WASHINGTON – Sen. John McCain, the straight-talking Republican who often challenges the GOP establishment, has taken on a headline-grabbing issue – steroids in baseball – and generated talk of a presidential bid in 2008.
Amid revelations about baseball’s biggest names, McCain has threatened to push legislation early next year if Major League Baseball and the players do not clean up their act. McCain long has advocated harsher penalties for athletes caught using performance-enhancing drugs.
The three-term senator from Arizona has earned a reputation as a go-to lawmaker, tackling campaign finance, the war on Iraq, federal spending and climate change.
It’s little wonder that his foray into the baseball scandal has revived Republican speculation about McCain and the 2008 presidential race.
“The big question is: Can McCain get any hotter?” said Scott Reed, a Republican consultant.
The talk is coming from outside the Washington Beltway, too.
“He’s pretty well set to go in four years,” said Jerry Roe, a former head of the Michigan Republican Party. “Politicians that go anyplace are like rock stars. McCain’s a rock star.”
A senator since 1986, McCain sought the GOP nomination in 2000 but lost to Bush in a bitter campaign. Over the next four years, McCain, a former Vietnam prisoner of war and deficit hawk who rarely held his tongue, became a frequent critic of the Bush administration and gained a reputation for bipartisanship.
McCain deflects questions about another run for the White House.
“I have no contemplation for the next couple of years to do anything except be a good senator,” McCain said last week on CNN. “I don’t think I can help the people of Arizona by planning and plotting to be president of the United States when the present president hasn’t even been inaugurated for a second term.”
Associated Press
Sen. John McCain, with his wife Cindy, addresses the media in 2000. McCain’s recent involvement in the baseball steroid scandal has many speculating on his presidential bid in 2008.
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