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The
Washington Times The strong-willed
defense secretary and the equally hard-nosed Republican senator from
Arizona, both ex-Navy pilots and hawks on Iraq, were supposed to make
peace over two nagging issues. Mr. McCain did
not believe Mr. Rumsfeld was adequately paying attention to, or disclosing
information about, the Boeing tanker lease scandal; Mr. Rumsfeld wanted
Mr. McCain to lift his opposition to several Pentagon nominations bogged
down in the Senate. Rather than serving
as a peacemaker, the meeting turned into a frank exchange of views that
left both men bitter toward the other, according to two defense sources
who were briefed later. "It went very
badly," said one source. "Rumsfeld brought over McCain to
schmooze him. It didn't work." The sources differed
on the exact wording, but they agreed that when Mr. Rumsfeld was unable
to persuade the Arizona Republican to let the nominees go forward, he
suggested the senator, a prisoner of war in Vietnam, was hurting the
war effort. "This is when
McCain just about climbed over the table," one source said. A spokeswoman for
the senator did not return phone messages. The two men, who
share a penchant for blunt talk, had not gotten along well before the
meetings. But defense and congressional aides say the relationship worsened
afterward, with the senator dug in even harder on blocking the nominees. The Bush administration
and the Pentagon are becoming increasingly concerned about avoiding
a repeat of what they dub the "McCain effect" in 2005, because
Mr. Rumsfeld plans this year to restock his senior offices and needs
the approval of the Senate -- and thus Mr. McCain. The senator has
hurt Mr. Rumsfeld's standing in Washington by, among other things, saying
in December that he had "no confidence" in Mr. Rumsfeld. While the opposition
Democrats can be expected to criticize the defense secretary over postwar
planning in Iraq or detainee abuse, Mr. McCain's words took on added
weight among the Washington press corps. Republicans privately
complain that Mr. McCain positions himself as a maverick and "anti-Republican
Republican" knowing that this is what liberal media outlets want
to hear and report. "His powers
come from a favorable media and what projects out of that," said
John Samples, director of the Center for Representative Government at
the Cato Institute. "It's an appeal that crosses party lines in
some respects. But I think his appeal is more toward moderates andDemocrats.
There is no evidence he has a strong Republican base appeal nationally." Larry Di Rita,
Mr. Rumsfeld's spokesman, said in an interview the Pentagon is determined
to prevent a new logjam by providing Mr. McCain all the information
it can on the Boeing negotiations. "The secretary
has declared a desire to resolve any lingering tanker issues so that
does not become an obstacle to nominations," the spokesman said. Concerning Mr.
McCain, Mr. Di Rita said "the secretary takes that relationship
seriously. He knows he's important to the country. Senator McCain is
a very serious, thoughtful guy." "The secretary
is very aware that Senator McCain is acutely focused on the operations
of this department and what we are doing to clear up any remaining anxiety
about this tanker lease issue. The secretary's position from the beginning
has been to get the information out," he said. With his cherished
campaign-finance-reform law signed by President Bush, Mr. McCain found
a new hot-button issue: a noncompetitive plan by the Air Force to lease
refueling jets from Boeing Co. for a cost that could reach $30 billion. The more that Mr.
McCain, a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, looked
into the deal, the worse he said it smelled. He started demanding documents
-- including internal e-mails of Air Force Secretary James Roche and
others -- but the Pentagon initially stonewalled. Defense sources
say the White House drew up a letter in response that restricted access
to Mr. McCain, who could only read the documents, not copy them or take
notes. "The letter
was completely insulting to the senator," a defense official acknowledged
later. Mr. McCain began
exercising a senator's prerogative to hold up nominees, including candidates
to run the Army, and Pentagon weapons-buying. The stalemate was
the tense backdrop for the McCain-Rumsfeld meeting in late summer. Defense
sources say Mr. Rumsfeld had gone on a full-court press to try to get
nominees through, but had failed. They said his sometimes gruff style
in talking to senators did not help. The secretary asked
Mr. McCain to let his people go. The senator wanted Mr. Rumsfeld to
start taking a personal interest in the Boeing scandal and release more
documents. "If you want
McCain to give you something, you have to make a trade," said a
former senior Senate staffer involved in hammering out defense budgets.
"If you're not willing to trade, he won't budge." Weeks later, the
Bush administration relented and began shipping Mr. McCain a string
of embarrassing e-mails that showed Mr. Roche browbeating bureaucrats
and working to make sure that Boeing won the deal to replace an aging
fleet of tankers further stressed by the war on terror. Darleen Druyun,
the Air Force official and later Boeing executive who principally negotiated
the deal, pleaded guilty in federal court to a conflict of interest
and is serving a nine-month prison sentence. Mr. McCain took
to the Senate floor Nov. 19 and read e-mail excerpts and called the
Boeing deal "a case of either a systemic failure in procurement
oversight, willful blindness or rank corruption." Several defense
officials now say that Mr. McCain has been correct to press the Pentagon
on making more public disclosures on the Boeing deal. A Bush administration
official said last week that the basic disagreement is that Mr. McCain
believes the scandal is broader than the actions of Mrs. Druyun and
that culpable Pentagon officials should be fired, while the Department
of Defense does not at this point. The Boeing lease
deal is dead. The Pentagon is looking at options to buy new tankers,
rather than lease them, through competitive bids. The Air Force has
diluted the power of Mrs. Druyun's old office by creating more oversight. What remains broken,
for now, is the Rumsfeld-McCain relationship. Mr. Di Rita says
the Pentagon has been slow to turn over documents. He chalks it up to
bureaucratic snags. "The
secretary wants to continue broader and deeper relations across the
board in 2005 with Congress," he said. Copyright © 2005 News World Communications, Inc. All rights reserved. |
