McCain Once Almost Left the GOP. What About Now?

[mystery-ak]

 McCain Once Almost Left the GOP. What About Now?

Years ago, he seriously considered defecting. Would he do it again?

By PHILIP SHENON

July 30, 2017

In the long, tumultuous political career of Senator John McCain, it would have been remembered as a turning point. It was only rumored at the time. But the Arizona senator nearly bolted from the Republican Party in 2001.

In secret negotiations with then-Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle, McCain plotted how he would depart the GOP. He was furious over the way the party establishment had treated him in the 2000 race for the Republican presidential nomination against the eventually victorious George W. Bush. And within weeks of Bush’s swearing-in as president in 2001, McCain told Daschle that he was looking for a way out of the GOP, probably by declaring himself an independent—a move that would have thrown control of the otherwise 50-50 Senate to the Democrats. The negotiations got far enough, Daschle later told me, that the two men discussed the logistics of the news conference at which McCain would make the announcement. “We came very close,” Daschle said.

more
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/07/30/mccain-once-almost-left-the-gop-what-about-now-215437

[mystery-ak]

I guess he thought he could do more damage to the Repub Party by staying where he is..

[austingirl]

I guess he thought he could do more damage to the Repub Party by staying where he is..

Bingo!

[Snarknado]

I guess he thought he could do more damage to the Repub Party by staying where he is..

Also no spotlight or fawning media in that scenario, and possible re-election difficulties...

[edpc]

McCain and Hillary should commiserate. Both are extremely bitter and nothing is ever their fault.

[corbe]

[240B]

Also no spotlight or fawning media in that scenario, and possible re-election difficulties...

That's exactly it. If he formally became a Democrat, then he would just be another Democrat. If he stays in the Republican Party, then he is a traitor and a turncoat. He gets special points for that with the media.


Also, he didn't want to disrupt his reelection. The entire voting system of AZ has been rigged to make sure he gets reelected every time, even if he happens to be dead at the time of the vote. With the way the system is set up, death should not make a difference in his reelection. Switching party would have meant taking a risk. And there was no need for it. He votes like a Democrat anyway, he 'caucuses' with the Democrats, so as long as he gets elected, party label makes no difference in terms of what he will do in office, as we have clearly seen.