The Gipper Lives On
Why John McCain needs Ronald Reagan.
In 1974, as Watergate was destroying the Republican presidency of Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan arrived in Washington to cheer up—and electrify—a rising generation of New Right activists. His patriotic speech ("We are … the last best hope of man on earth") was the first shot in what came to be known as the Reagan Revolution. The address was laced with praise for three recently released POWs he had brought with him. Proof that America was not a "sick society," he said, could be found in the "men who went through those years of torture and captivity in Vietnam." One of them was a Navy pilot who had become Reagan's (and his wife Nancy's) close friend. His name was Lt. John McCain.
Every Republican invokes Reagan, but none needs to more urgently than McCain, who still must win over conservatives who regard him as more of an apostate than an apostle. Although he's been winning primaries, he is losing among the self-described conservatives who form the GOP base. When McCain appears at this week's 34th annual Conservative Political Action Conference, aides will play an audiotape of the Reagan speech to back their candidate's claim to have been a "foot soldier in the Reagan Revolution." "John is and always has been a conservative," says Charlie Black, a top adviser.
Everybody doesn't know that. True, McCain has an 83 percent positive lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union. He is a Reagan-style war hawk and foe of deficit spending and abortion rights. But he has committed many a grave sin in the eyes of the conservatives. He opposed the Bush tax cuts and the idea of a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. He worried aloud about global warming and offered an immigration plan that would give a "path to citizenship" to illegal immigrants. He supports limits on issue-advocacy spending and said he'd "entertain" the idea of being Democrat John Kerry's running mate in 2004. Last week he was endorsed by two men anathema to the right—Rudy Giuliani and Arnold Schwarzenegger—and, worst of all, by The New York Times. The response has been loud. Rush Limbaugh accuses McCain of "moving to the left"; Laura Ingraham says he has all but abandoned the GOP.
Still, McCain is not without "movement" conservative friends. Endorsers include Sen. Sam Brownback, whose pro-life credentials are impeccable; and this week Steve Forbes, whose anti-tax bona fides are hard to top, is expected to get onboard, too. But more important is the network of Reagan "foot soldiers" who stayed in Washington after the revolution ended. In a daisy chain of access protection, they are reaching out to their unreconstructed cousins. "The idea is to keep lines open," says Craig Shirley, a PR executive and Reagan veteran who is advising McCain. "He has to show he is willing to listen."
One of those McCain is listening to is Grover Norquist, the anti-tax crusader who demands that candidates sign his "pledge" not to OK a tax increase. McCain refused to put his name on it. Yet in recent months, his advisers devised a tax plan with input from Norquist and others. First, McCain said he'd fight to make the Bush tax cuts permanent— even though he originally opposed them. Then, before New Hampshire, he unveiled a plan to cut corporate and investment taxes and to abolish the alternative minimum tax. "I'd still like to get it in writing," Norquist tells me, "but I'm pleased with McCain's tax-cut position now." That might not be good enough for folks at CPAC, and probably wouldn't have been good enough for Reagan. But the Gipper isn't coming to CPAC this year, except on an audiotape.
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Howard Fineman is Newsweek's Senior Washington Correspondent and Columnist, senior editor and deputy Washington bureau chief. He is the author of "Living Politics," a column that began on MSNBC.COM and Newsweek.com and that now also appears in the print magazine. An award-winning reporter and writer, Fineman also is an analyst for NBC News and MSNBC, appearing regularly on "Countdown with Keith Olbermann," "Hardball with Chris Matthews" and "TODAY." The author of scores of Newsweek cover stories, Fineman's work has appeared as well in The New York Times, The Washington Post and The New Republic. His 2008 national best-selling book, "The Thirteen American Arguments," was released in paperback by Random House in the spring of 2009.
One of the nation's leading political reporters, Fineman has interviewed every major presidential candidate from (then-vice president) George H.W. Bush in 1985 to (then senator) Barack Obama early and often in the 2008 campaign cycle. His current work focuses on the Obama Administration and its top officials, as well as on Congress and politics throughout the country. Although based in Washington, Fineman travels widely in the U.S. and has covered politics and other events in 49 of the 50 states.
Fineman's work has produced many milestones and awards. A cover story in November 2001 featured President George W. Bush's first extensive interview after 9/11. Another cover, "Bush and God," was part of a series of articles that won the 2003 National Magazine Award for General Excellence. His reporting has helped Newsweek win many honors from the Magazine Publishers Association and the American Journalism Review. Other awards include a "Page One" from the Headliners Club of New York, a "Silver Gavel" from the American Bar Association and a "Deadline Club" from the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ). In 2006 he received the Alumni Award from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.
As a reporter and writer, Fineman ranges widely. Besides campaign-year covers, other projects have included: race and politics, the impact of digital technology on society, the influence of Hollywood on politics, the rise of the religious right and of conservative talk radio. He has interviewed business leaders such as George Soros, Bill Gates, Steve Case and Robert Rubin and entertainment figures such as Warren Beatty, Jane Fonda and Jay Leno.
Although now under exclusive television contract to NBC, Fineman over the years has appeared on major public affairs shows, such as Nightline, Face the Nation, Fox News Sunday, Larry King Live, Charlie Rose and the NewsHour. He was a regular panelist on Washington Week in Review on PBS (1983-95) and on CNN's Capital Gang Sunday (1995-98). He worked with Ted Koppel on Nightline specials, and has been a guest on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and "The Colbert Report."
A native of Pittsburgh, Fineman began his career at The Courier-Journal in Louisville, covering the environment, the coal industry and state politics before joining the newspaper's Washington bureau in 1978. He moved to Newsweek in 1980, was named chief political correspondent in 1984, deputy Washington bureau chief in 1993, senior editor in 1995 and senior Washington correspondent and columnist in 2008.
Fineman holds an A.B., Phi Beta Kappa, from Colgate, an M.S. in journalism from Columbia and a J.D. from the Brandeis School of Law at the University of Louisville. His legal education included a year as a visiting student at the Georgetown University Law Center. He received Watson and Pultizer Traveling Fellowships for study in Europe, Russia and the Middle East, and has traveled to more than 40 countries, among them China, Vietnam, Japan, Ukraine, Israel, Turkey and the West Bank Palestinian Territories.
Fineman is married to Amy L. Nathan, a senior counsel at the Federal Communications Commission. They live in Washington with their two children, Meredith and Nicholas.
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