KNUS guest host joined guest in echoing misleading "maverick" label for McCain

Summary: On KNUS 710 AM, guest host Matt Dunn parroted the description of Sen. John McCain as a "maverick" who is "known for being moderate," while guest Jay Ambrose of the Independence Institute stated that McCain is "as much liberal as he is conservative." Both omitted that, according to one analysis of his voting record, McCain "almost never thwarted his party's objectives," and his shift in positions on key issues as taxes and immigration contradict the "maverick" label.

Discussing the presidential campaign on the June 8 broadcast of KNUS 710 AM's Backbone Radio, guest host Matt Dunn repeated the talking points that the presumptive Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain, "is known for being a maverick" and "known for being moderate." Similarly, guest Jay Ambrose said of McCain that "he's as much liberal as he is conservative." But Dunn and Ambrose omitted contrary evidence, such as an analysis by The Arizona Republic of McCain's record on highly contested votes, which found that McCain "almost never thwarted his party's objectives."

Ambrose also asserted of the presumptive Democratic nominee, Sen. Barack Obama, that he "has never crossed the aisle to accomplish anything." In fact, as Colorado Media Matters has noted, Obama's record contains numerous instances in which he has undertaken legislative initiatives in the U.S. Senate with Republican colleagues.

In introducing Ambrose, Dunn identified him as "a nationally syndicated columnist with the Scripps Howard News Service, formerly Washington director of editorial policy for Scripps Howard," but omitted that Ambrose is a contributing columnist and a former senior fellow for the "free-market" Independence Institute.

Krista Kafer, an Independence Institute senior fellow, joined Dunn as guest host in place of the program's regular host, John Andrews.

From the June 8 broadcast of KNUS 710 AM's Backbone Radio:

KAFER: I just think there are plenty of reasons to stand behind McCain. He's not the best candidate, but he's what we've got --

DUNN: There are.

KAFER: -- and the alternative is terrible.

DUNN: But you know, maybe you can make the case that hey, McCain is known for being a maverick. He's known for being moderate. He's not known for being, you know, too far to the right, that kind of thing. Maybe that's the right moment for a guy like McCain. What about that argument?

KAFER: I can appreciate the fact that he's not into fluffy rhetoric.

DUNN: [laughs] Nope, the Straight Talk Express. John McCain. I'm gonna keep working on myself. Trying to work up the John McCain fever; don't know if I'll get there. But Krista, you've been very helpful. Thank you.

KAFER: Well, thank you.

DUNN: But think about how expensive Obama would be.

KAFER: Mmm-hmm.

DUNN: We'll be back. Backbone Radio, Matt Dunn, Krista Kafer.

[...]

DUNN: John Andrews takin' a night off. Here we are, you know, havin' a surprising amount of fun.

KAFER: Oh, yeah. Eatin' bugs, hangin' out --

DUNN: Doin' one thing after another. And, hey, we have got Jay Ambrose comin' up next, a nationally syndicated columnist with the Scripps Howard News Service, formerly Washington director of editorial policy for Scripps Howard. And more than that, just a good guy who happens to live locally.

KAFER: Exactly. And we're both big fans.

DUNN: It is true. Jay, are you on the line with us? Let's see. Jay Ambrose, are you with us?

AMBROSE: Yes.

DUNN: OK, Jay. Hey, thanks for coming on with us tonight.

KAFER: Hi, Jay.

AMBROSE: Hi, Krista, how are you?

KAFER: Doin' good.

DUNN: Hey, we want to just maybe get right into a couple little issues and just want to say, I was struck by a recent column that you wrote about Obama, and you alleged he might actually be a status quo candidate after all, not necessarily this candidate for change?

AMBROSE: Oh no, he has nothing to do with change. Nothing at all. No, he's absolutely status quo. Everywhere you look.

KAFER: Are you saying you don't have hope?

[...]

AMBROSE: You know, the interesting thing -- and I have my problems with McCain -- but you know, Obama has never crossed the aisle to accomplish anything. McCain does that all the time. I think in part because, you know, he's as much liberal as he is conservative. So he's as happy with Democrats as he is with the Republicans. But if you're lookin' for somebody who does that, McCain does that. McCain has been at war with lobbyists, I think in some very bad ways. I think what was done on campaign finance was, you know, ran contrary to the First Amendment.

As Colorado Media Matters has noted, Colorado media repeatedly have described McCain as a "maverick" without referencing contrary evidence such as the Republic's conclusion from an analysis of McCain's voting record that "on the most divided issues in the past decade," McCain "almost never thwarted his party's objectives." The Republic further reported:

The presumptive Republican nominee arguably cast the decisive vote 14 times since 1999 to ensure Republicans got their way, and he had five other close cases where his vote may have made a difference, Senate records show. By comparison, McCain effectively handed Democrats a win on roll-call votes four times in the same period. On one of those occasions, Republicans could still have won if Vice President Dick Cheney had cast a tie-breaking vote.

The numbers are based on a review of Senate roll-call votes since 1999 that ended in a tie or were settled by one vote. The closest votes in that period included momentous, partisan-charged legislation, such as President Bush's tax cuts. More often, they were procedural votes on deal-breaking amendments to bills that would otherwise pass.

[...]

The voting pattern seems at odds with the popular narrative that McCain's maverick tendencies make him an unreliable conservative.

Additionally, in a sidebar to a February 5 article, The Washington Post listed as "Top McCain Flip-Flops" his shifts toward more conservative positions on such issues as taxes, the religious right, and immigration, which have more closely aligned him with the mainstream of the Republican Party:

Top McCain Flip-Flops

1. Taxes. John McCain was one of two Republican senators to vote against President Bush's tax cuts of 2001, saying that he could not support cuts that benefited the rich rather than the middle class. He now favors making the tax cuts permanent.

2. The religious right. During the 2000 presidential campaign, he attacked Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson as "agents of intolerance." He withdrew that remark in a 2006 interview on NBC's "Meet the Press," saying that the Christian right has a "major role to play in the Republican Party."

3. Immigration. Last year, he sponsored a bill that would combine a temporary-worker program and a path to citizenship for many illegal immigrants while also increasing border security. He now emphasizes securing the borders first. [boldface and italics in original]

Further, Ambrose's claim that "Obama has never crossed the aisle to accomplish anything" was similar to an assertion by Karl Rove -- a former senior adviser to President Bush -- who wrote in a February 21 Wall Street Journal editorial that "Mr. Obama hasn't worked across party lines since coming to town." In fact, there are numerous examples of legislative initiatives in which Obama has worked directly with his GOP counterparts. They include:

• An initiative sponsored with Republican Sen. Richard Lugar (IN) that "enhances U.S. efforts to destroy conventional weapons stockpiles and to detect and interdict weapons and materials of mass destruction throughout the world."

• The American Fuels Act of 2007, legislation introduced with Lugar that "will use alternative fuel technologies to greatly decrease America's dependence on foreign oil."

• The Alternative Diesel Standard Act of 2006, legislation authored with Republican Sen. Thad Cochran (MS) and introduced with Cochran and Lugar "to require 2 billion gallons of alternative diesels -- including agriculture feedstocks such as biodiesel -- as part of the 40 billion gallon national diesel pool."

• The Fuel Economy Reform Act, legislation introduced with Republican Sens. Lugar, Gordon Smith (OR), and Norm Coleman (MN) that "would reduce U.S. gasoline consumption by nearly half a trillion gallons by 2028 and greatly decrease our dependence on foreign oil."

• The Dignity for Wounded Warriors Act, legislation Obama introduced, and whose co-sponsors included Republican Sens. Christopher "Kit" Bond (MO), and Olympia Snowe (ME), to "cut red tape, improve facilities, and increase oversight at our nation's military hospitals."

• The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006, legislation from Republican Sen. Tom Coburn (OK) that Obama joined in introducing and passing to "create a Google-like search engine and database to track approximately $1 trillion in federal grants, contracts, earmarks and loans."

—E.B. & J.F.B.