light by his opponents. More specifically he has been labeled a "flip-flopper" and a maverick by some of his colleagues, and worse by one of the many anti-McCain Web sites. One such Web site, www.therealmccain.com, features blogs about McCain's MySpace page being hacked and about an incident in which he publicly used the phrase "tar baby" in response to a question about fathers' access to their children following divorce.
He later apologized for the comment. His use of a Vietnamese racial slur during the 2004 presidential primaries was also viewed as inappropriate, and probably cost him votes, which could have helped win him the election.
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