Arkady
President
I've been rough on McCain and Susan Collins over the years (and Olympia Snowe, before her retirement). The media needed "good Republicans" to talk up, to appear even-handed, and they settled on a few self-style mavericks and moderates. This created a huge amount of good press for such figures, whenever they talked like sane human beings, even if they almost never backed their level-headed rhetoric with action.
They each could point to a couple instances of standing up to their party on big, important issues (Collins voted against the Clinton impeachment, McCain against Bush's budget-eviscerating upper-class tax cuts). But usually they could be counted to pose as open-minded moderates to the media, then vote in lock step with the party on any controversial matter important enough for party bosses to lean on them hard (McCain voted to impeach Clinton, Collins for those tax cuts). For example, they all voted for ceding of authority to start a war on Iraq to Bush, with famously catastrophic results for the nation (only Chaffee, among all the Republicans, voted the other way on that). They also all voted to confirm Jeff Sessions to the AG spot -- a man so racist he couldn't even get confirmed for a judgeship by a Republican Senate back in the 80s. When you're too racist for the Republicans of the 80s, that's really saying something.
Still, I've got to give credit regarding last night's vote. The pressure on the three dissenting Republicans must have been huge. With McCain's age and health problems, he's almost certainly not thinking in terms of ever running for office again, so he was at liberty to consider his legacy and to vote his conscience. But Collins had to know she was buying herself an aggressive primary challenge and possibly ending her career as a Republican, and she did the right thing, anyway. So, I've had to reconsider my appraisal of her as someone who merely plays a moderate on TV. As for Murkowski, I haven't followed her closely enough to have taken much of a view before this year, but she also seems to have a backbone.
They each could point to a couple instances of standing up to their party on big, important issues (Collins voted against the Clinton impeachment, McCain against Bush's budget-eviscerating upper-class tax cuts). But usually they could be counted to pose as open-minded moderates to the media, then vote in lock step with the party on any controversial matter important enough for party bosses to lean on them hard (McCain voted to impeach Clinton, Collins for those tax cuts). For example, they all voted for ceding of authority to start a war on Iraq to Bush, with famously catastrophic results for the nation (only Chaffee, among all the Republicans, voted the other way on that). They also all voted to confirm Jeff Sessions to the AG spot -- a man so racist he couldn't even get confirmed for a judgeship by a Republican Senate back in the 80s. When you're too racist for the Republicans of the 80s, that's really saying something.
Still, I've got to give credit regarding last night's vote. The pressure on the three dissenting Republicans must have been huge. With McCain's age and health problems, he's almost certainly not thinking in terms of ever running for office again, so he was at liberty to consider his legacy and to vote his conscience. But Collins had to know she was buying herself an aggressive primary challenge and possibly ending her career as a Republican, and she did the right thing, anyway. So, I've had to reconsider my appraisal of her as someone who merely plays a moderate on TV. As for Murkowski, I haven't followed her closely enough to have taken much of a view before this year, but she also seems to have a backbone.
