NYT examines record of cooperation on health care, other issues by McCain

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Jul 22 2008

The New York Times on Monday examined how presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) since his failed 2000 presidential campaign has "mastered the art of political triangulation -- variously teaming up with ... the new Republican leaders, with Democrats against Republicans and with the president against the Democrats" on health care and other issues -- to "become perhaps the chamber's most influential member."

According to the Times, "McCain's supporters argue that he demonstrated the kind of bipartisan bridge-building" that presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) has "often pledged but seldom displayed," but critics maintain that McCain "was a fickle gadfly who ultimately traded his independence to pander to the right."

McCain "was a reliable Reaganite until around 1998 -- his first big break from his party -- when the Republican leaders chose him to negotiate a bill that would address tobacco lawsuits and finance public health programs," the Times reports. "As conservatives outmaneuvered him on the floor, Mr. McCain lashed out at his fellow Republicans, accusing them of turning a cold shoulder to children's health," a move that resulted in a standing ovation from Democrats, according to the Times.

In his 2000 presidential campaign, McCain experienced his "first face-to-face confrontation with domestic issues like global warming and health insurance costs," according to his advisers, the Times reports. After the 2000 election, McCain -- who previously had "kept his distance" from Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) because of his "record of pulling Republicans into grand compromises" -- "pulled up a chair at Mr. Kennedy's desk near the back of the Senate floor" and expressed interest in cooperation on a patients' rights bill, which he previously had opposed, according to the Times. "Soon he was cooperating with Democrats on ... many issues," the Times reports (Kirkpatrick, New York Times, 7/21).

This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.