Special report: George Bush's America
Edward Helmore in New York Sunday June 3, 2001 The Observer
Maverick US Senator John McCain is readying himself to leave the Republican Party, throwing President's Bush's young administration into fresh turmoil. In a widening rift with George Bush and the Republicans' dominant conservative wing, sources say the Vietnam veteran is also considering a new run for the presidency in 2004. Although McCain's defection from the party is not considered imminent, he has been in talks with senior Democrats, including Ted Kennedy and the new Senate leader, Tom Daschle, about switching political allegiance. Last month moderate Republican Jim Jeffords defected, stripping the party of its narrow Senate majority and throwing Bush's legislative agenda into chaos.
McCain, who upset Bush in the New Hampshire election primary last year, is watching closely to see if Bush now adopts a more moderate approach before making his decision to bolt. If McCain loses on issues like campaign finance reform, advisers say he will more than likely quit the party. In the interim he is seeking to form a moderate faction within the Republicans.
After Jeffords's defection, McCain launched an extraordinary condemnation of Bush, saying Republicans had to learn to tolerate diverse ideas and that it was 'well past time for the party to grow up'.
Signalling how close McCain is to defecting, and the ideological conversion he has undergone, he is entertaining Daschle and a number of senior Democrats at his Arizona ranch this weekend. Although his advisers say the weekend was arranged weeks ago, nervous Republicans have concluded McCain is at least in negotiations to switch.
'I think McCain honestly doesn't know what he's going to do, but is open to all possibilities,' says McCain supporter and conservative columnist William Kristol.
But McCain is known to be deeply troubled by the right-wing direction Bush and the Republican party have taken, and personal enmity has existed between him and the President.
His supporters have accused Bush's White House of orchestrating the same campaign of pettiness that triggered Jeffords's defection, blocking them from political jobs and excluding McCain from key Republican talks.
In turn, Bush loyalists accuse him of going out of his way to offend them. Privately, a Bush adviser said: 'There is widespread gnashing of teeth and wringing of hands. McCain has created a lot of fear about McCain in the White House.'