WSJ    * DECEMBER 12, 2009

McCain Takes Center Stage in Health Fight After Lying Low in Wake of
2008 Presidential-Election Loss, Arizona Senator Mounts Opposition to
Obama's Top Priority


By NAFTALI BENDAVID and GREG HITT

Sen. John McCain kept a relatively low profile for months after he lost
the 2008 presidential election to Barack Obama. Those days are over.

In the health-care battle, the Arizona Republican has suddenly emerged
as the John McCain of old -- a vigorous political combatant. He has
publicly hammered Democratic proposals, engaged in heated exchanges
on the Senate floor and lent his voice to automated telephone calls
pressuring Democratic senators in Arkansas, Colorado and Nebraska on
their looming health-care votes.

One of the best-known members of Congress, Mr. McCain is giving the
party something it had been lacking in the Obama era: a high-profile
congressional spokesman on an issue -- health care -- that has consumed
Washington. His presence also offers a new potential center of gravity
for a party still trying to find its way after bruising electoral defeats
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After losing the 2008 presidential election, John McCain had been mostly
silent in his return to Washington. A more-familiar, combative McCain
has regained his voice to tussle with Democrats and speak up for the
GOP in the Senate on health care.

"He's our best-known Republican senator," said Senate Minority Leader
Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.), who tapped Mr. McCain for the role of
party spokesman on health care. "He has a national following. He got
a substantial number of votes in a very bad year" for Republicans,
Mr. McConnell said, referring to the nearly 60 million popular votes
Mr. McCain got as the losing 2008 candidate.

Democrats say Mr. McCain is part of a broad Republican effort to kill
the health-care bill -- President Obama's top agenda item -- and deal a
devastating political blow to the administration. Mr. McCain disagrees,
contending that the legislation in its current form is simply bad policy,
but he appears to be relishing the political combat.

"I've enjoyed it," he said in an interview. "I think the debate and
discussion are important."

Mr. McCain has championed GOP efforts to oppose the health-care bill
on many fronts. For instance, he has denounced AARP, an organization
representing older Americans that supports the bill. "Shame on AARP,"
he said on the Senate floor.

He has also decried the influence of special interests in general,
complaining that Democrats wrote the legislation with input from
health-industry lobbyists. "Call the White House," he said at one point,
addressing the public at large. "Say you'd like to have an appointment"
to influence what's in the bill, he said.

Democrats have returned Mr. McCain's fire. After he criticized their
proposed cuts to Medicare, Democrats said he had pushed similar
cuts to the program during the 2008 campaign. "This is a huge, big
belly-flop-flip-flop," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D.,
Nev.). "He'd better get his reasoning straightened out."

Mr. McCain responded forcefully, saying he "deeply" regretted Mr. Reid's
remark and that the Democrats' proposed cuts had "no relation to what
I tried to do in my campaign."

Mr. McCain said he doesn't take the back-and-forth personally. "It's
been respectful," he said. "Durbin and I go at it almost every day,
but we get along just fine."  [john mccain] Reuters

Sen. John McCain of Arizona talks with reporters in Washington earlier
this year. One of the best-known members of Congress, Sen. McCain
has become a high-profile Republican spokesman for efforts to derail
legislation aimed at overhauling the nation's health-care system.

Mr. Durbin agreed. "A number of people have mistaken our combative nature
on the issues as something personal. It is not," he said. "John and I
are friends."

When Mr. McCain decisively lost the 2008 presidential election, some
colleagues thought he would return to Capitol Hill and become a leader
of Senate Republicans, perhaps serving as a bridge to Democrats on
some issues.

His history of deviating from conservative orthodoxy, especially on
sensitive topics such as immigration, appeals to the independent voters
coveted by both parties, and he has regularly worked with Democrats on
major issues in the past. This past week, Mr. McCain backed a measure
by Sen. Byron Dorgan (D., N.D.) that would allow the importation of
cheaper drugs.

Mr. McCain's maverick style and willingness to reach across the aisle has
often angered the sort of conservative activists who currently provide
much of the GOP's energy. This year, as large Democratic majorities in
Congress have sought to move the party's agenda over GOP objections,
Mr. McCain has spoken out less as a maverick and more as a traditional
Republican.

Even as he kept a lower profile prior to the health-care debate,
Mr. McCain was sharply critical of various Democratic proposals. He
derided Democrats' cap-and-trade plan to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions,
for example, though in the past he had supported similar proposals. A
spokeswoman for the senator said he believes climate legislation currently
before the Senate doesn't do enough to encourage the deployment of
nuclear power.

Mr. McCain has also criticized Mr. Obama's economic-stimulus plan,
saying it has led to wasteful spending. He noted that universities in
his home state of Arizona had received stimulus funding to study the
division of labor in ant colonies.

"I had no idea so much expertise regarding ants resided in the major
universities of my state," he told reporters at a press conference
Tuesday.  —Stephen Power contributed to this article.

Write to Naftali Bendavid at naftali.bendavid@wsj.com and Greg Hitt at
greg.hitt@wsj.com Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A5