The shadowy realm of Jon Kyl and John McCain
December 6th, 2007, 1:37 pm · Post a Comment · posted by Paul Giblin
John McCain (left) and Jon and Caryll Kyl
One of the recurring storylines about Sen. Jon Kyl’s election today to the No. 2 leadership position among Senate Republicans is that the high-profile post will enable him to out from Sen. John McCain’s political shadow.
Kyl understands the theme. He just doesn’t agree with it. Kyl told me during an interview in his
Phoenix office last week that he and McCain always have had similar conservative political ideologies, but at the same time, they’ve always approached their jobs differently.
“Well, you know, media loves … ” he said before pausing for a few seconds, perhaps long enough to tamper what might have been a harsh indictment of the media to a member of the media. Then he started anew. “First of all, you have to report on the contest. Who’s ahead and who’s behind the event? Whose fault was it? Who do we blame? When you’ve got two senators: Who’s in the shadows? Who’s the lead dog?”
Exactly. All that begs the question: Who’s in whose shadow now? Is the Senate’s assistant minority leader in the shadow of the presidential candidate, or is the presidential candidate in the shadow of the Senate’s assistant minority leader?
Kyl said this about McCain, “He’s the senior senator. He’s been there longer than I have. He’s nationally known – far better than I am. He has a unique background that nobody else has. There’s no way I can be like John McCain. I mean, he’s a war hero. He’s a maverick. He’s all of those things we associate with him. He was trained as a fighter pilot. And I say this with humor – if you report what I’m saying – what they used to say about Barry Goldwater was ‘Ready! Shoot! Aim!’ In some senses, a fighter pilot has to be really quick on the trigger or you get shot down. Well, John is somebody that has great instincts. He is trained to make quick decisions, go with his decision, lead people. You see all those qualities in him.”
Kyl said this about himself, “My training, I’m a lawyer. I think things through very carefully. Read the law books before you give an answer. Your first answer may not be right. There’s a lot more nuance and sort of a conservative approach to decision making and to getting things done. You have a tendency to read everything, to cross the T’s and to dot the I’s. Two totally different backgrounds. So would John McCain be comfortable trying to put together the water settlement? He’d be the first to say, ‘No. Let Kyl do that. He’s the lawyer who’s willing to read all that stuff and go through it all.’ So I do that. Well, it’s important for Arizona, but no more important that the stuff that John does.”
Which gets up back to the original question: Who’s in whose shadow?
Kyl resonded, “We each have our different styles. We each have our different responsibilities. And the good part of it is, instead of both of us trying to do the same thing, we’re able to compliment each other. He does some things well. I do some things well. So, Arizona gets two very different people, still, I think, quite representative of the general population of the state, working for the best of the state and the country.”
While all of that insight is certainly detailed and nuanced, it does not exactly answer the question. Hmm…. Perhaps only The Shadow knows.
For more on Kyl and his new responsiblities in the Senate, check out this excellent Q&A from U.S. News & World Report: http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/politics/2007/12/06/qa-with-new-senate-minority-whip-jon-kyl.html
Also, I would be negligent not to call attention to the third sentence in the U.S. News piece: “Kyl, a staunch conservative who is often overshadowed by fellow Arizona Sen. John McCain, will now be more visible.”
