McCain Held All the Cards, So Bush Folded

WASHINGTON — By refusing to agree to an all-out ban on the torture of terrorist suspects held in U.S. custody, President Bush in recent months was triggering political problems for his administration at home and around the world. It took the assistance of an unlikely ally -- Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a rival in the 2000 Republican primaries -- to give the White House the chance to repair the damage on both fronts.

The agreement reached Thursday on legislation prohibiting the inhumane treatment of suspected terrorists in U.S. custody marked a rare capitulation by a president who campaigned for reelection based on his self-styled resolve when it came to the war on terrorism.

But it was also a recognition that, 13 months after a solid victory at the polls that seemed to put Bush's White House in position to make transformational policy changes, the president is approaching his highest priority -- fighting terrorism -- from a position of political weakness.

And as GOP leaders are fighting among themselves over immigration, the war in Iraq and the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast, the crucial role played by McCain only accentuated his standing as a front-runner for the party's presidential nomination in 2008.

"It was inevitable that McCain would be able to win on this one," said Robert Ellsworth, a deputy Defense secretary under President Ford and a foreign policy advisor to 1996 GOP presidential candidate Bob Dole.

The agreement came after weeks of intense negotiations between McCain and national security advisor Stephen Hadley -- discussions that began only after it was clear that heavy lobbying by Vice President Dick Cheney to exempt, in some circumstances, the CIA from a torture ban was making no headway among lawmakers.

White House officials could not avoid the sting as both GOP-controlled houses of Congress backed McCain's proposal with veto-proof majorities, even though Bush had threatened to make the issue cause for the first veto of his presidency.

The vote in the House on Wednesday came despite White House hopes that Bush's recent series of speeches on the war in Iraq -- along with Thursday's national elections there -- would boost his faltering approval ratings and give the president renewed moral authority on the fight against terrorism.

Several recent polls showed Bush's approval ratings rising slightly, but most Republicans on Capitol Hill were clearly more impressed at the moment by McCain's past -- a former POW in Vietnam who was himself tortured -- and his future as a potential president.