Maverick McCain Reminds Us Why We Need New Political Labels

With the new Congress in session but a few days, Sen. John McCain is demonstrating why he lost the election and making some of us think that it's just as well. The "maverick" is running interference for his friends on the other side of the aisle and is creating problems for Republicans.

This week, McCain appeared to be loosening up. He was hailed as a hero by Obama at a bipartisan dinner on Monday night and had a prime seat at the post-inaugural congressional luncheon, wedged between White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Obama offered a warm greeting to McCain and his wife, Cindy, as he made his way to the dais. ...

The surest sign of McCain's return to his "maverick" ways came when he caught wind of an effort by Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) to delay Clinton's confirmation vote by a day, pushing it from Tuesday to Wednesday because he was seeking greater disclosure about foreign donors to former president Bill Clinton's charitable foundation. McCain found the objection gratuitous -- despite policy disagreements with Clinton, he and most Republicans consider her well qualified -- and said so publicly.

"I think that's indicative of the role that John McCain is going to play," said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who hatched the push-back against Cornyn's gambit over dinner with McCain on Tuesday night, and who followed him to the floor to support Clinton's confirmation. "He's going to play a very active role. He's going to try to forge bipartisan coalitions. And he won't shy away from controversy."

Memo to Sens. Collins and McCain: With 58 solid Democratic votes, Olympia Snowe, and you two, no one needs any "bipartisan coalitions." You are pretty much on the same side.

Jim Geraghty at National Review's Campaign Spot, agrees:

John McCain has prompted me to say the unthinkable.

The right man won in 2008. ...

Mac is back—back to his moral preening about how bipartisan he is, back to his reflexive demonization of his own party, back to his refusal to recognize any legitimate concerns raised by those who disagree with him. If we're going to have Democratic agenda enacted, better it be by a Democrat than a Republican obsessed with avoiding the "partisan" label in the White House.

Geraghty explains why McCain should have joined in the extra questioning of Mrs. Clinton.

I say this because the circumstances of Hillary Clinton being Secretary of State, while foreign governments have donated $41 million to her husband's foundation, and may continue to donate additional funds, is problematic. She may be the best possible Secretary of State in the eyes of some on the right, but that doesn't change the fact that the agreement between her husband's foundation and the Obama administration—in which donations will be disclosed once a year, and with no specification as to the format of the disclosure—is insufficient. (They're still not disclosing some donors.) ...

This isn't a partisan issue; Americans of all political stripes ought to be a little uncomfortable with foreign governments being able to donate millions to the household of the person who is in charge of negotiating with them.

Absolutely correct. Not that anyone seems to care.