Rolling Stone's cover story this month is "": "A closer look at the life and career of the Republican presidential candidate reveals a disturbing record of recklessness and dishonesty."
Here are some of the highlights:
Indeed, many leading Republicans who once admired McCain see his recent contortions to appease the GOP base as the undoing of a maverick.
"John McCain's ambition overrode his basic character," says Rita Hauser, who served on the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board from
2001 to 2004. But the truth of the matter is that ambition is John McCain's basic character. Seen in the sweep of his seven-decade personal
history, his pandering to the right is consistent with the only constant in his life: doing what's best for himself. To put the matter squarely: John McCain is his own special interest.
"John has made a pact with the devil," says Lincoln Chafee, the former GOP senator, who has been appalled at his one-time colleague's readiness
to sacrifice principle for power. Chafee and McCain were the only Republicans to vote against the Bush tax cuts. They locked arms in opposition to
drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. And they worked together in the "Gang of 14," which blocked some of Bush's worst judges from the
federal bench.
"On all three — sadly, sadly, sadly — McCain has flip-flopped," Chafee says. And forget all the "Country First" sloganeering, he adds. "McCain is
putting himself first. He's putting himself first in blinking neon lights."
On flight school:
"I enjoyed the off-duty life of a Navy flier more than I enjoyed the actual
flying," McCain writes. "I drove a Corvette, dated a lot, spent all my free
hours at bars and beach parties." McCain chased a lot of tail. He hit the
dog track. Developed a taste for poker and dice. He picked up models
when he could, screwed a stripper when he couldn't.
On his temper:
Over the years, John McCain has demonstrated a streak of anger so nasty that even his former flacks make no effort to spin it away. "If I tried to
convince you he does not have a temper, you should hang up on me and ridicule me in print," says Dan Schnur, who served as McCain's press
man during the 2000 campaign. Even McCain admits to an "immature and unprofessional reaction to slights" that is "little changed from the
reactions to such provocations I had as a schoolboy."
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