06:45 pm
My Favorite Republican
No, that’s not an oxymoron. We’ve all had favorites over the years — individuals with whom we may not agree on everything, but whom we regarded as thoughtful, honorable, well-intentioned. Jim Leach is one example that comes to mind; Chuck Hagel is another. For many, it used to be John McCain.
It therefore is no small irony that many of the Republicans who I and others have respected the most are either endorsing Obama (Leach, Lincoln Chaffee) or refusing to endorse McCain (Hagel, Brent Scowcroft, Colin Powell).
The same is now true of another, now largely forgotten, Republican I’ve long admired: William Milliken, who served as Governor of Michigan from 1969 to 1983. He was extremely capable and was very much in the tradition of moderate Republicans like Eisenhower and Rockefeller.
He’s also a pragmatist. In 2004, he endorsed Kerry. This year, he supported McCain in the primaries. But today, he backed away, basically unendorsing McCain:
“He is not the McCain I endorsed,” said Milliken, reached at his Traverse City home Thursday. “He keeps saying, ‘Who is Barack Obama?’ I would ask the question, ‘Who is John McCain?’ because his campaign has become rather disappointing to me.
“I’m disappointed in the tenor and the personal attacks on the part of the McCain campaign, when he ought to be talking about the issues.” . . . Milliken stopped short of saying he will vote for Obama, but said he differs with McCain on the Iraq war and his choice of Palin.
“I know John McCain is 72. In my book, that’s quite young,” said Milliken, 86, Michigan’s longest-serving governor. But he added, “What if [Palin] were to become president of the United States? The idea, to me, is quite disturbing, if not appalling. Increasingly, the party is moving toward rigidity, and I don’t like that. I think Gerald Ford would hold generally the same view I’m holding on the direction of the Republican Party.”
The McCain ship is sinking, and the sane people are jumping off. The rats, however, are actually trying to board.
Hat tip: Andrew Sullivan