The problems of being a maverick

Speaking of McCain and lobbyists … oh, wait.

Anyway:

As chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, John McCain began hearings that helped bring down Jack Abramoff, the disgraced lobbyist who was the central figure in a political scandal that landed Mr. Abramoff in jail.

Now, as Mr. McCain releases the names of hundreds of “bundlers” — his top money collectors — one person who popped up is Juan Carlos Benitez, a lawyer and lobbyist whom Mr. Abramoff had championed for a Bush administration post.

Leslie Wayne, writing for The Caucus, reports that the House Committee on Government Reform issued a 2006 report that includes Mr. Benitez’s name. Jack Abramoff apparently wanted him appointed special counsel for immigration-related employment issues, which position—given to Benitez in 2001—allowed him to conduct investigations into allegations of unfair labor practices, including issues important to the scandalized lobbyist’s clients.

Quote of the Week — Obama on the economy

Barack Obama on remarks by former Texas Senator Phil Gramm that the nation’s economic woes are a “mental recession” and that Americans are “a nation of whiners”:

“This comes after Senator McCain recently admitted his energy proposal for the gas-tax holiday will have mainly ‘psychological benefits’ …. Now I want all of you to know that America already has one Dr. Phil, we don’t need another. When it comes to the economy, we need somebody who can actually solve the economy.”

Via Michael D. Shear and Jonathan Weisman at the Washington Post.

Obama and expectation

Economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman brings us, with his latest column, an assessment of Senator Barack Obama, considering the Democratic presidential candidate in the context of two other elections, those of 1980 and 1992:

It’s feeling a lot like 1992 right now. It’s also feeling a lot like 1980. But which parallel is closer? Is Barack Obama going to be a Ronald Reagan of the left, a president who fundamentally changes the country’s direction? Or will he be just another Bill Clinton? ….

…. Reagan, for better or worse — I’d say for worse, but that’s another discussion — brought a lot of change. He ran as an unabashed conservative, with a clear ideological agenda. And he had enormous success in getting that agenda implemented. He had his failures, most notably on Social Security, which he tried to dismantle but ended up strengthening. But America at the end of the Reagan years was not the same country it was when he took office.

Bill Clinton also ran as a candidate of change, but it was much less clear what kind of change he was offering. He portrayed himself as someone who transcended the traditional liberal-conservative divide, proposing “a government that offers more empowerment and less entitlement.” The economic plan he announced during the campaign was something of a hodgepodge: higher taxes on the rich, lower taxes for the middle class, public investment in things like high-speed rail, health care reform without specifics.

We all know what happened next. The Clinton administration achieved a number of significant successes, from the revitalization of veterans’ health care and federal emergency management to the expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit and health insurance for children. But the big picture is summed up by the title of a new book by the historian Sean Wilentz: “The Age of Reagan: A history, 1974-2008.”

While there are also fundamental differences in the context of the circumstances under which the Reagan and Clinton presidencies occurred, Krugman—who during the primary often criticized Obama—is not without a valid point. Having achieved the nomination, Obama has followed a trend disturbing to American liberals, one that suggests a transformation of the candidate into a different kind of political creature. His withdrawal from public financing, while understandable in a political context, is disappointing, to say the least, for liberals hopeful of a president of principles. And his support of the recent FISA “compromise” ranges into the realm of the frustrating.

No one loves you like a mother ….

Ye gads, that’s mean. At least, if you don’t get to have a mother. But it really does feel true. I’m thirty-four, and generally have made a wreck of my life, and my mother stands by me like no one else can. My mother is the embodiment of life’s blessings.

And in the beneficence of my mother’s faith, I share at least something in common with Christian supremacist, former POW, and GOP presidential candidate Senator John McCain. At 95, Mrs. McCain appears a dignified presence, as well as a modern woman who is not afraid to show a little knee. And she can still make her son squirm.

CNN.com’s Mark Norman reports for the Political Ticker:

When asked about former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s experience by Hardball host Chris Matthews, Roberta McCain, who’s campaigning in New Hampshire with her son at the age of 95, said “as far as the Salt Lake City thing, he’s a Mormon and the Mormons of Salt Lake City had caused that scandal. And to clean that up, it’s not a subject.”

Romney was selected to head up the Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games after a bribery scandal tarnished the Games.

The elder McCain’s remarks left the Senator stumbling. “The views of my mother are not necessarily the views of mine,” he advised.

Mrs. McCain replied, “Well, that’s my view. You asked me.”

Tsk, tsk, Senator. Don’t talk back to your mother. (What? I couldn’t resist.)

After a commercial break, Sen. McCain further tried to distance himself from his mother’s comments.

“Could I just reemphasize one point? I think Mormons are great people. I think it should in no way be a factor in consideration or lack of consideration for Governor Romney,” he said. “I think it should never be a consideration and I know he will be judged on his record. He’s a fine and decent man and a family man.”

Oooh. Ouch.

Strangely, I think this episode does him some good. As liberals question his age and conservative outlook, I think it humanizes the candidate to show him fidget like a young boy still struggling to walk outside his mother’s shadow.