The Man Who Made McCain

While Udall was in hospital, the Senate engaged in one of its earliest debates on what would eventually be known as stem-cell research. Lawmakers took up a bill that would overturn the ban on research using fetal tissue from elective abortions. Udall's children supported the bill, citing their father's illness and the hope that research could someday provide a cure. Anne Udall lobbied McCain personally. The Arizona senator had previously opposed such efforts, citing his belief that abortion was wrong. "It was a difficult decision for him," Anne recalls. "He talked about how much love and affection he had for Mo and how hard it had been for him to watch him go through this." McCain voted in favor of the research—putting him at odds with many in his party.

McCain has been an ardent proponent of the Iraq War, of course, and he has sided with the GOP in its opposition to abortion rights. But he has also crossed party lines on issues like campaign-finance reform—which Udall also championed—and global warming. In 2005, McCain was a key member of the Gang of 14, a group of Democrats and Republicans who worked together to prevent a shutdown of the Senate because of President George W. Bush's judicial nominees. To this day, some Republicans question his party loyalty for that.

Following the Udall model, McCain has reached out to freshman Democrats. But it hasn't always worked: in 2006, he tried to work with Obama to form a bipartisan task force on congressional ethics reform. Obama initially agreed, but changed his mind and deferred to his party's leadership, who wanted the bills to be written in committee. The reversal prompted McCain to send a heated letter to Obama accusing him of "partisan posturing." Obama called the response "head-scratching."

In the final years of Udall's life—he died at 76 in 1998—only a handful of lawmakers came to see him. "Sometimes friendships only last as long as people are in power, but that was never true for John," says Udall's son Mark, a congressman now running for Colorado's open Senate seat. "People have said he did it for political reasons, but what was the utility to do it at that point of his career? Once you leave public office, your power is reduced. My dad was bedridden and couldn't speak, but there was a connection there between them, a spark." That spark endures, and will make the 2008 battle for the White House all the more intriguing.

© 2008