Is it in his hug? The Bush-McCain relationship

In his new book, author Paul Begala, a former senior strategist and counselor to President Bill Clinton, says that as much as presidential hopeful John McCain tries to distance himself from the current administration, the two are cut from the same cloth. Begala points to evidence including McCain's voting record, statements made in support of Bush Administration policies, and one infamous hug. An excerpt.

Chapter one: The Hug
He has earned our admiration, and our love.
— John McCain on George W. Bush

I love you, man!
— George W. Bush on John McCain

It is the defining moment of John McCain's political career: The Hug. George W. Bush's 2004 reelection campaign needed help. After four years of a surprisingly radical brand of conservatism, Mr. Bush needed some moderate bona fides. After a campaign of fiction and falsehoods that led us to war, Bush needed a credibility transfusion. After the Democrats nominated a certified war hero, John Kerry, Mr. Bush (who famously avoided serving not only in Vietnam but even in the Alabama National Guard) needed a warrior's support.

And so John McCain gave him The Hug.

In embracing George W. Bush that August afternoon in Pensacola, Florida, John McCain embraced Mr. Bush's agenda, his policies, his principles, and his manipulative, mendacious brand of politics. And McCain embraced him with gusto.

This wasn't an irrationally exuberant Sammy Davis, Jr., spontaneously wrapping his arms around Richard Nixon. This was a calculated, choreographed commitment. The John McCain most people thought they knew would never have hugged George W. Bush. More likely, he'd have punched him in the nose. And for good reason.

The smear
The South Carolina Republican Party has long been the putrid petri dish of right-wing sleaze, and in the 2000 GOP primary, the slime oozed from Team Bush all over John McCain and his family. South Carolina became Ground Zero for the Republican presidential nomination after John McCain stunned George W. Bush in New Hampshire, beating him by 19 percent.

We show our character in defeat, and in response to the humiliation of New Hampshire, George W. Bush's true character emerged. He went hard right and he went down and dirty. Suddenly whisper campaigns sprouted up like kudzu all across the Palmetto State:

• McCain is crazy. Here's how the Dallas Morning News reported the rumors: "In recent weeks, the Bush campaign has been accused of — and has denied — spreading rumors that Mr. McCain may be unstable as a result of being tortured while a prisoner of war in North Vietnam. Several Senate Republicans, among them party leaders who favor Mr. Bush for president, have been identified in published reports as being responsible for privately pushing the allegations. Also, James B. Stockdale, a former prisoner of war in Vietnam who ran as Ross Perot's running mate in 1992, said he got a call from a friend close to the Bush campaign soliciting comments on Mr. McCain's 'weakness.' "
• McCain is "the fag candidate." This gem came from push-polling, a despicable tactic wherein a voter is called by someone pretending to be a pollster but who is in fact spreading dirt. Anonymous push-pollers called South Carolina Republicans and described McCain as "the fag candidate" — perhaps because he met with the pro-gay-rights Log Cabin Republicans.
• McCain's wife is a drug addict. Cindy McCain, like millions of Americans, from the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist to radio gasbag Rush Limbaugh, had been treated for dependency on prescription drugs. Rather than saluting her courage and recovery, leaflets surfaced in South Carolina calling Mrs. McCain "a drug addict."
• McCain abandoned his "crippled first wife." Carol Shepp, McCain's first wife, was badly injured in a 1969 auto accident while McCain was a POW. Seven years after he returned from Vietnam, McCain's marriage to Carol fell apart. McCain has accepted responsibility for the marriage's failure, but it was hardly fair to say McCain "abandoned" Carol, or that Carol was "crippled." Like half of all marriages, this one did not work out.
• McCain fathered children out of wedlock. Richard Hand, a professor at the racist, anti-Catholic Bob Jones University, wrote a now-infamous e-mail in which he alleged that McCain "chose to sire children without marriage." When Hand was told on CNN that there was no evidence that his charge was true, he replied, "That's a universal negative. Can you prove that?"
• McCain's dark-skinned, adopted daughter was the product of a McCain extramarital affair. This was the worst. Anonymous callers alleged that McCain had fathered "a black baby" with a prostitute. In truth, Cindy McCain had brought a dark-skinned baby home from Mother Teresa's orphanage in Bangladesh. She and John adopted her and named her Bridget. In 2006, Bridget Googled her name and learned of how she'd been smeared when her father had been losing to George W. Bush. A teenager today, she is still owed an apology that will never come.

So there was, one might say, some baggage in the Bush-McCain relationship. But perhaps I understate. To paraphrase a friend of mine, if Paris Hilton were to check into the Plaza hotel for a two-month stay with a full retinue of hairdressers, masseurs, manicurists, florists, bartenders, and aromatherapists, the entire entourage would have less baggage than the Bush-McCain relationship.

Think about it. Put yourself in McCain's shoes. Someone benefited from (and, some believe, orchestrated) the most savage attack on your sexuality, your sanity, your marriage, your wife, and your daughter. He smirked as his supporters attacked your honor, your dignity, your manhood, and your innocent child. What would you do? Seriously. Some of us might have shunned someone who'd treated us that way. Others might have cursed them. Still others might have kicked them in the shin or kneed them in the groin. But not John McCain.

John McCain hugged George W. Bush.

What about forgiveness? you may ask. Good point. But forgiveness starts with confession and contrition, and neither Mr. Bush nor his top advisers have ever manned up and confessed to smearing McCain. Indeed, as recently as 2007, Karl Rove aggressively challenged a questioner who alleged he had "helped spread the false story" about McCain's daughter. "That is absolutely not true, and I take offense," Rove replied to the questioner at Troy University in Alabama. "If you have any bit of evidence that anybody connected with the Bush campaign was involved in that, you bring it forward, because it is a reckless charge."

So why would John McCain embrace George W. Bush? Not to be too simplistic: He wanted to. He believed in the Bush agenda and wanted to advance it into a second term.

The Weaver-Rove rift
The McCain-Bush split probably began before they knew each other. Its roots lie in the caliche soil of central Texas, where two up-and-coming Republican operatives got their start. Karl Rove and John Weaver were instrumental in capitalizing on the disaffection some Texans felt with the Democratic Party after LBJ embraced racial equality. After Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, he prophesied to Bill Moyers, "I think we've just delivered the South to the Republican Party for the rest of my life, and yours."

It took a while, but LBJ's prophecy came true in his beloved Texas — and Karl Rove and John Weaver were central to that historic shift. In the mid-1980s, Rove and Weaver were friends and partners in a successful political consulting firm. As so often happens, there was a dispute — some say about money (it almost always is). In any event, Weaver decided to strike out on his own. This happens in business — especially the political consulting business — every day. Weaver lured away one of Rove's top employees and was named executive director of the Texas GOP by Rove-Weaver client Gov. Bill Clements. Then, according to the Atlantic's Joshua Green, "Rove spread a rumor that Weaver had made a pass at a young man at a state Republican function."

The rumors persisted, Weaver's business faltered, and in time Weaver quit Texas, leaving Rove the dominant GOP consultant in the Lone Star State. Although he'd departed Texas, Weaver carried some heavy Rovian baggage with him; baggage he brought aboard the Straight Talk Express.

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