Books by the U.S. Senator from Arizona:
Worth Fighting For
Faith of My FathersPublished in 2002, Worth Fighting For is a follow-up to John McCain's first autobiography, Faith of My Fathers, which recounted his family's military tradition and his own experience as a prisoner of war during Vietnam. The 396-page memoir continues where its precursor left off, describing McCain's political career, from his first term in the House of Representative to his failed 2000 presidential campaign. He co-wrote the book with longtime political advisor, Mark Salter. —M.J. Stephey
Worth Fighting For
by John McCain
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| From Soldier to Politician | Given his family's military background and his POW experience, McCain had clear advantages over his peers after returning from Vietnam, and he knew it: "If you survive it, war can do wonders for a professional officer's career, accelerating promotions in rank that would take many years to achieve in peacetime." (p. 40) McCain's last Navy assignment was in the U.S. Senate's liaison office, where he served as a lobbyist for the military's interests and escorted senators traveling abroad. The experience transformed his view of public servants: "Like most professional officers, I had resented congressional opposition to the war and what we viewed as terribly misguided political interferences in the war's conduct ... I was not naïve about the influence Congress had over my profession. Indeed, my father had imparted to me a healthy respect and wariness of it. But I had no idea of the full extent of their authority until I personally witnessed it in practice." (p. 15) |
| Learning Politics | Once McCain decided to enter politics, he couldn't do it fast enough. He moved to Arizona in 1980 with his second wife and worked for her father's company as a public relations executive while he studied the state's political scene: "I was intent on starting a political career when I moved there, but I had no idea where in Arizona or when I would begin it. I was lucky, very lucky." (p. 61) With the help of rich and influential people like Charles Keating, John Tower and Duke Tully, publisher of the state's two largest newspapers, McCain won a seat in the state's 1st congressional district. |
| On Partisanship | When McCain began his first term as one of 435 House Representatives in 1982, he said he already sensed a growing hostility between the two parties. When an Indiana Democrat beat his Republican opponent by just four votes during the 1984 House elections, McCain recalls: "The House seemed to explode... everyone got into the act. Even physical threats were exchanged that day. After the vote, the entire Republican membership stormed out of the chamber. I don't think partisan politics has ever really settled down since. We are living in the era of confrontation, bitterness and far fewer cross-party friendships that began in earnest on that day." (p. 76) Even while serving as a member of the House, McCain had his eyes on a Senate seat: "I knew I would find it easier to raise my profile in the nation's capital as one of a select hundred; that my opinions, if no wiser than in years past, would receive more attention; that my ambitions, whatever they were, would experience greater scrutiny." (p. 121) When Barry Goldwater retired in 1986, McCain was elected to succeed him. |
| On His Maverick Reputation | Though McCain has clashed with his GOP colleagues on numerous occasions, he doesn't revel in his dissent: "... I am a Republican and, in many respects, a conservative one. And I regret as much as I resent being considered a traitor to our party's interests ..." (p. 352) He also addresses accusations (many from his own party) that his nonconformist ways are mere publicity stunts: "A rebel without a cause is just a punk. Whatever you're called — rebel, unorthodox, nonconformist, radical — it's all self-indulgence without a good cause to give your life meaning." (p. 47) |
| On His Temper | McCain's temper is legendary in the Senate, and he is well aware of it. But he declares his temper is mostly a side effect of his passion: "I am combative, there is little use in pretending otherwise, and never more so than when I am convinced that I am fighting for a good cause." (p. 75) While he insists that age and experience have softened him, he acknowledges manipulating his prickly reputation to his advantage: "I have used it for effect as often as I have lost it involuntarily." (p. 62) |
| Beirut Bombing (1983) | As one of only a handful of legislators to vote against sending Marines to Lebanon during Reagan's administration, McCain enjoyed national attention for the first time — a side effect that he recalled as bittersweet: "Whatever confidence it gave me was offset by a nagging sense of something close to shame that my opposition had had little greater effect than to profit me personally by raising my national profile."(p. 92) Less than a month after the vote was passed to deploy the Marines, terrorists bombed the soldiers' barracks in Beirut, killing 241. A week later, Congress voted for a withdrawal: "We left Lebanon to the Lebanese and anyone else crazy enough to want a piece of it. Those responsible for the killing of our marines escaped punishment. And to this day we are living with the ramifications of our defeat." (p. 99) |
| Vietnam Then and Now | Some might assume McCain still resents Vietnam, but he actually led the way in ending more than 16 years of economic sanctions against the country: "Vietnam veterans are not, as Hollywood often made it seem, flashback-suffering, alienated, emotionally unstable, grudge-nursing malcontents. The vast majority of veterans had put the war, and all its awful experiences, behind them and were ready for the entire country to do the same." (p. 264) |
| Fallen Tower (1989) | George Bush Sr. nominated McCain's good friend and colleague, John Tower, for the position of Defense Secretary. But questions about Tower's relationship with women and alcohol plagued the confirmation process and the Senate rejected the nomination: The experience humiliated Tower and outraged McCain: "For all my experience with politics and politicians before my election to the Senate, I had arrived there with more than a little awe for the eminence of the place and the people who inhabited it. Now I would never feel quite the same about it. John Tower's experience taught me that partisanship could be worse than disagreeable. It could be dishonorable." (p. 157) |
| Keating 5 Scandal, Political Fallout | McCain insists he was merely a scapegoat for thousands of other legislators and savings and loan operators. Of the five senators under investigation for trying to protect Charles H. Keating, an Arizona entrepreneur and big-time political donor who almost single-handedly brought down the nation's savings and loan industry in 1989, McCain was one of two to escape the ordeal with their reputations intact. Compared to the others, his involvement was legal, albeit embarrassing and ill advised. During the Ethics Committee's investigation, McCain once again tried to separate himself from the pack: "I was not going to acquiesce in my reputation's destruction simply because the facts helped others less than they helped me." (p. 194) But there are several somewhat bizarre passages that omit key details. McCain writes that he only "knew vaguely of the shopping center investment" between his wife and father-in-law and Keating, the lead investor. McCain was bewildered at the uproar over such a minor investment ($300,000): "I simply couldn't understand how anyone would ever believe that a relative's investment, which I barely recalled, would cause me to violate the ethics of my office or do anything that would bring shame upon the name of my forebears ... (p. 191) Of his gratitude for Keating's campaign money, he says: " I made damn sure that he knew how much I appreciated his support." (p. 59) No further elaboration is offered. About forgetting to reimburse Keating for the costs of several flights to the Bahamas (expenses totaling $13,000): "It was an oversight on our part ... an innocent mistake, but it was going to be hard to explain." (p. 187) |
| Campaign Finance Reform | Some could argue, and have, that McCain's foray into campaign finance reform was motivated by a need to redeem his shifty reputation: To his credit, McCain acknowledges that this is partly true: "Admittedly, my involvement in the Keating scandal roused my initial interest in changing the way campaigns for Congress are financed." (p. 336) But he says the experience also taught him that the mere suspicion of a crime can be as damaging to the public's trust as the crime itself. "Questions of honor are raised as much by appearances as by reality, in politics, and because they incite public distrust, they need to be addressed no less directly than we would address evidence of expressly illegal corruption." (p. 337) |
| Gulf War, 1991 | The war was actually a boon for McCain. Like Vietnam, he leveraged his battle wisdom to a political advantage in an attempt to salvage a career still reeling from the savings-and-loan scandal: " ... as self-interested as this sounds, I was relieved when Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in August of that year gave reporters some other reason to talk to me and something else to report. "(p. 196) |
| Interaction with Press | His relationship with the media is love-hate. During the Keating 5 scandal, McCain scorned the "constant drumbeat in the press" for any and all information about his involvement. Eventually, his patience with journalists wore out: "... I called them idiots and worse. I shouted at them. It was ridiculously immature behavior, which, although I have been irritable with reporters on occasion, I have never repeated, having learned my lesson from the aftermath ..." (p. 191) His 2000 presidential campaign reflects a very different — perhaps still dysfunctional — relationship with the press: "To attract more media interest than our campaign treasury and prospects warranted, we decided we would give reporters what they always complained they never had enough of: access to the candidate ... Reporters became my constant companions, and I theirs." (p. 369) |
| Failed 2000 White House Run | The Republican senator admits his run for the White House in 2000 was largely motivated by ambition, saying his " long-held aspiration to be a leader grew into something more grandiose." (p. xviii) Unlike his opponent George W. Bush, McCain skipped traditional campaign stops like the Iowa straw polls, instead choosing to host town hall meetings across the state of New Hampshire: "I didn't worry that I would betray my positions or myself as long as I remained a dark horse. But would I stay true if by some unexpected turn of events my personal ambitions seemed a little more achievable? ... I was unlikely to get close enough to the prize where such temptation would become a concern." (p. 365) |
| Iraq War | This book was published just six months before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Patriotism and public spirits were still high in 2002, and McCain's words illustrate just how the national mood has changed since then: "Public confidence in government has improved, strengthened by the skill with which the president and his cabinet have organized our defense, by the courage and ability of our military, and by the lack of partisanship in Congress in our response to the [9/11] attacks." (p. 336) There is, however, a vague reference to trouble brewing: "No national endeavor requires as much unshakable resolve as war. Before we enter one, we ought to know that most Americans share the commitment and are prepared to make the personal sacrifices it entails." (p. 12) |
| On His Legacy | McCain's final comments are surprising, especially for those who have witnessed the woes of his 2008 White House campaign: "I did not get to be president of the United States. And I doubt I shall have reason or opportunity to try again." (p. 393) Even then, McCain seemed to wonder if his career had already peaked: "I am sixty-five years old as I finish this book and facing the question that comes to everyone blessed with long life. Has my time passed?" |
