Open Letter to Senator McCain

Dear Senator McCain:

After the 1996 loss by Bob Dole, I was having drinks with a conservative Democrat friend of mine with whom I had a pact that we would not discuss politics in order to preserve the friendship. On this night, though, we were in agreement: Bob Dole was nominated because it was “his turn,” not because he was the best candidate the GOP had to offer, and Bill Clinton was a lying, groundless weasel at best. I told Joel, “2000 will be the best election in a long time, because, aside from party loyalty, the winner will be a good, decent man who put the welfare of the country first.”

“Yeah, right,” Joel answered cynically.

“No, seriously,” I said. “It will be between Bob Kerrey of Nebraska and John McCain of Arizona. They’re both good, honest war heroes who will do what’s right for the country regardless of personal interest. They have served their country their entire lives. They know nothing but patriotism, valor, and suborning personal gain for national achievement. And after eight years of this criminal (Clinton), the parties will have no choice if they want to remain the two dominant parties.”

Joel remained skeptical, but decided, over the next few weeks, to look into the two men. At a Halloween party a few weeks later, he broached the subject.

�I think you�re right about Kerrey and McCain. I�d vote for either one of them. In fact, I think I might like McCain even better than Kerrey.� And we left it at that.

Then comes your campaign finance legislation designed to deny me the right use my money to make my political opinions known. A law designed to strike at the very heart of the First Amendment. (We can have a public debate on the resolve: �The purpose of the first clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution was to ensure freedom of political speech, as opposed to speech in general� any time you choose. I�ll take the affirmative.) Next comes your lies about the substance of Patrick Buchanan�s book, �A Republic, Not an Empire.� Then come your continued attempts to damage the Republican party and George Bush because you, like a spoiled child who is finally denied his way, cannot live at peace with those who rejected your campaign for the Republican nomination in 2000.

Bob Kerrey�s stock also dropped because of his senseless attacks on George Bush during the Florida election fiasco, but that�s another story.

You understand very well, Senator McCain, that you can damage President Bush far more as a Republican than you could as a Democrat. You demonstrate your grasp of this situation almost every day. God knows what kind of chicanery you�re involved with behind the scenes, out of the spotlight of the press that loves you to the exclusion of your many flaws. If your purpose in life is to destroy this president and cripple his party, you are doing a fine job.

But somewhere inside of you lives the naval aviator war hero. Somewhere inside you, the nobility instilled by your father and grandfather still keeps a small flame burning. Somewhere inside the party-crashing Senator from Arizona is the man who risked his life to uphold the Code of Conduct as a prisoner of war. Somewhere in your soul lies the hero who let go of his crutch to shake hands with President Nixon upon returning home.

Senator, let that great man inside you do the thinking for a while. Surrender your pride and your ego to that American Fighting Man who resisted by all means available, made every effort to escape, aided others to escape, and accepted neither parole nor special favors from the enemy. Pride, Senator, is the enemy that now imprisons you.

Either get on board with the party that put you into office and stood by you when the press called for your head as a member of the Keating Five, or leave the party if you really believe in the causes for which you fight�causes that would diminish the power and the rights of man and augment those of the federal government. Either way, free yourself from the prideful prison you have entered.