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Analysis: Inhofe reluctantly backs McCain

 
By Chris Casteel | Published: February 10, 2008    Comment on this article Leave a comment

WASHINGTON — When Sen. Jim Inhofe first ran for the U.S. Senate in 1994, Sen. John McCain rode around with him in his private plane, stopping in towns across Oklahoma to stump for the Tulsa Republican.

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How does Coburn feel?
Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Muskogee, a hero of the conservative movement, endorsed McCain last month and campaigned for him in South Carolina. He introduced him at the conservative conference last week and argued that the enemy wasn't McCain but other Republicans.

Saying critics have accused McCain of blocking the conservative agenda, Coburn said, "I'm not sure we've had a comprehensive GOP conservative agenda since 1995.

Inhofe said Coburn "has always put (McCain) on a pedestal.”

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That was a long time ago.

That was before McCain's campaign finance reform bill, before his immigration and global warming legislation, before McCain opposed President Bush's tax cutting measures and before McCain praised a Pentagon decision to cancel a weapons system important to Fort Sill.

At times, Inhofe has openly voiced what appeared to be disdain for McCain.

In 2000, the first time McCain, R-Arizona, ran for president, Inhofe endorsed then-Gov. George W. Bush and told a group of Republicans in Tulsa that the party should have a nominee who preaches Republican values, not one "chosen by the Democrats, as is the case with John McCain.”

Now it looks like the GOP will have a nominee that is far from the first choice of Inhofe and conservatives like him.

But in an interview last week, Inhofe said his differences with the senator weren't so wide that he would consider sitting out the race or — as some conservative commentators have suggested — voting for the Democratic nominee.

"I'm not part of that school,” Inhofe said. "I think too much of America to have (U.S. Sen.) Hillary Clinton as president.”

Inhofe is the kind of conservative McCain has repeatedly rankled, and the kind that may have to hold their noses to vote for him in November.

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Related Topics: Politics, U.S. Politics, World Politics, Nature and the Environment, Elections and Voting, Political Parties, Election Campaigns, U.S. Republican Party Politics, Earth Science, Campaign Finance, Climatology, Global Climate Change, Environmental Issues and Protection, Government and Politics, U.S. Conservative Politics



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