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That’s the line inside the Republican Party about its former frontrunner for the presidential nomination, John McCain. No name, not even Ron Paul, elicits the snort of contempt you get when you utter that of the senator from Arizona to a Republican operative.
You have to wonder why. Republicans, after all, have long styled themselves as the party of leadership. They did it so much that they irritated almost everyone. Their talk had an empty circularity: someone was a leader because he led. Yet they clung to the word, through the campaigns of 2000 and 2004.
Fast forward to 2008. You may not agree with every one of McCain’s positions. But at least he has positions. He is the candidate who is making unpopular, and often right, choices. Just the way a true leader does.
Consider pork, the congressional spending on interest-group programs. Lawmakers, with the tacit support of President George W. Bush, have used the excuse of the war in Iraqto spend the past half-decade inserting earmarks and other giveaways into whatever legislation comes before them.
McCain, unlike many Republicans, has crusaded over the years against the process. Monday night in a Michiganspeech he made a promise: ``Give me the pen, and I’ll veto every single pork- barrel bill Congress sends me.’’ And knowing what we know about McCain, you have to believe him.