McCain Would Appoint ‘Reform Czar’

Hammering away at his ongoing theme that the federal government is hopelessly bureaucratic and corrupt, Sen. John McCain pledged Thursday that as president he would appoint a Cabinet-level “reform czar.”

In a speech before the predominantly Republican New Hampshire state Legislature--with 400 members, the third largest legislative body in the world--the GOP presidential hopeful said the new official would “help me implement the changes in the institutions of government we must make if we are to restore a government of, by and for the American people as intended by our Founding Fathers.”

Standing beneath a portrait of George Washington, McCain likened the position to that of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who helps the president carry out national security policy. The reform czar, McCain said, also would be charged with removing “the cynical and corrupting influence of special-interest money” from politics.

Amplifying his proposal later, McCain described the appointee as a facilitator or coordinator who would operate much the way the federal drug czar has functioned. Rather than adding to the bulk of the federal structure, the senator from Arizona said, the reform czar would pare down excess across the board in Washington. He said he had no one in mind for the post. Naming names, he said, would constitute “a flight of fancy that, even with my optimism, is unrealistic.”

Asked if the new position would resemble Vice President Al Gore’s “reinventing government” effort, McCain blanched. “Please God, no,” he said.

His second major speech of the week lacked the insistent references to conservatism that marked Tuesday’s tax policy address. Instead, reform was McCain’s main message.

“You are the victims of pork-barrel politics,” he told the legislators. “And it must stop.”

McCain also injected traces of his wry humor into his speech. In a ploy that drives fellow Republicans crazy, he borrowed a beloved prayer from a Democrat, his old friend and fellow Arizonan, the late Rep. Morris K. Udall.

“O Lord, help me to utter words that are tender and gentle,” McCain intoned, “for at some future time I may have to eat them.”

The speech drew rapturous applause and added four names to the 75 Republican legislators here who had vowed to support him. Of the state’s 242 Republican legislators, the 79 who have committed to McCain represent the largest block of endorsements for any Republican candidate.

But McCain downplayed a poll released Thursday that showed him leading Texas Gov. George W. Bush by 9 percentage points in New Hampshire. Bush’s vast lead in campaign fund-raising, the senator said, leaves no room for complacency.

McCain’s day began with a small, almost intimate, meeting with police chiefs from rural southwestern New Hampshire. They described persistent problems with school violence and unsupervised youths whose use of alcohol and drugs causes community disruption.

McCain vowed to provide funds directly to states rather than via federal agencies.