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Raising McCain
A great big man's obsession
with a tiny little airport

Cover Story

Sen. John McCain does not lose gracefully. The Arizona Republican and potential presidential candidate once shoved nonagenarian Strom Thurmond on the Senate floor. In 1994, he gave the silent treatment to his hometown newspaper—the Arizona Republic—after it ran a nasty but not unmerited cartoon about his wife, who'd been caught stealing from an international children's relief agency. Two of his colleagues got the cold shoulder—for years—after they crossed him during a Senate investigation of the Keating Five scandal. McCain has a long and vivid memory.

So it was hardly unprecedented when, on Feb. 11, McCain kicked off a meeting of the Senate Commerce Committee, which he chairs, by lamenting what he called one of his "most bitter disappointments" of the previous year. He mourned for a bill for which "the United States Senate worked so hard for so long last year, and this legislation was cavalierly dismissed in the final debacle that ended last year's session of Congress."

A little angst is understandable, given that McCain did battle last year with soft money and big tobacco, some of the fiercest dragons on Capitol Hill. Aggressively promoting two controversial bills, he bucked his party and stood up against daunting opponents with unlimited resources. But although he won the war—cementing his reputation as the un-Senator, the one with integrity—he ultimately lost the battles. His fragile campaign-finance bill wilted on the Senate floor, and his historic tobacco agreement fell apart at the eleventh hour. It was a big, bad year for a man unaccustomed to taking no for an answer.... Continued

Issue of Mar. 12 - 18, 1999

News and Features

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    From the archives: A great big man's obsession with a tiny little airport
    Cover Story By Amanda Ripley
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