The McCain Mutiny

Here's the latest commentary by CBSNews.com's Dick Meyer.

So with the Senate convened, the Cabinet tucked in and actual bills starting the long-neglected process of becoming actual laws, Cap'n John is getting behind the steering wheel again. The only question is whether the cruiser will be dubbed the Sore Loser Sound Bite Special or the Real Results Local. Is John McCain, in other words, going to use his celebrity and popularity for good or evil? Statecraft or mischief? Will he be Johnny B. Good or Mad Mac?

A lot of us are secretly rooting for the dark side to prevail. With this president in apparent control of his appetites, if not his syntax, things could get dull fast in D.C.

We need John McCain. And all initial indications are that he's going to oblige.

Less than 24 hours after President Bush was sworn in, Sen. McCain was taking to the ramparts of the Sunday chat shows vowing to tie the Senate up in an early filibuster if he wasn't guaranteed a prompt debate and vote on campaign finance reform. He swore to hold town meetings in the backyards of his opponents and trample their grassroots.

No mere senator, McCain has a "mandate" - his word. "The American people have chosen the president of the United States," he said at a press conference. "But I also have a mandate."

Mandates, of course, are normally associated with presidents who attain landslide election victories, not with senators. They are certainly not the spoils of, well, losers. Even President Bush, the one who lost the popular vote, doesn't spend a whole lot of time talking about his mandate. But McCain is thinking big.

It's not at all clear that this high-octane bullying will actually help the cause of passing substantive reforms of campaign financing laws. Cajolery and arm-twisting usually precede extortion. But who knows? Maybe McCain does have a mandate after all.

But who knew that his mandate extended to HMO reform and the so-called Patients Bill of Rights? As Mr. Bush was launching Tax Cut Week, McCain was in front of the camera lights again, moth-like. (Note: It seems each week will have its own special theme in Bush II; that makes it easy for all of us to follow the news.)

McCain wasn't pushing tax cuts. Quite the contrary, he was with Democrats Teddy Kennedy and John Dingell, sponsoring their managed-care legislation, an issue he has not been strongly associated with in the past.

The most important and effective Republican co-sponsor of this HMO legislation, Rep. Charlie Norwood, R-Ga., wasn't there. He said he wanted to give the new White House more time to get on board.

But the McCain bus was in a hurry and the press conference went on s scheduled, live on some cable networks. And in true "maverick" style, McCain apparently reversed course within a few hours when he told reporters that his high profile support of the legislation was really no big deal. "I'm not bringing urgency to it. I've introduced a bill..." Huh?

Then when Mr. Bush unexpectedly announced that he would not approve immediate cash bonuses for the Pentagon, McCain was Johnny on the Spot to yell at him. "I believe that we need to spend some money very quickly to address some of the problems that were identified in the campaign," he told CBS News, swiftly and certainly.

The thing is, Mr. Bush's dissing of the Pentagon had the potential to be a very McCainesque gesture - in the good sense. He was telling a key constituency something it didn't want to hear, but for good reason. Mr. Bush indicated that he would not open the taps until his own team had completed its plan for strategic and management reform of the military. Seems reasonable.

Mr. Bush also wanted to send a message to congressional appropriators that he and, more importantly, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, weren't going to merrily continue larding the Pentagon pork barrel. McCain has been the Senate's leading pork chopper for years.

Now, perhaps McCain has some inside knowledge that Mr. Bush's review of national defense is a sham, bogus whitewash that he will use to legitimize flooding the Pentagon with dough in a few months. That doesn't seem too likely. It also doesn't seem particularly likely now that McCain will be a constructive force in actually reforming the Pentagon's evil ways, if such a thing is possible.

It remains to be seen whether McCain will cause mischief where it matters most to the new president - a tax deal. As a leader of Republican moderates (is that what they are?) in a Senate divided 50-50, there is ample opportunity for fun.

Which Johnny will come to play? No doubt the president is a Curious George.

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