BEDFORD, N.H.
A LOT of voters are still falling in love with Republican 2000 wannabe John McCain up here in the first-primary state of New Hampshire — but analysts are asking tougher questions.
Tonight’s first GOP debate of 2000 could test whether McCain can hold onto the magic of his Vietnam POW heroism and maverick charm in the face of real scrutiny.
Like the Boston Globe’s revelation yesterday that the self-proclaimed Mr. Clean of campaign-finance reform pressed the Federal Communications Commission to vote on a matter vital to one of his big donors.
At issue: Could Paxson Communications, owner of 73 family-oriented TV stations, buy one in Pittsburgh? McCain’s letter demanding a vote by Dec. 15 was so pointed that FCC Chairman William Kennard chided him for interfering.
McCain’s letter said he was just asking the FCC to act, not necessarily to approve the sale — which faced opposition in Pittsburgh because it involved transferring a public TV license to a commercial owner. But at the FCC, his letter was seen as pressure to vote “yes,” the Globe said.
What makes this messy is that McCain chairs the Senate Commerce Committee, which oversees the FCC.
And that McCain wrote the blunt letter at the request of Paxson’s lobbyist.
And that McCain has gotten $20,000 in campaign donations from workers at Paxson and its law firm.
And that McCain has been using Paxson’s corporate jets for his campaign, paying first-class fare (as required by law) — which is well below the actual cost, thus a cash boon to his campaign.
McCain used Paxson’s jet to fly from New York to Florida the day before he wrote the FCC on Paxson’s behalf last Dec. 10 — and again the day after for a flight from Florida to Washington.
It sounds an awful lot like the kind of cozying up to special interests that McCain loves to lambaste when others do it.
McCain’s response was intriguing. At a Bedford town meeting, and again on a local talk-radio station, McCain said he’d done nothing wrong — and then claimed he was a kind of victim in this case.
“One of the reasons why I’m so committed to campaign-finance reform is because everything that we do is just under a cloud of suspicion,” he said.
But this isn’t the first time McCain has used the victim defense. When his hot temper became a hot campaign issue last fall, he complained he was the victim of a “smear campaign” that he briefly seemed to blame on GOP front-runner George W. Bush.
How bizarre. Here’s McCain, the blunt-talking war hero who seems the very antithesis of Bill Clinton, using the victimization defense that has been a hallmark of the Monica-man’s presidency.
That wasn’t McCain’s only problem yesterday. On the same day he was urging GOP rivals to avoid negative attacks, he admitted one of his own flyers was a “cheap shot” because it called Bush’s positions “a political plan.”
A lot of experts bet McCain will beat Bush in New Hampshire on Feb.1. He leads by 3 points in the latest poll.
But even if he does, Bush remains the prohibitive favorite to become the GOP nominee.
McCain has little organization anywhere after the first few contests, and that matters in the GOP. He won’t even make it onto the ballot in many districts in New York.
Bush is organized everywhere.
Many GOP analysts who worried about Bush last fall — when he flubbed the names of world leaders — say his campaign is back on track, even if he loses New Hampshire. And that McCain’s surge was a useful wake-up call.
“Bush is a vastly better candidate now,” says Republican strategist Eddie Mahe. “It would take a really major mistake for him to lose now. He’s much more aggressive, much more disciplined.”
The first test of that, of course, will come in tonight’s GOP debate.