Shameful Slander of a Maverick

Personal smears have been a nasty part of American political life since the earliest days of the republic, but it’s hard to recall a campaign more vicious than that being directed against Arizona Sen. John McCain, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination. The public is only now hearing of the scurrilous allegations though McCain’s enemies have been trying for some time to peddle their slanders to journalists. The gist of the story is that McCain is not just short-tempered--which he acknowledges--but mentally unstable. The smear’s ugliest aspect is the claim that what drove McCain over the edge was the 5 1/2 years of torture he suffered as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam.

McCain has responded to this trash talk with humorous disdain and a promise to release his full medical records. That could prove something of a political masterstroke. First, it’s likely to show there’s no clinical evidence to support the innuendoes about his mental state. Second, it would draw dramatic attention to the injuries McCain sustained as a POW. It would let people know that, whatever his future in public life, McCain is a man of unusual courage.

The smearing of McCain seems to be coming entirely from within the right wing of his party. Writing in The Times last Sunday, Washington columnist Elizabeth Drew identified the Republican senators she believes are personally--or through their staffs--spreading the calumnies. They include Majority Leader Trent Lott (Miss.), Majority Whip Don Nickles (Okla.), Paul Coverdell (Ga.) and Robert F. Bennett (Utah). All deny that they had anything to do with the well-planted rumors.

That McCain has enemies high in Republican ranks is no surprise. A strong supporter of most conservative causes, he also insists on being his own man on issues on which he feels strongly. He has advocated positions that give his party leaders heartburn, most notably campaign finance reform. McCain also has a reputation for not suffering fools, phonies and hypocrites lightly, a trait that has given him full scope for expression in today’s Congress.

What has been going on in the smearing of McCain is not just part of the effort to nail down the Republican presidential nomination for Texas Gov. George W. Bush, the favorite of the GOP Senate leadership. It’s more personal: payback time against a maverick senator whose independence outrages some of his more ideological colleagues. They have chosen an inexcusably shameful way to try to get even.