We are living through another John McCain moment. The irascible, quotable war hero, just reelected to another six-year term to the Senate, has become once again a chief critic of President Trump.
At the Munich Security Conference, McCain — in the words of my colleague Aaron Blake — “systematically dismantled” the president's worldview. The cover of this week's New York magazine is “McCain vs. Trump,” a fresh profile by Gabriel Sherman in which the Arizona Republican says there must be investigations into Russian interference in our election, and looks gamely ahead to a growing resistance.
“One thing politicians look at are ratings, and his ratings are going to continue to decline,” McCain tells Sherman. “That means members of Congress will be more likely to resist things they do not agree with rather than roll over.”
McCain, who was personally insulted by Trump during the campaign and who pulled his support of him after the “Access Hollywood” tape was released, can command a lot of attention when he criticizes the president. For Democrats, who just lost an election that most people expected them to win, this appears to a boon. Historically, voters get concerned about where an administration is going if there is bipartisan opposition to its agenda. And historically, new presidents are not as unpopular as Trump, who, if not for the curiously buoyant Rasmussen poll, would be looking at average approval ratings below 40 percent.
But it's not necessarily good for Democrats when McCain leads a charge against Trump. In fact, it might represent a short-term problem.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/02/18/why-john-mccains-resistance-is-bad-for-democrats/?tid=pm_politics_pop&utm_term=.faf0b458a3a0#comments
