What a touching commentary about two politicians who were able to step outside the box and become human beings (which I don't ordinarily see politicians as being) <grin>. Thanks for sharing the article with us, Ken. Barb Mallut [log in to unmask] [log in to unmask] -----Original Message----- From: Parkinson's Information Exchange On Behalf Of ken aidekman Sent: Friday, May 30, 1997 7:15 AM To: Multiple recipients of list PARKINSN Subject: Udall & McCain An article about Senator John McCain, the current champion of the Morris K. Udall Parkinson's bill, was featured in the Sunday, May 25th issue of the New York Times Magazine. The author is Michael Lewis, a columnist for the Magazine. His book "Trail Fever", published by Knopf, is about the 1996 Presidential campaign. It will be out in June. The following excerpts are from the article entitled "The Subversive" "When he was elected to the House in 1982 . . . . (John McCain's) visceral hostility toward Democrats generaly was quickly tempered by his tendency to see people as individuals and judge them that way. He was taken in hand by Morris Udall, the Arizona Congressman who was the liberal conscience of the Congress and a leading voice for reform. (Most famously- and disastrously for his own career - Udall took aim a the seniority system that kept young talent in its place at the end of the dais. 'The longer you're here, the more you'll like it,' he used to joke to incoming freshmen.) 'Mo reached out to me in 50 different ways,' McCain recalled. 'Right from the start, he'd say: 'I'm going to hold a press conference out in Phoenix. Why don't you join me?' All these journalists would show up to hear what Mo had to say. In the middle of it all, Mo would point to me and say, 'I'd like to hear John's views.' Well, hell, I didn't have any views. But I got up and learned and was introduced to the state.' Four years later, when McCain ran for and won Barry Goldwater's Senate seat, he said he felt his greatest debt of gratitude not to Goldwater - who had shunned him - but to Udall. 'There's no way Mo could have been more wonderful,' he says, 'and there was no reason for him to be that way.' For the past few years, Udall has lain ill with Parkinson's disease in a veterans hospital in Northeast Washington, which is where we were heading. Every few weeks, McCain drives over to pay his respects. . . . McCain brings with him a stack of newspaper clips on Udall's favorite subjects: local politics in Arizona, environmental legislation, Native American land disputes - subjects in which McCain intitially had no particular interest. Now, when the Republican Senator from Arizona takes the floor on behalf of Native Americans, or when he writes an op-ed piece arguing that the Republican Party should embrace environmentalism, or when the polls show once again that he is Arizona's most popular politician he remains aware of his debt to Arizona's most influentical Democrat. On the way out of the parking lot McCain recalled what it was like to be a nobody called upon by a somebody. . . (he) spoke of how it affected him when Udall took him by the hand. It was a simple act of affection and admiration, and for that reason it meant all the more to McCain. It was one man saying to another, We disagree in politics but not in life. It was one man saying to another, Party political differences cut only so deep. Having made that step, they found much to agree upon and many useful ways to work together. This is the reason McCain keeps coming to see Udall even after Udall has lost his last shred of political influence. The politics were never all that important." Mo Udall. . . Muhammad Ali. . . John McCain . . . Pope John Paul . . . Janet Reno . . . Parkinson's better watch its step, we have some mighty fine people on our side. Regards, Ken Aidekman Fund the Research. Find the Cure.