Now that (in some ways) Arizona Sen. John McCain is reverting to an incarnation of the more independent McCain of 2000 and earlier, he is increasingly poised to clash with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. The Hill also notes that the two have locked horns in the past:
The relationship between Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is going to be awkward in the coming months.
McConnell finds himself increasingly constrained by both his new primary challenger and McCain’s expanded deal-making role with Democrats.
That’s important because McCain is emerging as an “old school” Senate member who believes it is not political treason to seriously talk to the other side and perhaps try to make a deal than rely exclusively on power politics. McConnell, facing a Tea Party challenger, is continuing on his path of contributing to the image of the GOP as the Just Say No party.
Republican senators told The Hill on Wednesday that McConnell is in danger of looking weak if McCain again seizes the leadership reins as he did to broker a deal to avert the “nuclear option” on President Obama’s executive nominees.
McCain is interested in being a major player in the talks later this year when Congress must pass legislation to continue government funding and raise the national debt limit.
Get ready for a battle royal — because there is “hubris”:
The McConnell-McCain relationship has fluctuated over the years. One GOP aide described it as “toxic” in the late 1990s and early 2000s when they fought intensely over campaign finance reform legislation.
Later, they locked horns on earmarks before Congress agreed to implement a ban on the pet projects long despised by McCain.
McConnell and McCain were on opposite sides in 2005 when then-Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) threatened to trigger a rule change that would have stripped the minority party of the power to filibuster judicial nominees.
McConnell backed Frist’s plan, but McCain worked within a bipartisan group of seven Republicans and seven Democrats to craft a compromise to thwart it.
In 2006, McCain helped former Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) defeat Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), one of McConnell’s closest friends in the upper chamber, in a race for Republican whip. Republican sources said McCain was pivotal in helping Lott eke out a one-vote win by whipping votes for him. McConnell was officially neutral in the race, but colleagues assumed he wanted Alexander in the No. 2 slot.
There’s more so go the link. The friction between the two could be particularly big due to McConnell’s re-election bid and his need to be seen as a Super Friend of the right.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.