Phil Gramm
United States Senator from Texas
In office January 3, 1985 – November 30, 2002
Preceded by	John Tower
Succeeded by	John Cornyn
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs
In office January 20, 2001 – June 6, 2001
Preceded by	Paul Sarbanes
Succeeded by	Paul Sarbanes
In office January 3, 1999 – January 3, 2001
Preceded by	Al D'Amato
Succeeded by	Paul Sarbanes
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas's 6th district
In office January 3, 1979 – January 5, 1985
Preceded by	Olin E. Teague
Succeeded by	Joe Barton
Personal details
Born	William Philip Gramm (1942-07-08) July 8, 1942 (age 69) Fort Benning, Georgia
Nationality	United States
Political party	Democratic (1978–1983) Republican (1983–present)
Spouse(s)	Wendy Lee Gramm
Alma mater	University of Georgia
Occupation	Economist
Religion	Episcopalian[1]

William Philip "Phil" Gramm (born July 8, 1942) is an American economist and politician, who has served as a Democratic Congressman (1979–1983), a Republican Congressman (1983–1985) and a Republican Senator (1985–2002) from Texas. He was a senior economic adviser to John McCain's presidential campaign from the summer of 2007 until July 18, 2008.

Early life and university career[link]

Gramm was born in Fort Benning, Georgia on July 8, 1942, and grew up in nearby Columbus.^[2] Soon after his birth, Gramm's father Kenneth suffered a stroke and was partially paralyzed. He died when Gramm was 14. Gramm's mother, Florence (née Scoggins),^[3] worked double shifts as a nurse to supplement the veterans disability pension.

Gramm attended public schools, graduated 1961 from Georgia Military Academy (now Woodward Academy), and graduated 1964 from the University of Georgia.^[2] He received a doctorate in economics from the University of Georgia's Terry College of Business in 1967

He then taught economics at Texas A&M University from 1967 to 1978.^[2] In addition to teaching, Gramm founded the economic consulting firm Gramm & Associates (1971–1978).

United States House of Representatives[link]

In 1976, Gramm unsuccessfully challenged Texas Democratic Senator Lloyd M. Bentsen, in the party's senatorial primary. Then in 1978 Gramm successfully ran as a Democrat for Representative from Texas's 6th congressional district, which stretched from the Fort Worth suburbs to College Station. He was reelected to his House seat as a Democrat in 1980.

In 1981, he co-sponsored the Gramm-Latta Budget which implemented President Ronald Reagan's economic program, increased military spending, cut other spending, and mandated the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 (the Kemp-Roth Tax Cut).^{[citation needed]}

Just days after being reelected in 1982, Gramm was thrown off the House Budget Committee for supporting Reagan's tax cuts.^{[citation needed]} In response, Gramm resigned his House seat on January 5, 1983. He then ran as a Republican for his own vacancy in a special election held on February 12, 1983, and won rather handily. One of his opponents was the former and future State Representative Dan Kubiak of Rockdale, Texas. Gramm became the first Republican to represent the district since its creation.

After he left the House the seat was retained for the Republican party by Joe Barton.

United States Senate[link]

In 1984, Gramm was elected as a Republican to represent Texas in the U.S. Senate. He defeated Congressman Ron Paul, former gubernatorial nominee Henry Grover, Robert Mosbacher, Jr., of Houston, and lots of other contenders in the primary. He then faced the Democratic nominee, State Senator Lloyd Doggett of Austin in the general election for the right to succeed retiring Republican Senator John G. Tower. Gramm polled 3,116,348 votes (58.5 percent) to Doggett's 2,207,557 (41.5 percent). Gramm was the first U.S. Senate candidate in the history of Texas to receive more than three million votes.^[4]

Gramm served on the Senate Budget Committee from 1989 until leaving office in 2003. Gramm and Senators Fritz Hollings and Warren Rudman devised a means of cutting the budget through across-the-board spending cuts if deficit-reduction targets were not met. They were successful in making the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act law, although portions were ruled unconstitutional. In the years following the passage of the Act, other sections were largely superseded by other budget-controlling mechanisms.

In 1990 Gramm failed in an effort to amend the Iraq International Law Compliance Act of 1990. An earlier amendment to the act, the D’Amato Amendment, prohibited the US from selling arms or extending any sort of financial assistance to Iraq unless the President could prove Iraq was in “substantial compliance” with the provisions of a number of human rights conventions, including the Genocide Convention. After reading the D’Amato Amendment, Gramm introduced his own amendment to counter the human rights sanctions in the D’Amato Amendment. Gramm’s amendment would have allowed the Bush administration to waive the terms of the D'Amato Amendment if it found that sanctions against Iraq hurt US businesses and farms more than they hurt Iraq.^[5] In the end, the bill passed the Senate without Gramm's amendment only a week before Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait.

Gramm won his second Senate term in 1990 with a victory over Democratic State Senator and former Fort Worth Mayor Hugh Parmer. Gramm polled 3,027,680 votes (60.2 percent) to Parmer's 1,429,986 (37.4 percent), again receiving more than three million votes.

Between 1995 and 2000, Gramm was the chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. During that time he spearheaded efforts to pass banking deregulation laws, including the landmark Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act in 1999, which removed Depression-era laws separating banking, insurance and brokerage activities.

As a senator, Gramm often called for reductions in taxes and fraud in government spending. He employed his "Dickey Flatt Test" ("Is it worth taking it out of Dickey's pocket?") to determine if federal programs were worthwhile. Richard "Dickey" Flatt owns a family run printing business started by his father and mother in Mexia, Texas, and is a longtime Gramm supporter".^[6] In Gramm's eyes, Flatt embodied the burdens that a typical Texas independent small businessman faced in the realm of taxation and government spending.

Gramm ran unsuccessfully for the Republican Party nomination in the 1996 presidential election, for which he had raised $8 million as early as July 1994.^[6] Although he began the race with a full war-chest and tied for first place with Dole in the 1995 Iowa Straw Poll, his campaign was fatally wounded when in an upset he lost the Louisiana Caucus on February 7, 1996 to Pat Buchanan (the final delegate count was 13-8). New Orelans Times Picayune political columnist Otis Pike noted the loss could be traced to the passion of the supporters for Buchanan compared to those for Gramm. "Gramm should have won the Louisiana caucuses - but didn't, because the religious right turned out to vote in larger numbers." ^[7] This poor showing in a state adjacent to Texas plus placing 5th in Iowa's caucuses resulted in Gramm's withdrawal from the contest on the Sunday before the New Hampshire primary. He threw his support to senatorial colleague Robert J. Dole of Kansas. Gramm, a proponent of free trade, also lashed out at Republican Patrick J. Buchanan, arguing that Buchanan was a "protectionist".

After exiting the presidential race, Gramm defeated Victor Morales of Dallas in November 1996 to win his third and final term in the Senate.

Gramm was one of five co-sponsors of the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000.^[8] One provision of the bill is often referred to as the "Enron loophole" because some critics blame the provision for permitting the Enron scandal to occur.^[9]

In December 2002, Gramm left his Senate seat a few weeks before the expiration of his term in hopes that his successor, fellow Republican John Cornyn, could gain seniority over other newly elected senators. However, Cornyn did not gain additional seniority due to a 1980 Rules Committee policy.^[10]

2007 mortgage and 2008 financial & economic crises[link]

Some economists state that the 1999 legislation spearheaded by Gramm and signed into law by President Clinton — the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act — was significantly to blame for the 2007 subprime mortgage crisis and 2008 global economic crisis.^[11][12] The Act is most widely known for repealing portions of the Glass–Steagall Act, which had regulated the financial services industry.^[13] The Act passed the House and Senate by an overwhelming majority on 4 November 1999.^[14][15]

Gramm responded in March 2008 to criticism of the act by stating that he saw "no evidence whatsoever" that the sub-prime mortgage crisis was caused in any way "by allowing banks and securities companies and insurance companies to compete against each other."^[16]

Gramm's support was later critical in the passage of the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000, which kept derivatives transactions, including those involving credit default swaps, free of government regulation.^[17]

In its 2008 coverage of the financial crisis, The Washington Post named Gramm one of seven "Key Players In the Battle Over Regulating Derivatives", for having "[p]ushed through several major bills to deregulate the banking and investment industries, including the 1999 Gramm-Leach-Bliley act that brought down the walls separating the commercial banking, investment and insurance industries".^[18]

2008 Nobel Laureate in Economics Paul Krugman, a supporter of Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton, described Gramm during the 2008 presidential race as "the high priest of deregulation," and has listed him as the number two person responsible for the economic crisis of 2008 behind only Alan Greenspan.^[19][20] On October 14, 2008, CNN ranked Gramm number seven in its list of the 10 individuals most responsible for the current economic crisis.^[21]

In January 2009 Guardian City editor Julia Finch identified Gramm as one of twenty-five people who were at the heart of the financial meltdown.^[22] Time included Gramm in its list of the top 25 people to blame for the economic crisis.^[23]

John McCain 2008 presidential campaign[link]

Gramm was co-chair of John McCain’s presidential campaign^[24] and his most senior economic adviser^[25][26] from the summer of 2007^[27] until July 18, 2008.^[24] In a July 9, 2008 interview on McCain's economic plans, Gramm explained the nation was not in a recession, stating, "You've heard of mental depression; this is a mental recession." He added, "We have sort of become a nation of whiners, you just hear this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness, America in decline."^[28] Gramm's comments immediately became a campaign issue. McCain's opponent, Senator Barack Obama, stated, "America already has one Dr. Phil. We don't need another one when it comes to the economy. ... This economic downturn is not in your head."^[29] McCain strongly denounced Gramm's comments.^[30] On July 18, 2008 Gramm stepped down from his position with the McCain campaign.^[31] Explaining his remarks, Gramm stated that he had used the word "whiners" to describe the nation's politicians rather than the public, stating "the whiners are the leaders."^[32] In the same interview, Gramm said, "I'm not going to retract any of it. Every word I said was true."^[33]

Current employment[link]

As of 2009, Gramm is employed by UBS AG as a Vice Chairman of the Investment Bank division. UBS.com states that a Vice Chairman of a UBS division is "...appointed to support the business in their relationships with key clients."^[34] He joined UBS in 2002 immediately after retiring from the Senate.^[35]

Personal[link]

Gramm lives in Helotes, outside San Antonio, Texas. He is married to Dr. Wendy Lee Gramm, a native of Hawaii, who is associated with George Mason University's Mercatus Center in Virginia. They are the parents of two sons: Marshall Gramm, a professor of economics at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee, and Jeff Gramm, who has played in the indie pop band Aden. In 1999, after a bonfire stack collapse at Texas A&M University leading to 12 deaths, then Senator Phil Gramm offered the F-16 flyover reserved for his future funeral as a US senator to be given instead to the Texas A&M Community. The offer was accepted and a memorial flyover for the 12 killed was flown at a Texas A&M Football Game on November 26, 1999.

Quotations[link]

• "If you are willing to tackle the tough issues, you don't need to worry about stepping on anyone's toes; they will stand aside and shove you to the front." — As quoted by former Gramm staffer Wayne A. Abernathy;^[36] September 12, 2002, before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs.^[37]

• "I have as many guns as I need, but I don't have as many guns as I want."^[38]

• About Gramm, Representative Marvin Leath said, "You can think whatever you like about Phil Gramm, but remember two things: He's smarter than you are, and he's tougher than a junkyard dog."^[39]

• "I wrote the first Reagan budget -- the Gramm-Latta Budget that rebuilt national defense and that laid the foundation for a program of peace through strength; the Reagan program that tore down the Berlin Wall, that liberated Eastern Europe, that transformed the Soviet Union and that changed the world."^[40]

• "In economics, we define labor exploitation as paying people less than their marginal value product. I recently told Ed Whitacre [former CEO of AT&T, who retired with a $158 million pay package] he was probably the most exploited worker in American history because he took Southwestern Bell, which was the smallest of the former Bell companies, and he turned it into the dominant phone company on earth. His severance package should have been billions."^[41]

• "We have sort of become a nation of whiners. You just hear this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness."^[28]

• "If we should vote next week on whether to begin producing cheese in a factory on the moon, I almost certainly would oppose it...On the other hand, if the government decided to institute the policy, it would be my objective to see that a Texas contractor builds this celestial cheese plant, that the milk comes from Texas cows, and that the Earth distribution center is located in Texas."^[42]

Works[link]

• "Laissez-Faire and the Optimum Quantity of Money". Economic Inquiry 12 (1): 125–132. 1974. DOI:10.1111/j.1465-7295.1974.tb00232.x. 

References[link]

See also[link]

• Cheese Factories on the Moon

External links[link]

• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Voting record maintained by The Washington Post
• Phil Gramm at the Internet Movie Database

v t e United States Senators from Texas Class 1 Rusk Henderson Ward Wigfall Flanagan Maxey Reagan Chilton Mills Culberson Mayfield Connally Daniel Blakley Yarborough Bentsen Krueger Hutchison Class 2 S. Houston Hemphill Hamilton Coke Chilton Bailey Johnston Sheppard A. Houston O'Daniel Johnson Blakley Tower Gramm Cornyn

v t e Chairmen of the United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee on Banking and Currency 1913-1970 Owen • McLean • Norbeck • Fletcher • Wagner • Tobey • Maybank • Capehart • Fulbright • Robertson • Sparkman Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs 1970-Pres. Sparkman • Proxmire • Garn • Proxmire • Riegle • D'Amato • Gramm • Sarbanes • Gramm • Sarbanes • Shelby • Dodd • Johnson

John McCain
United States Senator from Arizona
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3, 1987 Serving with Jon Kyl
Preceded by	Barry Goldwater
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Arizona's 1st district
In office January 3, 1983 – January 3, 1987
Preceded by	John Jacob Rhodes Jr.
Succeeded by	John Jacob Rhodes III
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs
In office January 3, 1995 – January 3, 1997
Preceded by	Daniel Inouye
Succeeded by	Ben Nighthorse Campbell
In office January 3, 2005 – January 3, 2007
Preceded by	Ben Nighthorse Campbell
Succeeded by	Byron Dorgan
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation
In office January 3, 1997 – January 3, 2001
Preceded by	Larry Pressler
Succeeded by	Ernest Hollings
In office January 20, 2001 – June 3, 2001
Preceded by	Ernest Hollings
Succeeded by	Ernest Hollings
In office January 3, 2003 – January 3, 2005
Preceded by	Ernest Hollings
Succeeded by	Ted Stevens
Personal details
Born	John Sidney McCain III (1936-08-29) August 29, 1936 (age 75) Coco Solo Naval Air Station, Panama Canal Zone
Nationality	American
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Carol Shepp (m. 1965, div. 1980) Cindy Lou Hensley (m. 1980 - present)
Relations	John S. McCain, Jr. (father, deceased) Roberta McCain (mother)
Children	Douglas (b. 1959, adopted 1966) Andrew (b. 1962, adopted 1966) Sidney (b. 1966) Meghan (b. 1984) John Sidney IV "Jack" (b. 1986) James "Jimmy" (b. 1988) Bridget (b. 1991, adopted 1993)
Residence	Phoenix, Arizona
Alma mater	U.S. Naval Academy (B.S.)
Profession	Naval Aviator, politician
Religion	Baptist congregant (Brought up Episcopalian)[1]
Signature
Website	www.mccain.senate.gov
Military service
Service/branch	United States Navy
Years of service	1958–1981
Rank	Captain
Battles/wars	Vietnam War
This article is part of a series about The life of John McCain Early life and military career House and Senate career, until 2000 2000 presidential campaign Senate career, 2001–present 2008 presidential campaign Cultural and political image Political positions

In 1951 at left, with mother Roberta, brother Joe, and father John S. McCain, Jr.
In 1951 at left, with mother Roberta, brother Joe, and father John S. McCain, Jr.		In 1954 at the Naval Academy

John Sidney McCain III (born August 29, 1936) is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican presidential nominee in the 2008 United States election.

McCain followed his father and grandfather, both four-star admirals, into the United States Navy, graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1958. He became a naval aviator, flying ground-attack aircraft from aircraft carriers. During the Vietnam War, he was almost killed in the 1967 USS Forrestal fire. In October 1967, while on a bombing mission over Hanoi, he was shot down, seriously injured, and captured by the North Vietnamese. He was a prisoner of war until 1973. McCain experienced episodes of torture, and refused an out-of-sequence early repatriation offer. His war wounds left him with lifelong physical limitations.

He retired from the Navy as a captain in 1981 and moved to Arizona, where he entered politics. Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1982, he served two terms, and was then elected to the U.S. Senate in 1986, winning re-election easily four times, most recently in 2010. While generally adhering to conservative principles, McCain at times has had a media reputation as a "maverick" for his willingness to disagree with his party on certain issues. After being investigated and largely exonerated in a political influence scandal of the 1980s as a member of the Keating Five, he made campaign finance reform one of his signature concerns, which eventually led to the passage of the McCain-Feingold Act in 2002. He is also known for his work towards restoring diplomatic relations with Vietnam in the 1990s, and for his belief that the war in Iraq should be fought to a successful conclusion. McCain has chaired the Senate Commerce Committee, opposed spending that he considered to be pork barrel, and played a key role in alleviating a crisis over judicial nominations.

McCain ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2000 but lost a heated primary season contest to George W. Bush. He secured the nomination in 2008 after coming back from early reversals, but lost to Democratic candidate Barack Obama in the general election. He subsequently adopted more orthodox conservative stances and attitudes and largely opposed actions of the Obama administration.

Early life and military career, 1936–1981[link]

Formative years and education[link]

John McCain was born on August 29, 1936, at Coco Solo Naval Air Station in the Panama Canal Zone, to naval officer John S. McCain, Jr. (1911–1981) and Roberta (Wright) McCain (b. 1912).^[2] At that time, the Panama Canal was under U.S. control.^[3]

McCain's family tree includes Scots-Irish and English ancestors.^[4] His father and his paternal grandfather, John S. McCain, Sr., both became four-star United States Navy admirals.^[5] His family, including his older sister Sandy and younger brother Joe,^[2] followed his father to various naval postings in the United States and the Pacific.^[6] Altogether, he attended about 20 schools.^[7]

In 1951, the family settled in Northern Virginia, and McCain attended Episcopal High School, a private preparatory boarding school in Alexandria.^[8] He excelled at wrestling and graduated in 1954.^[9]

Following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, McCain entered the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis. There, he was a friend and informal leader for many of his classmates,^[10] and sometimes stood up for targets of bullying.^[5] He also became a lightweight boxer.^[11] McCain came into conflict with higher-ranking personnel, and he did not always obey the rules, which contributed to a low class rank (894 of 899), despite a high IQ.^[10][12] He did well in academic subjects that interested him, such as literature and history, but studied only enough to pass subjects he struggled with, such as mathematics.^[5][13] McCain graduated in 1958.^[10]

Naval training, first marriage, and Vietnam assignment[link]

John McCain's early military career began when he was commissioned an ensign and started two and a half years of training at Pensacola to become a naval aviator.^[14] While there, he earned a reputation as a partying man.^[7] He completed flight school in 1960, and became a naval pilot of ground-attack aircraft, assigned to A-1 Skyraider squadrons^[15] aboard the aircraft carriers USS Intrepid and USS Enterprise^[16] in the Caribbean and Mediterranean Seas.^[17] McCain began as a sub-par flier^[17] who was at times careless and reckless;^[18] during the early-to-mid 1960s, the planes he was flying crashed twice and once collided with power lines, but he received no major injuries.^[18] His aviation skills improved over time,^[17] and he was seen as a good pilot, albeit one who tended to "push the envelope" in his flying.^[18]

On July 3, 1965, McCain married Carol Shepp, a model originally from Philadelphia.^[19] McCain adopted her two young children Douglas and Andrew.^[16][20] He and Carol then had a daughter named Sidney.^[21][22]

McCain requested a combat assignment,^[23] and was assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal flying A-4 Skyhawks.^[24] His combat duty began when he was 30 years old, in mid-1967, when Forrestal was assigned to a bombing campaign, Operation Rolling Thunder, during the Vietnam War.^[19][25] McCain and his fellow pilots became frustrated by micromanagement from Washington, and he would later write that "In all candor, we thought our civilian commanders were complete idiots who didn't have the least notion of what it took to win the war."^[25][26]

On July 29, 1967, McCain, by then a lieutenant commander, was near the center of the Forrestal fire. He escaped from his burning jet and was trying to help another pilot escape when a bomb exploded;^[27] McCain was struck in the legs and chest by fragments.^[28] The ensuing fire killed 134 sailors and took 24 hours to control.^[29][30] With the Forrestal out of commission, McCain volunteered for assignment with the USS Oriskany, another aircraft carrier employed in Operation Rolling Thunder.^[31] Once there, he would be awarded the Navy Commendation Medal and the Bronze Star for missions flown over North Vietnam.^[32]

Prisoner of war[link]

John McCain's capture and subsequent imprisonment began on October 26, 1967. He was flying his 23rd bombing mission over North Vietnam when his A-4E Skyhawk was shot down by a missile over Hanoi.^[33][34] McCain fractured both arms and a leg ejecting from the aircraft,^[35] and nearly drowned when he parachuted into Truc Bach Lake.^[33] Some North Vietnamese pulled him ashore, then others crushed his shoulder with a rifle butt and bayoneted him.^[33] McCain was then transported to Hanoi's main Hoa Lo Prison, nicknamed the "Hanoi Hilton".^[34]

Although McCain was badly wounded, his captors refused to treat his injuries, beating and interrogating him to get information; he was given medical care only when the North Vietnamese discovered that his father was a top admiral.^[36] His status as a prisoner of war (POW) made the front pages of major newspapers.^[37][38]

McCain spent six weeks in the hospital while receiving marginal care.^[33] By then having lost 50 pounds (23 kg), in a chest cast, and with his hair turned white,^[33] McCain was sent to a different camp on the outskirts of Hanoi^[39] in December 1967, into a cell with two other Americans who did not expect him to live a week.^[40] In March 1968, McCain was put into solitary confinement, where he would remain for two years.^[41]

In mid-1968, John S. McCain, Jr. was named commander of all U.S. forces in the Vietnam theater, and the North Vietnamese offered McCain early release^[43] because they wanted to appear merciful for propaganda purposes,^[44] and also to show other POWs that elite prisoners were willing to be treated preferentially.^[43] McCain turned down the offer; he would only accept repatriation if every man taken in before him was released as well. Such early release was prohibited by the POW's interpretation of the military Code of Conduct: To prevent the enemy from using prisoners for propaganda, officers were to agree to be released in the order in which they were captured.^[33]

In August 1968, a program of severe torture began on McCain.^[45] He was subjected to rope bindings and repeated beatings every two hours, at the same time as he was suffering from dysentery.^[33][45] Further injuries led to the beginning of a suicide attempt, stopped by guards.^[33] Eventually, McCain made an anti-American propaganda "confession".^[33] He has always felt that his statement was dishonorable, but as he later wrote, "I had learned what we all learned over there: Every man has his breaking point. I had reached mine."^[46][47] Many American POWs were tortured and maltreated in order to extract "confessions" and propaganda statements;^[48] virtually all of them eventually yielded something to their captors.^[49] McCain subsequently received two to three beatings weekly because of his continued refusal to sign additional statements.^[50]

McCain refused to meet with various anti-war groups seeking peace in Hanoi, wanting to give neither them nor the North Vietnamese a propaganda victory.^[51] From late 1969 onward, treatment of McCain and many of the other POWs became more tolerable,^[52] while McCain continued actively to resist the camp authorities.^[53] McCain and other prisoners cheered the U.S. "Christmas Bombing" campaign of December 1972, viewing it as a forceful measure to push North Vietnam to terms.^[47][54]

Altogether, McCain was a prisoner of war in North Vietnam for five and a half years. He was released on March 14, 1973.^[55] His wartime injuries left him permanently incapable of raising his arms above his head.^[56]

Commanding officer, liaison to Senate, and second marriage[link]

McCain giving an interview to the press on April 24, 1973, after his return from Vietnam. Photo by US News and World Report.

McCain's return to the United States reunited him with his family. His wife Carol had suffered her own crippling ordeal due to an automobile accident in December 1969.^[57] McCain became a celebrity of sorts, as a returned POW.^[57]

McCain underwent treatment for his injuries, including months of grueling physical therapy,^[58] and attended the National War College at Fort McNair in Washington, D.C. during 1973–1974.^[59] Having been rehabilitated, by late 1974, McCain had his flight status reinstated, and in 1976 he became commanding officer of a training squadron stationed in Florida.^[57][60] He improved the unit's flight readiness and safety records,^[61] and won the squadron its first-ever Meritorious Unit Commendation.^[60] During this period in Florida, McCain had extramarital affairs, and the McCains' marriage began to falter, for which he later would accept blame.^[62][63]

McCain served as the Navy's liaison to the U.S. Senate beginning in 1977.^[64] In retrospect, he has said that this represented his "real entry into the world of politics and the beginning of my second career as a public servant."^[57] His key behind-the-scenes role gained congressional financing for a new supercarrier against the wishes of the Carter administration.^[58][65]

In April 1979,^[58] McCain met Cindy Lou Hensley, a teacher from Phoenix, Arizona, whose father had founded a large beer distributorship.^[63] They began dating, and he urged his wife Carol to grant him a divorce, which she did in February 1980, with the uncontested divorce taking effect in April 1980.^[20][58] The settlement included two houses, and financial support for her ongoing medical treatments due to her 1969 car accident; they would remain on good terms.^[63] McCain and Hensley were married on May 17, 1980, with Senators William Cohen and Gary Hart attending as groomsmen.^[19][63] McCain's children did not attend, and several years would pass before they reconciled.^[22][58] John and Cindy McCain entered into a prenuptial agreement that kept most of her family's assets under her name; they would always keep their finances apart and file separate income tax returns.^[66]

McCain decided to leave the Navy. It was doubtful whether he would ever be promoted to the rank of full admiral, as he had poor annual physicals and had been given no major sea command.^[67] His chances of being promoted to rear admiral were better, but McCain declined that prospect, as he had already made plans to run for Congress and said he could "do more good there."^[68][69] McCain retired from the Navy on April 1, 1981^[70] as a captain.^[32] He was designated as disabled and awarded a disability pension.^[71] Upon leaving the military, he moved to Arizona. His 17 military awards and decorations include the Silver Star, Legion of Merit, Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star and Navy Commendation Medal, for actions before, during, and after his time as a POW.^[32]

House and Senate elections and career, 1982–2000[link]

U.S. Congressman[link]

McCain set his sights on becoming a Congressman because he was interested in current events, was ready for a new challenge, and had developed political ambitions during his time as Senate liaison.^[63][72][73] Living in Phoenix, he went to work for Hensley & Co., his new father-in-law Jim Hensley's large Anheuser-Busch beer distributorship.^[63] As Vice President of Public Relations at the distributorship, he gained political support among the local business community, meeting powerful figures such as banker Charles Keating, Jr., real estate developer Fife Symington III and newspaper publisher Darrow "Duke" Tully.^[64][74] In 1982, McCain ran as a Republican for an open seat in Arizona's 1st congressional district.^[75] A newcomer to the state, McCain was hit with charges of being a carpetbagger.^[63] McCain responded to a voter making that charge with what a Phoenix Gazette columnist would later describe as "the most devastating response to a potentially troublesome political issue I've ever heard":^[63]

Listen, pal. I spent 22 years in the Navy. My father was in the Navy. My grandfather was in the Navy. We in the military service tend to move a lot. We have to live in all parts of the country, all parts of the world. I wish I could have had the luxury, like you, of growing up and living and spending my entire life in a nice place like the First District of Arizona, but I was doing other things. As a matter of fact, when I think about it now, the place I lived longest in my life was Hanoi.^[63][76]

With the assistance of local political endorsements, his Washington connections, as well as money that his wife lent to his campaign,^[64] McCain won a highly contested primary election.^[63] He then easily won the general election in the heavily Republican district.^[63]

In 1983, McCain was elected to lead the incoming group of Republican representatives,^[63] and was assigned to the House Committee on Interior Affairs. Also that year, he opposed creation of a federal Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, but admitted in 2008: "I was wrong and eventually realized that, in time to give full support [in 1990] for a state holiday in Arizona."^[77][78]

McCain's politics at this point were mainly in line with President Ronald Reagan, including support for Reaganomics, and he was active on Indian Affairs bills.^[79] He supported most aspects of the foreign policy of the Reagan administration, including its hardline stance against the Soviet Union and policy towards Central American conflicts, such as backing the Contras in Nicaragua.^[79] McCain opposed keeping U.S. Marines deployed in Lebanon citing unattainable objectives, and subsequently criticized President Reagan for pulling out the troops too late; in the interim, the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing killed hundreds.^[63][80] McCain won re-election to the House easily in 1984,^[63] and gained a spot on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.^[81] In 1985, he made his first return trip to Vietnam,^[82] and also traveled to Chile where he met with its military junta ruler, General Augusto Pinochet.^[83][84][85]

Growing family[link]

In 1984, McCain and Cindy had their first child together, daughter Meghan, followed two years later by son John Sidney (Jack) IV, and in 1988 by son James (Jimmy).^[86] In 1991, Cindy McCain brought an abandoned three-month old girl needing medical treatment to the U.S. from a Bangladeshi orphanage run by Mother Teresa.^[87] The McCains decided to adopt her and named her Bridget.^[88]

First two terms in U.S. Senate[link]

McCain's Senate career began in January 1987, after he defeated his Democratic opponent, former state legislator Richard Kimball, by 20 percentage points in the 1986 election.^[64][89] McCain succeeded longtime American conservative icon and Arizona fixture Barry Goldwater upon the latter's retirement as United States Senator from Arizona.^[89]

McCain meeting President Ronald Reagan with First Lady Nancy Reagan at left, March 1987

Senator McCain became a member of the Armed Services Committee, with which he had formerly done his Navy liaison work; he also joined the Commerce Committee and the Indian Affairs Committee.^[89] McCain continued to support the Native American agenda.^[90] As first a House member and then a senator – and as a life-long gambler with close ties to the gambling industry^[91] – McCain was one of the main authors of the 1988 Indian Gaming Regulatory Act,^[92][93] which codified rules regarding Native American gambling enterprises.^[94] McCain was also a strong supporter of the Gramm-Rudman legislation that enforced automatic spending cuts in the case of budget deficits.^[95]

McCain soon gained national visibility. He delivered a well-received speech at the 1988 Republican National Convention, was mentioned by the press as a short list vice-presidential running mate for Republican nominee George H. W. Bush, and was named chairman of Veterans for Bush.^[89][96]

McCain became enmeshed in a scandal during the 1980s as one of five United States Senators comprising the so-called Keating Five.^[97] Between 1982 and 1987, McCain had received $112,000 in lawful^[98] political contributions from Charles Keating Jr. and his associates at Lincoln Savings and Loan Association, along with trips on Keating's jets^[97] that McCain belatedly repaid in 1989.^[99] In 1987, McCain was one of the five senators whom Keating contacted in order to prevent the government's seizure of Lincoln, and McCain met twice with federal regulators to discuss the government's investigation of Lincoln.^[97] In 1999, McCain said: "The appearance of it was wrong. It's a wrong appearance when a group of senators appear in a meeting with a group of regulators, because it conveys the impression of undue and improper influence. And it was the wrong thing to do."^[100] In the end, McCain was cleared by the Senate Ethics Committee of acting improperly or violating any law or Senate rule, but was mildly rebuked for exercising "poor judgment".^[98][100] In his 1992 re-election bid, the Keating Five affair was not a major issue,^[101] and he won handily, gaining 56 percent of the vote to defeat Democratic community and civil rights activist Claire Sargent and independent former Governor Evan Mecham.^[102]

The 1992 christening of USS John S. McCain at Bath Iron Works, with his mother Roberta, son Jack, daughter Meghan, and wife Cindy

McCain developed a reputation for independence during the 1990s.^[103] He took pride in challenging party leadership and establishment forces, becoming difficult to categorize politically.^[103]

As a member of the 1991–1993 Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs, chaired by Democrat and fellow Vietnam War veteran John Kerry, McCain investigated the Vietnam War POW/MIA issue, to determine the fate of U.S. service personnel listed as missing in action during the Vietnam War.^[104] The committee's unanimous report stated there was "no compelling evidence that proves that any American remains alive in captivity in Southeast Asia."^[105] Helped by McCain's efforts, in 1995 the U.S. normalized diplomatic relations with Vietnam.^[106] McCain was vilified by some POW/MIA activists who, unlike the Arizona senator, believed large numbers of Americans were still held against their will in Southeast Asia.^{[106][107][108]} Since January 1993, McCain has been Chairman of the International Republican Institute, an organization partly funded by the U.S. Government that supports the emergence of political democracy worldwide.^[109]

In 1993 and 1994, McCain voted to confirm President Clinton's nominees Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg whom he considered to be qualified for the U.S. Supreme Court. He would later explain that "under our Constitution, it is the president's call to make."^[110] McCain had also voted to confirm nominees of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, including Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas.^[111]

McCain attacked what he saw as the corrupting influence of large political contributions – from corporations, labor unions, other organizations, and wealthy individuals – and he made this his signature issue.^[112] Starting in 1994, he worked with Democratic Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold on campaign finance reform; their McCain-Feingold bill attempted to put limits on "soft money".^[112] The efforts of McCain and Feingold were opposed by some of the moneyed interests targeted, by incumbents in both parties, by those who felt spending limits impinged on free political speech and might be unconstitutional as well, and by those who wanted to counterbalance the power of what they saw as media bias.^[112][113] Despite sympathetic coverage in the media, initial versions of the McCain-Feingold Act were filibustered and never came to a vote.^[114]

The term "maverick Republican" became a label frequently applied to McCain, and he has also used it himself.^{[112][115][116]} In 1993, McCain opposed military operations in Somalia.^[117] Another target of his was pork barrel spending by Congress, and he actively supported the Line Item Veto Act of 1996, which gave the president power to veto individual spending items^[112] but was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1998.^[118]

In the 1996 presidential election, McCain was again on the short list of possible vice-presidential picks, this time for Republican nominee Bob Dole.^[101][119] The following year, Time magazine named McCain as one of the "25 Most Influential People in America".^[120]

In 1997, McCain became chairman of the powerful Senate Commerce Committee; he was criticized for accepting funds from corporations and businesses under the committee's purview, but in response said the small contributions he received were not part of the big-money nature of the campaign finance problem.^[112] McCain took on the tobacco industry in 1998, proposing legislation that would increase cigarette taxes in order to fund anti-smoking campaigns, discourage teenage smokers, increase money for health research studies, and help states pay for smoking-related health care costs.^[112][121] Supported by the Clinton administration but opposed by the industry and most Republicans, the bill failed to gain cloture.^[121]

Start of third term in the U.S. Senate[link]

McCain won re-election to a third senate term in November 1998, prevailing in a landslide over his Democratic opponent, environmental lawyer Ed Ranger.^[112] In the February 1999 Senate trial following the impeachment of Bill Clinton, McCain voted to convict the president on both the perjury and obstruction of justice counts, saying Clinton had violated his sworn oath of office.^[122] In March 1999, McCain voted to approve the NATO bombing campaign against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, saying that the ongoing genocide of the Kosovo War must be stopped and criticizing past Clinton administration inaction.^[123] Later in 1999, McCain shared the Profile in Courage Award with Feingold for their work in trying to enact their campaign finance reform,^[124] although the bill was still failing repeated attempts to gain cloture.^[114]

In August 1999, McCain's memoir Faith of My Fathers, co-authored with Mark Salter, was published;^[125] a reviewer observed that its appearance "seems to have been timed to the unfolding Presidential campaign."^[126] The most successful of his writings, it received positive reviews,^[127] became a bestseller,^[128] and was later made into a TV film. The book traces McCain's family background and childhood, covers his time at Annapolis and his service before and during the Vietnam War, concluding with his release from captivity in 1973. According to one reviewer, it describes "the kind of challenges that most of us can barely imagine. It's a fascinating history of a remarkable military family."^[129]

2000 presidential campaign[link]

McCain announced his candidacy for president on September 27, 1999 in Nashua, New Hampshire, saying he was staging "a fight to take our government back from the power brokers and special interests, and return it to the people and the noble cause of freedom it was created to serve".^[125][130] The leader for the Republican nomination was Texas Governor George W. Bush, who had the political and financial support of most of the party establishment.^[131]

McCain focused on the New Hampshire primary, where his message appealed to independents.^[132] He traveled on a campaign bus called the Straight Talk Express.^[125] He held many town hall meetings, answering every question voters asked, in a successful example of "retail politics", and he used free media to compensate for his lack of funds.^[125] One reporter later recounted that, "McCain talked all day long with reporters on his Straight Talk Express bus; he talked so much that sometimes he said things that he shouldn't have, and that's why the media loved him."^[133] On February 1, 2000, he won New Hampshire's primary with 49 percent of the vote to Bush's 30 percent. The Bush campaign and the Republican establishment feared that a McCain victory in the crucial South Carolina primary might give his campaign unstoppable momentum.^[125][134]

The Arizona Republic would write that the McCain–Bush primary contest in South Carolina "has entered national political lore as a low-water mark in presidential campaigns", while The New York Times called it "a painful symbol of the brutality of American politics".^{[125][135][136]} A variety of interest groups that McCain had challenged in the past ran negative ads.^[125][137] Bush borrowed McCain's earlier language of reform,^[138] and declined to dissociate himself from a veterans activist who accused McCain (in Bush's presence) of having "abandoned the veterans" on POW/MIA and Agent Orange issues.^[125][139]