Living Politics: Mccain Remains Bush's Top Nemesis

As if re-explaining his silver-spoon-fed business career wasn't hard enough, George W. Bush has another burden to carry through this nervous breakdown of the American economy: John McCain. Two years after Bush dispatched him to the dust of Arizona in the Republican primaries, McCain remains Bush's most dedicated-and effective-foe.

Actually, McCain usually is trying to push the president in a politically beneficial direction, toward an agenda with street-level appeal to those outside the conservative, Christian base of the GOP. But the president and his advisers, who view McCain as a vindictive pest, don't see it that way. They'd rather he sit down and shut up. They can forget it.

Take the current Wall Street mess. Bush gave an earnest speech in Manhattan the other day. It contained a fair number of reasonable, and tough, proposals for reform, including doubling criminal penalties, lots of new money for SEC enforcement, and a new Justice Department task force to attack "bad apples" in the barrel of Big Business. The president didn't go far enough for the Democrats, of course. But they are easy to dismiss as donation-grubbing insiders eager for a way to cover their rears and find an issue for the fall.

For Bush, McCain is the more troublesome foe-a fellow Republican with reform proposals that, in some instances, exceed in severity even what most Democrats are advocating. And wherever Bush looks, there is McCain: undercutting in advance Bush's speech with a stinging op-ed piece in The New York Times; appearing on "Imus in the Morning" the day after the speech to (in respectful tones) comment on its deficiencies; rewriting his own speech to the National Press Club to upstage and (in respectful tones) disagree with the president; agreeing to appear on "Meet the Press" this Sunday to do the same.

Exquisitely positioned at the intersecting fault lines of American politics, McCain is arguably more influential than ever-and certainly as annoying as ever to the man who beat him in 2000. Inside the GOP, McCainanite candidates are winning primaries, often over those backed by Bush and Karl Rove. In the (barely) Democrat-controlled Senate, McCain is the cosponsor of choice-the one Republican you most want to have on your side. Perhaps most important, the maverick but media-savvy McCain can operate either as a Washington Insider or an I-Loathe-the-System Outsider, appealing to millions of disaffected independent voters who see the Beltway and both major parties as hopelessly corrupt.

The Internet is infinite, but that still wouldn't give me enough room to explain the depth of McCain's loathing for Bush. It's deeply personal and deeply political: personal because, in the senator's view, Bush used family connections, a record $100 million in hard cash and ruthless tactics to ruin the campaign of the man McCain thinks deserved to have been elected president (McCain); political because McCain thinks Bush is at best a reluctant participant in the war for reform of all kinds, is at worst a cleverly elitist enemy of same and, in any case, is leading the GOP into a culturally intolerant cul-de-sac of Bible-thumping mossbacks who haven't a clue about the rest of America, let alone the world.

There is no official McCainanite Party, of course. (The Bushies assume, not entirely without justification, that most of the press corps is in it.) Nevertheless, it's worthy noting that McCain's allies from the 2000 campaign are prospering politically. South Carolina is a good example. The Bush-McCain primary battle there in 2000 was vicious, and left deep scars. But, this fall, the GOP's candidates for Senate and governor (Lindsay Graham and Mark Sanford, respectively) are the same men who led McCain's side of the 2000 war. An endorsement by McCain's chief political ally, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, propelled Bill Simon Jr., to victory in the Republican gubernatorial primary in California. In New Hampshire, McCain is declining to follow the lead of the GOP Establishment and endorse Rep. John Sununu Jr. (a long time Bush family friend) over maverick Sen. Bob Smith. The primary is expected to be close, but if Smith wins so will McCain.

McCain's ties to Democrats are deep and deepening. His longtime political adviser, John Weaver, recently bolted the GOP and is now a Democratic campaign consultant. In the Senate, McCain is a lead cosponsor of numerous high-priority bills. With the Senate divided 50-49-1, McCain alone, or in concert with his occasional GOP cronies (led by fellow war hero Chuck Hagel of Nebraska), can make all the difference. His Vietnam experience gives him an iron-bound bond with Democrats such as John Kerry.

His media platform is nearly as tall as the president's, and he is using it right now to outflank him on the "corporate responsibility" issue. His speech to the National Press Club and his appearance on "Meet the Press" give him a chance to list the sweeping reforms he favors: truly independent corporate boards, free of personal and financial connections with management; the counting of executive stock options as salary, thus making them subject to income tax; a ban on corporate consulting by accounting firms; an independent federal agency to oversee the accounting industry; a renewed distinction (first written into law after the Depression) between stock brokering and investment banking. McCain will be respectful, as he was on "Imus." "He used the bully pulpit very effectively," the senator said. "Now the job of the Congress is to come up with specific legislative results."

But what really gives McCain his clout is his innate sense for populist grievances. Ironically, he is, in some ways, as much a product of the American establishment as Bush: a third-generation Annapolis man, educated at a tony Washington private school, accustomed to thinking of himself (and his ancestors) as central figures in the country's history and destiny.

And yet here was McCain, popping off on "Imus" like the average Joe about the outrageous absurdity of the baseball All-Star Game, which was called at 7-7 after the 11th inning the other night. McCain blasted the greedy owners and the greedy (and pampered) players. He was right, of course, and managed to speak up before Bush (a former owner) had had a chance to say a word.