Behind McCain's Campaign Chaos

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In order to assert his command, McCain likely felt as though he had to bring in his old friend Davis, no matter what the ramificatons within the campaign. One suspects he did not fully comprehend that Weaver would bolt. "It's like Bush losing Rove," some said. What that comparison misses, however, is the many ways in which Weaver and Rove have played starkly contrasting roles to very different politicians — not to mention the intense differences between the two Texans themselves, whose rivalry stretches back to a dissolved consulting partnership and a damaging whisper campaign by Rove against Weaver, which is said to have severely hampered Weaver's young career. McCain's success was vindication for Weaver, who so enjoyed irritating Rove that after the end of McCain's 2000 campaign, he switched parties.

Besides Lone Star roots, Rove and Weaver do share a temper, loyalty and vicious wit. How they employ these attributes is where they differ. Rove, in the popular imagination and in fact, is the string-puller, a mischievous Svengali who all but choreographs Bush's actual movements in the Oval Office.

Weaver's job on the Straight Talk Express, as one aide once described it to me, was to "pay attention to what McCain said in case we had to go back and talk to the press about it afterwards." Weaver and chief of staff Mark Salter saw themselves as the people who made it safe for McCain to be McCain. And they were tenacious in battling anyone who made it unsafe for McCain to be McCain. Weaver's laconic drawl could be put to cutting use and, say campaign observers, it lately often was, especially as deployed against the members of the "Washington political class" whom Weaver diagnosed as having turned against their once beloved maverick.

The charge that McCain had become a "panderer" irked Weaver and other aides to distraction — not because the idea so offended them, but rather because, as they said privately, they wished the senator would pander. Instead, even beyond his unpopular stands on immigration and Iraq, he made their jobs harder. When, on his "announcement tour" in March, McCain was caught making contradictory statements about Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, the campaign's explanation was simple: "We didn't know he was going to say that." The stuff about "Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb bomb Iran"? "We didn't know." The line about following bin Laden "to the gates of hell"? "We didn't know."

But if Weaver's job on the trail was to stay out of McCain's way, his presence in the campaign writ large was impossible to miss. It was his pugnaciousness that prompted a stunningly early bout of intra-party mudslinging against rival Mitt Romney, and it was his grand vision of a 50-state campaign that propelled the decision to emphasize raising money over cutting back. But despite questioning Weaver's strategic decisions thus far, others in the party respect his wily style and nimble mind. Weaver was the one who envisioned McCain in the White House before anyone else, and he's the one who brought him the closest. "I don't know how McCain will ever be President without John Weaver," said one long-time GOP strategist.

At one point yesterday, reports had it that McCain's speechwriter, ghost author, and alter-ego, Salter, was also leaving the campaign; it would be his first time off the senator's payroll in 18 years. Of all the news that came from the struggling operation, Salter's exit seemed the most bleak. In short order, however, both Salter and the campaign pushed back on this version of events, and Salter told reporters that he was simply continuing to work pro bono for the campaign, a step he had taken in the reorganization at the end of the second quarter. In a rebuttal almost as dramatic as the initial reports, he told one outlet: "Outside of my family, on this planet, there is no one more important to me than John McCain. I will continue to help in any way I can." The steps the campaign has taken to reassure supporters and the media that Salter remains on board underscore just how devastating his loss might be. To analogize to the current administration: McCain losing Terry Nelson is like Bush losing Josh Bolten. McCain losing Weaver is like Bush losing Rove. McCain losing Salter would be like Bush losing Jeb.

Not everyone feels that way. In a conference call the senator and current campaign manager Davis had with the McCain national fundraising team after things had begun to settle, the mood was cautiously optimistic. One participant characterized the departure of Weaver and the attenuation of Salter's relationship with a joking reference to the strategy that had once been dubbed "McCain 2.0": "You got rid of the guys who came up with New Coke."

However, it should be noted that those guys also came up with Old Coke, a formula that made McCain a household name and nearly earned him the GOP nomination in 2000. Who knows what flavor the future holds?

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