The Republican party’s last presidential nominee is warning one of its rising 2012 presidential stars that her rhetoric over the debt ceiling is starting to sound a little familiar. And that could blow it for the GOP next year.
“There are Republicans who are committed, like Michele Bachmann, to vote against raising the debt limit under any circumstances,” Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) told the National Review’s Robert Costa.
“Bachmann, [McCain] warns, is acting ‘sort of like Senator Obama did.’”
In 2006, Obama voted against increasing the debt limit — a vote he later admitted was blatantly political, and he recently called “a mistake.”
Costa notes that at the time, Sen. Obama “ascribed his opposition to the ‘failure’ of George W. Bush to address the country’s fiscal problems.”
Bachmann has picked up that line, using it to attack Obama now that he’s in the White House (and she’s trying to replace him.)
This is a big, big mistake, McCain says. He’s already signed onto Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s plan to end the debt limit fight in a fashion that is completely outrageous to the right wing of the GOP who are more likely to be attracted to Bachmann than McCain on virtually any occasion.
From Costa’s piece:
“I appreciate the zeal and fervor of my colleagues; I want us to get an agreement,” McCain says, but with the financial markets uneasy and Obama intent on raising taxes, it is time for Republicans to continue the debate on a fresh front.“With a huge segment of the media clearly cheering for Obama,” Republicans, McCain says, risk being blamed for any economic tremor, as unfair as that may seem. “Some people say we wouldn’t get the blame — we would get the blame.” After three years of highlighting Obama’s inept economic stewardship, suddenly, he fears, the party would have the finger pointed at them.
“It’s frustrating,” McCain says, shaking his head. “I really hope our Republican base can understand that we have not lost our zeal or dedication to spending cuts, but we are aware of the consequences of not having a Plan B in case all else fails.”
This is a very similar defense to the one McConnell is mounting to his plan. Yesterday, he told conservative radio host Laura Ingraham his plan would “prevent [the GOP] from being sucked in to a horrible position politically that would allow the President to probably get re-elected.”
Read Costa’s full piece here.
Evan McMorris-Santoro
Evan McMorris-Santoro has covered politics for TPM since 2009. Before that, he was a reporter at National Journal’s Hotline covering election 2008. He started his career covering local politics at newspapers in TN and his native NC.
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