CHUCK TODD: Joe, why isn't McCain jumping on this Ted Stevens thing? He hated Ted Stevens.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: He did!
TODD: He should be dancing on this guy's political grave today. This is the John McCain Republican party versus the Ted Stevens Republican party. And he ought to be, he ought to be gloating today. And he's not touched it.
View video here.
Scarborough agreed.
SCARBOROUGH: Chuck, that is a great point, Chuck. Because you know, when we win, we worked together: McCain on the Senate side, me on the House side. That was McCain's thing! He constantly would stick, would poke, people like Ted Stevens. He mocked Republican appropriators unmercifully. He called them "pigs." It was stunning to see one senator say that about another senator. You're exactly right. Why doesn't he go out and say "hey! This is what I've been talking about for years!"
TODD: Right.
SCARBOROUGH: That's the John McCain of 2000.
TODD: This is a great day for America. Absolutely. He should be doing this, jumping around there: "great day for the Republican party." I'm surprised he's not done it yet.
So, what do readers think? Sound advice from Todd, or a trap for McCain?
Note: Rich Lowry, writing at National Review Online's "Corner" blog, expresses a view similar to Todd's:
McCain should absolutely unload on Stevens, and frame it as the sort of dysfunction and corruption in Congress that he has long railed against. A good way to get some indie cred without upsetting any conservatives.”
