www.motherjones.com/news/feature/1998/11/vest.html
Of all the dyed-in-the-wool conservatives one finds on Capitol Hill, Sen. Though he's predictably Republican in many ways -- he's an ardent free-marketeer and pro-lifer, and he gets low marks from environmental groups -- McCain has, in the past year, stridently stood up to the GOP leadership and worked with his erstwhile political opponents in the Senate for campaign finance reform and the tobacco settlement. Both efforts failed (largely due to lack of Republican support), but they helped increase McCain's public standing; his image as a courageous reformer has even led to speculation about a dark horse presidential candidacy in 2000. But critics say that image is carefully cultivated, and many accuse the press of going soft on McCain, who heads the powerful Senate Commerce Committee. When Mother Jones dropped in on McCain at his Washington, DC, office in mid-September, Lewinsky-mania was in full swing. Despite his well-known temper -- he once reportedly got into a scuffle with his nonagenarian colleague Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-SC) -- McCain was relaxed and smiling, displaying the forthright charm that has made him the darling of political reporters while trenchantly defending his right to accept campaign contributions from the likes of Bill Gates and Rupert Murdoch. In September, the day after campaign finance reform was killed in the Senate for the third time, the news was buried on Page A16 of the New York Times under an avalanche of Clinton-Lewinsky reporting. It's an affirmation that this firestorm has sucked all the oxygen out of the political debate in America. I had some confidence that we would at least pick up some more votes. Well, the president gave his speech -- the apology/nonapology speech -- and we took up the bill. We got the same 52 votes, and it was like dropping a stone in a well. You can understand people who want power and want to corrupt or destroy the constitutional balance. You can understand that, because that's why our Founding Fathers set up this system of checks and balances: There are always going to be people who want more power than is appropriate or healthy for the republic. But certainly, never in my life did I contemplate such a tawdry thing. Doesn't the current situation strike you as going a little too far? The responsibility has to come back to Congress for formulating such a law, perhaps even the president for signing it. How many of your colleagues could have withstood a Kenneth Starr? I don't know, because I don't know their personal lives. I don't socialize with many senators, much less House members, but let me tell you, I'm one who has undergone a special counsel. The special counsel's name was Mr Robert Bennett in the Keating Five matter.
Give me an example of why you think we need campaign finance reform. The so-called Telecommunications Reform Act of 1996, where every major telecommunications company was protected. Only one group was not represented while we formulated that particular piece of legislation, and that was -- guess who?
I don't blame them for trying, for enhancing their profits and protecting their turf. I blame us for falling prey to the influence of somebody like AT&T, which in 1996 gave $780,000 to Republicans and $456,000 to Democrats -- which is not political schizophrenia, it's good business. If I were a CEO of a major corporation, I would do the same thing. Get down there to Washington and make sure that we aren't harmed by it. I hold animosity toward the system, which is completely broken.
How much difference did Thompson's investigation into fundraising practices in the '96 election really make? One was that we were unable to act in a bipartisan fashion. But there was also the factor that Republicans made sure that there was only one year under which Thompson's committee could operate, thereby allowing the administration to just walk it. Your own party wasn't missing any dirt under the fingernails, either -- Go no further.
Ickes or the vice president, you will see this scandal touch Republicans as well. Why do you think the Republicans made sure that the committee stayed in business for only a year? The system makes good people do bad things, and bad people do worse things. And we are dramatically diminished in the eyes of the people we represent when we are a product of a system that has become fundamentally corrupt. The conventional wisdom is that money doesn't buy votes, it buys access. Because I'm chairman of the Commerce Committee, I see the CEOs of major corporations. Which has nothing to do with campaign donations -- I have oversight of their businesses and I'll see the CEOs. If somebody calls -- say if the CEO of PrimeStar wants to see me -- I say, "Fine, tell him to come in." But if a lobbyist with PrimeStar calls and says he wants to come in, I say, "No, talk to my staff." But when Gene Kimmelman of the Consumers Union or Joan Claybrook of Public Citizen wants to talk to me, I say, "Come on in." What I try to do is listen to a balanced set of viewpoints, not dictated by campaign contributions or anything else, whether they're Republicans or Democrats or Libertarians or vegetarians. But there's nothing wrong with talking to people who are the experts on the issues. But it was reported earlier this year that when Microsoft's COO Bob Herbold came to visit you, he asked what Microsoft could be doing better in Washington and you told him to fire up a lobbying campaign. I said, "The way the game's played in Washington, you're gonna have to have a greater presence here in Washington," is basically what I said.
Bill Gates has given you money, and so has Rupert Murdoch. This is exactly the thing that most people would raise an eyebrow at. It would be nearly impossible for me to raise money without them. But the important point here is that the evil is soft money. There's nothing wrong, in my view, with taking a $1,000 contribution from anybody who wants to give it. And if it comes from Mr Gates, or if it comes from my next-door neighbor in Phoenix, I think it's OK. I don't think the system was corrupted until soft money exploded, and I won't have anything to do with soft money. A number of observers have noted that if Microsoft's antitrust issues were heard in your committee instead of the Judiciary Committee, Microsoft would get a much friendlier reception. They'd get a friendly reception in my committee because a lot of us have grave concerns about what the government's doing here. Our focus is not antitrust considerations -- it's the health of the telecommunications industry in America. Our interest and our charter are directed toward the future of the industry. So you're not worried about Microsoft warping the industry? I worried about Apple warping everyone until they screwed up their marketing techniques. But I don't think Mr Gates, or anyone, knows where this industry is going, as smart as he is. My question is, What is the role of the federal government? I remember when the federal government brought a suit against IBM. And then 13 years later, it went before some judge and said it's irrelevant because of the rapid changes in the computer industry. You not only have had combat experience in Vietnam, but you were also a prisoner of war. When you look at terrorism right now, with people like Osama bin Laden, do you have any reservations about watching strikes like that? You could say, Look, is this guy, Laden, really the bad guy that's depicted? And where there is a parallel with Vietnam is: What's plan B? Well, we've declared to the terrorists that we're going to strike them wherever they live. Ah, part of my string of successes: campaign finance reform, tobacco bill, pork-barrel spending. When you were handed that task, what was your first thought? I underestimated several challenges, but primarily I underestimated the willingness of the tobacco companies to spend as much money as they did, in such a concentrated fashion.
Did you see that as the beginning of something more ominous? I first saw that they would do anything, because they are bad people. And I thought they would probably attack me personally, because if they could take me down, they could take a...
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