While moderating GOP debate, Des Moines Register editor cited McCain's “maverick” reputation

Echoing the media's common characterization of Sen. John McCain as “principled” and “honest” -- and ignoring the various instances in which McCain has fallen in line with the Bush administration or the Republican Party establishment -- Des Moines Register editor Carolyn Washburn, moderator of the recent Republican debate, asked McCain: “Your reputation as a maverick has put you at odds with your own party leadership from time to time. Give us an example of a time you wished you had compromised to get something done instead of holding firm on your ideals.”


During the December 12 Republican presidential debate, moderator and Des Moines Register editor Carolyn Washburn asked Sen. John McCain (AZ): “Senator McCain, your reputation as a maverick has put you at odds with your own party leadership from time to time. Give us an example of a time you wished you had compromised to get something done instead of holding firm on your ideals.” Washburn's question echoed media figures' frequent description of McCain as a “maverick,” despite the various instances in which McCain has fallen in line with the Bush administration or the Republican Party establishment on issues large and small.

Washburn also echoed the media's common characterization of McCain as “principled” and “honest,” regardless of his contradictory statements and equivocations on a variety of issues, such as the Iraq war, Christian conservatives, tax cuts for the wealthy, the Confederate flag, and abortion rights, as Media Matters for America has documented. For instance:

  • In his November 26 column, Washington Post editorial page editor Fred Hiatt claimed that McCain is the only presidential candidate with “principles” that he “holds strongly enough to take an electoral hit,” specifically citing McCain's positions on the Iraq war, immigration, and “curbing the influence of money in politics.”
  • Shortly after the 2006 midterm elections, New York Times columnist David Brooks stated: “The main reason Republicans think they lost is because all they cared about was hanging onto power. They had no attachment to principles. And McCain's not an 'I'm all for power' guy. He does have a core.” In a November 13 column, Brooks wrote:

He won't tell you everything, but there will never be a moment as the hours stretch by when you feel that he is spinning you, lying to himself or insulting your intelligence.

Telling the truth is a skill. Those who don't do it habitually lose the ability, but McCain is well-practiced and has the capacity to face unpleasant truths.

[...]

There have been occasions when McCain compromised his principles for political gain, but he was so bad at it that it always backfired. More often, he is driven by an ancient sense of honor, which is different from fame and consists of the desire to be worthy of the esteem of posterity.

  • In his September 19, 2006, column, Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen wrote that McCain has greater “stature” than Democratic presidential hopefuls “because he embodies a quality for which the country yearns: integrity.” Specifically, Cohen wrote that with McCain, "[t]he man and his message are one and the same" when it comes to restoring “the people's loss of faith in government.”

From the Des Moines Register's December 12 Republican presidential debate:

WASHBURN: Senator McCain, your reputation as a “maverick” has put you at odds with your own party leadership from time to time. Give us an example of a time you wished you had compromised to get something done instead of holding firm on your ideals.

McCAIN: I cannot think of a time, and I hope that I could never think of a time, because I came to Washington because I had a set of principles and ideals. But at the same time, I have this -- more legislative achievements that anybody on this, on this stage by far. I have joined together across the aisle on a number of pieces of legislation, many of them very important. I'm proud of my legislative record, of conserving my ideals and my conservative principles and getting things done in Washington, and I'm proud of that, and I will continue to hold to those ideals, but I will reach across the aisle to the Democrats who I have worked with who know me, and we know we can work together for the good of this country.