One of the less talked about reasons as to why many movement conservatives, such as Tom DeLay, hate John McCain, is that, as chairman of the Indian Affairs Committee, McCain actually played an important role in exposing the Jack Abramoff scandal. The damage that this scandal did to both the Republican Party and the conservative movement, including its leaders like Tom DeLay, was pretty severe. Because of this, no matter how much McCain backtracks and tries to suck up to the right-wing, many movement conservatives will never forgive him for his role in the Abramoff scandal.
All of this makes the absence of Abramoff in McCain's messaging extremely interesting. On the surface, it would seem like the perfect issue for McCain to run on. It would emphasize his image as a reformer in an election where people are seeking change. It would emphasize his willingness to stand up to his own party, in an election where people hate Republicans. It would also make him look tough and principled, in that he is willing to throw high-ranking members of his own party into jail if they break the law. Combined with the selection of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, who defeated a corrupt Republican governor in the 2006 primary, it strikes me that McCain would have a winning message reinforced by two object lessons. With a paid media campaign centered on Abramoff, a McCain-Palin ticket could argue that it is willing and able to throw Republicans in jail and out of office if they are corrupt. That is a pretty solid message this year, and it could erode, or even erase, Obama's lead pretty quickly.
And yet, Abramoff has almost never come up in McCain's message in this campaign. A Google search on McCain's website shows only 19 results for Abramoff, which is only one more time than Dennis Kucinich is mentioned. Further, about half of the Abramoff results on the website are from old pages that are now obsolete. In short, there is virtually no mention of Abramoff by the McCain campaign.
The most obvious conclusion to draw from the absence of Abramoff in McCain messaging, even though McCain is running as a capable reformer who will stand up to his own party, is that McCain isn't actually willing to stand up to his own party anymore. That McCain is not messaging on Abramoff is a clear sign that he is too afraid of angering his big-money donors, too afraid of angering conservative media, and too afraid of angering Republican Party higher-ups to run on his role in the Abramoff scandal. Abramoff is just about the perfect way to reinforce McCain's campaign message, and yet he isn't using it. As such, this is the perfect demonstration that McCain isn't actually a crusading reformer willing to stand up to his own party. At this point, he can't even stand up to his own party in terms of messaging, much less anything substantive. |
