It wasn't so long ago -- perhaps two or three dog years -- that GOPer John McCain was feeling annoyed because he wasn't being annoying enough (in the polls or in fund raising) for other candidates to notice him and attack him (most candidates lack in the self esteem department when they aren't being attacked). Nothing like a few endorsements (including one by my Portsmouth Herald), a political smooch from part-time Democrat Joe Lieberman and a serious bump in the polls to get noticed -- and attacked.
The Democratic National Committee hounds didn't waste much time and have been sending out non too flattering press releases. The DNC roasted McCain for missing a Senate vote on the alternative minimum tax why he was campaigning to eliminate it. Then today, the DNC sent this friendly historical reminder out:"In his new campaign ad today and out on the campaign trail, Arizona Senator John McCain likes to pretend he opposed Don Rumsfeld's strategy on Iraq from the beginning. Back in Washington, however, John McCain has consistently been one of President Bush's most loyal defenders--a fact made clear by his event today in Boston with Henry Kissinger and former CIA Director James Woolsey. In sharing a stage with Woolsey, McCain is joining one of the leading members of the Defense Policy Board that helped shape Rumsfeld's Iraq strategy."
And then a pro-Huckabee independent group ran a telephone push poll in our first-in-the-solar-system primary state dissing McCain while kissing Huckabee (the Huck man has disavowed the group but surely can't be all that worked up about their dirty work that benefits him). McCain is riding the good press express again and his opponents are taking notice. I can't wait until the Mittster takes notice because if he goes after McCain, it could get really nasty (John and 'Mr. Torture Know it All' Mitt aren't exactly on speaking terms.)
Anyway, must be nice for McCain to start feeling the love of being attacked again. In my daily link, Slate's John Dickinson nicely captures the latest reincarnation of John McCain.
Constitutional reprisals
During a stop in Portsmouth with the Herald editorial board, GOPer Ron Paul, who has become the financial rainmaker in this primary among the Republicans, brought up a unique solution to tracking down and eliminating terrorists like Osama bin Laden: he brought the constitutional reply of "Letters of Marque and Reprisal" to essentially deputize certain Americans to become mercenaries in service of the Congress and country. Well, that was a rare moment when you really do hear something so far out new that you almost fall out of the chair. I confess in almost three decades of political reporting I'd never heard that one before. Curious I looked it up and for those keeping Constitutional score at home that's Article 1, Section 8, Clause 11 in your playbook. It's arcane like the Third Amendment (peacetime wuartering of soldiers in private homes) but strangely not that far out of the loop. Leave it to Ron Paul to give you a Constitutional lesson a day.
Scheduling, Edwards style
I ran into a disgruntled Edwards supporter who left an event in Portsmouth Wednesday, the one headlined by Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne, after waiting almost two hours for it to start. "I love the guy but I've seen him five ttimes this year and they are always an hour late. It's starting to piss me off."
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