Citizen McCain
By Elizabeth Drew
Simon and Schuster/$23
A former POW and presidential aspirant in 2000 who rode his "Straight Talk Express" to a near-upset of George W., John McCain has never been a darling of the GOP establishment, perhaps the reason why he is so popular with the American electorate.
However, it is this popularity, critics contend, that has marginalized McCain by alienating him from his lesser-known colleagues, thereby limiting his ability to bring consensus on his crusade to reform how campaigns are financed.
But veteran inside-the-Beltway author Elizabeth Drew's new work, Citizen McCain, sets out to dismiss this conventional wisdom. In a concise portrait of the legislative face of one of America's most admired public figures, she details the regard McCain is held in by his fellow senators, while exposing the real culprits behind the historical defeat of campaign finance reform (evil Republican incumbents, of course, but also hypocritical Democrat incumbents).
With the kind of access normally reserved for Bob Woodward, Drew provides a blow-by-blow account of how a bill becomes a law without getting bogged down in the parliamentarian pitfalls that trap — and put to sleep — all but the most ambitious poli-sci students.
Drew's writing is all substance and little style, occasionally coming across as not much more than a string of bullet points. But her brevity and objectiveness allow the magnitude of the events to speak for themselves. This format mixes exceptionally well with such a candid public persona as McCain.
Citizen McCain is not a romantic, whimsical journey in search of the senator's soul; rather, it's a well-paced narrative of one man's will to change the political culture. Sound grandiose? Yes, but when the negative campaigning and mudslinging starts flying later this election year, you'll be thankful for McCain's effort — and for Drew's work to document it.
This article appears in Aug 7-13, 2002.
