John McCain: An Essay, by John Karaagac: on Corporations

John McCain: Skilled chair of Senate Commerce Committee since 1997

As chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, McCain became the senator charged with the issue of forging consensus on tobacco legislation--an unlikely issue in that McCain was himself an avid smoker in the Hanoi Hilton. The bill, christened the McCain bill, passed through the Commerce Committee by a vote of 19-1. Members of both parties, with an eye to events beyond the 1998 mid-term elections, suggested that McCain's skill in shepherding such a contentious issue through committee demonstrated presidential caliber. (The sole dissenting negative vote belonged to the conservative Republican John Ashcroft of Missouri.)