Every two years the Washingtonian surveys members of the Senate and House and their staffs, asking them to rate members of Congress in a variety of categories, some serious, some fun: Best Leader, Worst Follower, Hottest Temper, Straight Shooter, and more. In 2006, two years before he became the Republican nominee for president, here’s how Capitol Hill insiders saw John McCain.
Straightest Shooter
1. John McCain (R-Arizona)
2. Chuck Hagel (R-Nebraska)
McCain’s Straight Talk Express is still humming. He gets votes from both sides of the aisle, as does Hagel, considered “McCain Lite.”
Worst Follower
1. Lincoln Chafee (R-Rhode Island)
2. John McCain (R-Arizona)
3. Joe Lieberman (D-Connecticut)
Chafee’s the most liberal of the GOP. Close behind are McCain, a little less of a maverick as 2008 nears, and Lieberman, a Bush ally on the Iraq war, much to his party’s dismay.
RIP John McCain, a straight shooter and a man who followed his conscience, not the party line.
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