Republican and Conservative political analysis and commentary

Washington Post political writer/blogger Chris Cillizza says Sen. John McCain is the favorite punching bag of Democrat presidential wannabees because he's the front-runner for the Republican nomination. Never mind that McCain isn't the sole front-runner - in fact, he probably trails former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani by a small margin - the Democrats apparently think McCain is the most likely winner of the Republican nomination, so they're attacking him full-bore for his call to increase American troop strength in Iraq.

Quote of the week honors go to McCain campaign political strategist John Weaver, who fired back at Hillary Clinton advisor Mark Penn's criticisms of McCain's call for more troops in Iraq, saying, "It must be so alien for them - the Clinton advisers - to actually observe someone say and do what they believe to be right and good for the country without polling on it first."

South Carolina blog FITSNews puts it this way: Not to get too technical on you or anything, but in boxing, that is called "landing a punch."

Yes it is. As Cillizza says, "Ouch."

So, who is John Weaver? ...

Foer wrote:

Long before many Democrats became Bush haters, Weaver was already there. As a chief strategist for John McCain's 2000 presidential campaign, he bore witness to the carnage of the primary in South Carolina...

That experience alone might have been enough to drive Weaver from the Republican Party. But the Bushies - and especially Karl Rove, whose rivalry with Weaver dated back to their early careers in Texas - took all the steps necessary to seal the deal. At the direction of the White House, GOP campaign contracts stopped coming Weaver's way. In one widely reported instance, Rove allegedly prevented Weaver from joining Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions's reelection campaign. Things got so bad for Weaver that McCain told talk-show host Don Imus in March 2002, "John was made unwelcome in the Republican Party. He does have a right to make a living." 

In early 2002, Weaver reregistered as a Democrat. And even that doesn't do justice to his alienation. Soon after crossing the aisle, he signed contracts with the Association of Trial Lawyers of America and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee - two organizations deeply committed to the defeat of Republican candidates. He joined the inner circle of consultants planning Dick Gephardt's presidential campaign. (Had he not developed cancer, he would have likely remained active in that campaign.) And, to almost any reporter who called, he articulated a stinging critique of the Bushies. 

So, the fact that he agreed to sit down for coffee with Rove later this spring was, itself, a shocking turn of events. The results of their meeting are even harder to assimilate. Not only has Weaver helped arrange a series of Bush-McCain appearances--including two days of joint campaigning planned for the middle of the Republican National Convention--but he has also become a primary liaison between the two camps.

Making peace with the Bush camp appears to have been a smart move for McCain's future presidential ambitions. As the Dec. 19 USA Today reported,

Sen. John McCain has tapped into President Bush's vast network of campaign contributors in greater numbers so far than has a leading potential rival for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination.

McCain did not establish a presidential exploratory committee until last month, a move that will enable him only now to directly start raising money for a possible presidential campaign. But using an already organized political action committee as a proxy for his undeclared presidential campaign, McCain in the past 16 months has attracted more than $1.4 million from 640 of Bush's 2004 donors throughout 40 states. That is almost triple the $505,999 collected from former Bush donors by a similar leadership PAC belonging to Rudy Giuliani, a former New York City mayor.

An Arizona Republic analysis of Federal Election Commission records also shows that nearly seven of 10, or 436, of donors who gave to Bush in 2004 and have since given money to McCain's Straight Talk America PAC are new supporters of the Arizona senator.

With Weaver, McCain has a real fighter - a fighter who understands when to fire back, and when to hold one's fire and live to fight another day. Expect Weaver to launch and land many more such roundhouse punches on McCain's critics and rivals as the campaign heats up.

But don't be surprised if McCain's GOP rivals try to make an issue of Weaver's work on behalf of the trial lawyers, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Gephardt.