“The same ferocity he had about beating on Republicans … is now being focused on people on the other side whose agenda is really overreaching,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), one of McCain’s closest friends in the Senate. “He has every reason to be upset. There’s no change there. What would have been a change was if he wasn’t pissed off.”
“He is now the de facto leader of the Republican Party.”…
Why exactly he has gone from McCain the Maverick to McCain the Loyal Republican Soldier is difficult to discern because there seem to be differing motivations. And McCain is nothing if not complicated…
But others think he’s at least partly driven by animus toward the president.
“Politics is often very personal for McCain,” said one longtime friend, commenting on the delight the Arizonan now seems to find in tweaking Obama.
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