McCain Faces Payback From Old GOP Foes

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), long an antagonist of the GOP establishment, could face a gantlet from his old foes. "That latent hostility is there, and if these groups have a chance to ignite it, it's not going to go away," one adversary said. (By Scott Olson -- Getty Images)

Opponents concede the point. "In the Republican Party, there is an anybody-but-McCain group. And in South Carolina that vote is divided," said Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), a Mitt Romney supporter. "Anything can happen now because the votes are split so many ways."

Over most of his time in the Senate, McCain, now in his fourth term, has compiled a reliably conservative record, winning him supporters among social and economic conservatives. But in his White House bid in 2000 and the few years afterward, McCain managed to anger just about everyone in the GOP establishment that developed around Bush.

His battle to overhaul the way political campaigns are paid for and fought infuriated an array of interest groups that believed he was trying to muzzle them, especially with a provision that outlawed "issue" advertisements in the last days of campaign seasons.

His February 2000 speech calling Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell "agents of intolerance" and comparing them to Louis Farrakhan and Al Sharpton earned the enmity of some religious conservatives.

His votes in 2001 against Bush's first major tax cut, then in 2003 against Bush's second, made economic conservatives leery.

His work on behalf of mandating background checks on gun buyers at gun shows -- both in Senate legislation and for referendums in Oregon and Colorado -- won him enemies in the gun rights community.

His advocacy of legislation to combat climate change angered some business groups that not only argue against such mandates but also maintain there is no global warming.

And most recently, his support of legislation that would grant most illegal immigrants a pathway to citizenship has earned him enmity from some of the staunchest conservatives in the country.

"I can tell you every single immigration activist and organization is terrified by the New Hampshire results," said Roy Beck, executive director of the self-described "immigration reduction" group NumbersUSA. "My day starts in the morning with a call from a talk radio station, and that's how the day ends. We're getting our message across, and I am taking McCain to task. It's no holds barred."

Perhaps most devastatingly, McCain's Abramoff investigation ensnared influential Republicans, uncovering e-mails that put Reed and Norquist under a harsh light.

"Call Ralph re Grover doing pass through," Abramoff wrote in an e-mail reminder to himself in 1999, a year in which Norquist moved more than $1 million in Abramoff client money to Reed and Christian anti-gambling groups.

Neither Reed nor Norquist would speak on the record for this story. Their defenders say such e-mails were taken out of context and deliberately leaked by McCain aides as revenge for their efforts to secure Bush the nomination in 2000. But the damage was done. Reed was trounced in 2006 in his bid to become the lieutenant governor of Georgia after his primary opponent hammered him on his Abramoff ties.

Now, the McCain camp expects payback. Already, Keene says, his organization is examining a loan McCain took out to keep his campaign afloat, trying to determine if it can be fodder for an attack. Immigration groups are mobilizing on talk radio and the Internet.

Other ideological foes have made their positions clear. Gun Owners of America, a smaller rival of the National Rifle Association, has gone after McCain on the Internet over his efforts to close the gun show background-check loophole.

"This year it appears he is seeking to 'come home' to the pro-gun community, but the wounds are deep and memories long," the group warns on its Web site.

Keene said, "That latent hostility is there, and if these groups have a chance to ignite it, it's not going to go away."

But the NRA has held its fire. "Some people have renaissance periods. He had his maverick period," NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam said of McCain's gun-control activity. "When we make any determination, we look at a candidate's record in full, what they've done in the past, what they're saying now, what they'll do in the future."

McCain advisers do not appear worried. Unlike 2000, when surreptitious efforts to undermine the senator helped derail his insurgent campaign, 2008 lacks an establishment Republican candidate around whom McCain's adversaries can rally.

Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, has attacked McCain over his battles with the GOP establishment. Recently, the Romney campaign released what it called a "Top Ten List" of off-color tirades that McCain launched against Republicans, including then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Sens. John Cornyn (Tex.), Charles E. Grassley (Iowa) and Pete V. Domenici (N.M.).

Scott Reed, a Republican strategist not aligned in the 2008 presidential race, said he advised McCain not to "waste an ounce of time on these self-appointed leaders," since he has far bigger worries from his Republican opponents and from a strong Democratic field that lies in wait.

"No doubt some of the old archenemies are waiting in the weeds in South Carolina," Reed said. "But Republicans understand this election has some big stakes involved, and beating either Hillary or Obama is not going to be easy. The Republicans need someone with experience and judgment, and that's McCain's trump card."

Staff writer Paul Kane contributed to this report.