McCainiac

Arizona Senator John McCain appeared on Face The Nation with Bob Schieffer today. McCain was scheduled to talk about the Massachusetts special election.

However, McCain began by attacking the Administration for their handling of the Christmas bomber, and their decision to give Abdul Farouk Umar Abdulmutallab his constitutional rights, "He was cooperating until he got a lawyer. That makes it impossible to follow the leads."

Next up was the topic of Fed chairmen Ben Bernanke. President Obama has re-nominated Bernanke to chair the Fed, despite, as McCain puts it, "he was in charge when we hit the iceberg." There are congressmen and both sides of the aisle who have doubts about Bernanke, and McCain said that he is "leaning towards voting against" him.

Finally, McCain was asked to comment on the Supreme Court ruling on the law that he sponsored, McCain-Fiengold. "I don't believe there is anything we can do," he said. He lamented that many conservatives on the court have no history of running for office, and said that that limits their understanding of the political process.

When the Massachusetts election came up at the end, the topic immediately turned to the health care bill. McCain advised the Democrats to abandon the bill that they have and sit down in a bi-partisan fashion to write a bill that everybody can agree on. He then went on to mention tort reform and selling plans across state lines. The problem is these are not solutions that everybody can agree on. Democrats will never go for tort reform, some might say because trail lawyers are a big contributor to the party. And selling across state lines? Well, that was already supposed to be in the bill in the form of an "insurance exchange," but Republicans have spent the last eight months railing against that plan with shouts of "death panels!"

McCain still has a reputation as a moderate in the Republican party. Although he has moved to the right since becoming the Republican nominee for president, so has his party. So, McCain still deserves his reputation as a moderate, but he is facing a primary challenge from his right, and the direction of the Republican party is still torn between moderates and the "tea-party" crowd.