McCain to Seek GOP Nod for White House in 2000

Maverick Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who endured 5 1/2 years of torture as a prisoner of war in Vietnam and hobbled home a hero, today will disclose his intention to seek the Republican nomination for president in 2000, aides said Tuesday.

In keeping with his image as a politician who often defies convention, the former Navy bomber pilot will not deliver the obligatory grand political announcement.

Instead, McCain plans only to dispatch aides to the Federal Election Commission to file papers setting up an “exploratory committee” to promote his candidacy--making him the first Republican to take this initial step toward making a presidential bid in 2000.

Elected in November to a third Senate term, McCain, 62, is vacationing with his family in Fiji and will not make a formal statement for several weeks.

“John McCain is a very charismatic and well-respected senator,” said Ed Gillespie, a GOP strategist. “The only question for him is how he will fare with certain segments of the Republican Party base--the conservatives who are upset with him over his tobacco control legislation and his campaign finance reform plan.”

If McCain can overcome those hurdles and win his party’s nomination, he could be a formidable candidate in a general election because his independent streak and war-hero status are likely to have broad appeal.

“McCain is the kind of guy who appeals to Reagan Democrats and Perot-minded independents,” Gillespie said.

Indeed, McCain won the support of large majorities of Latino and female voters in Arizona in his recent reelection victory.

However, it is not known if the flamboyant lawmaker, who has a weakness for quixotic causes but little of substance to show for his 16 years in Congress, could convince voters across the country to send him to the White House.

To date, two Democrats have established similar committees: Sen. Paul Wellstone of Minnesota and former Sen. Bill Bradley of New Jersey.

Vice President Al Gore has not yet taken any formal steps toward a 2000 candidacy, but he has left no doubt that he will run.

Potential Republican contenders include Texas Gov. George W. Bush, publisher Steve Forbes, former vice president Dan Quayle and former Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander.

McCain was a Navy brat. Both his father and grandfather were admirals, and there was never any question in the McCain household that “Johnny” would follow in their footsteps.

But he did it his own way.

At the Naval Academy, McCain flouted rules with abandon, accumulating so many demerits that by the end of his sophomore year, he had marched enough extra duty to go from Annapolis to Baltimore and back 17 times, the senator recalled. In a class of 894 men, he graduated fifth from the bottom.

After being shot down during a bombing mission over Hanoi in 1967, McCain was offered a chance to go free by the North Vietnamese, who anticipated a propaganda coup by releasing the son of a Navy admiral.

But McCain responded by taunting his captors--and refused to go. After that, they subjected him to years of solitary confinement and torture that left his arms less than fully functional.

McCain returned home in 1973. Shortly afterward, his first marriage ended in divorce. In 1980, he married Cindy Hensley, the daughter of a wealthy Arizona businessman, and moved to Phoenix.

In 1982, when GOP Rep. John Rhodes retired, McCain jumped into the race, knocking on 20,000 doors and wearing out three pairs of shoes. After just two terms in the House, McCain won the Senate seat vacated by the retiring Barry Goldwater.

“I’m still the iconoclast,” he said in a recent interview. “But at the same time I’m also working more in a result-oriented fashion.”

One such endeavor was a plan to promote campaign finance reform. Joined by Sen. Russell D. Feingold (D-Wis.), McCain waged an uphill struggle that was all but doomed from the beginning, given the strong opposition of most of the Senate’s other 54 Republicans.

Another was McCain’s proposal to protect children from tobacco, which also was killed by the GOP-controlled Senate this year.

McCain also brokered a deal that led to stricter Senate rules governing gifts and meals paid for by lobbyists. And he has steadfastly fought pork-barrel spending.

Since 1996, McCain has chaired the Commerce Committee, which oversees aviation, telecommunications, interstate commerce, marine and ocean navigation and administration of the Panama Canal Zone, where he was born.

If he runs for president, McCain could be dogged by several personal controversies.

In the late 1980s, he and four other senators were accused of intervening improperly with federal regulators on behalf of Arizona businessman Charles H. Keating Jr., in the savings and loan industry collapse.

Although McCain’s involvement proved minimal, he was branded one of “the Keating Five.” The Senate Ethics Committee eventually ruled that he had simply “exercised poor judgment.”

During that ordeal, Cindy McCain became addicted to prescription painkillers and later was found to have stolen such medication. She completed a rehabilitation program in 1992.

Over the years, McCain has acknowledged without hesitation the various, well-documented youthful indiscretions and the womanizing that ended his first marriage.

Despite his maverick streak, McCain is a bedrock conservative, voting consistently to oppose gay rights, “partial-birth” abortions, and minimum-wage increases while backing a constitutional amendment to ban flag desecration.

McCain said recently that his efforts to promote bipartisanship have taught him the importance of building trust.

“The important thing is that people understand you will act on principle,” he said. “With me, what you see is what you get.”

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Profile: John McCain

* Born: Aug. 29, 1936, in Panama Canal Zone

* Education: U.S. Naval Academy, 1958

* Career highlights: U.S. Navy, 1958-81. House of Representatives, 1982-1987. Senate, 1987-present

* Personal: Married; six children. His father was a Navy admiral who served as commander in chief of U.S. forces in the Pacific during the Vietnam War. His widowed mother lives in Washington.