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In the Crossfire

McCain: More of a Democrat than a Republican?

(CNN) -- Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, joined hosts Tucker Carlson and James Carville in the Crossfire for a lively debate about his party loyalties.

CARLSON: Now if there's one group able to recognize a Democrat, it's the guys at the "New Republic."

McCAIN: Great Americans.

CARLSON: Great Americans. One of them, Jonathan Chate, wrote a piece that described you as a Democrat. I just want to read one quote to from it:: "It's easy to forget that the Arizona senator," you, "is not in fact a Democrat. In the past year he has stood against his party on so many prominent and contentious issues that his concurrences with the GOP dogma have become more of an exception than a rule.

It is no exaggeration to say he has co-sponsored virtually the entire domestic agenda of the Democratic Party." That's true. Why don't you switch?

MCCAIN: Well, first of all, in all due respect, if you look at my rankings by the differentiating organizations, I still have very high rankings from the Chamber of Commerce, those that grade Republican and Democrats and very low from a lot of the Democratic organizations.

Look, I cause a lot of problems to my dear friends in the Republican leadership. I admit that. I would also cause a whole lot of problems for my friends in the Democratic leadership, probably more. .... Look, I'm a Theodore -- Teddy Roosevelt -- Republican. I am unabashed and unbought. And if any of you want to read a good book, read "Theodore Rex," and you'll see that he was a conservationist, he believed in the greatness of America, and he believed in a very strong role for the federal government in some areas.

CARLSON: But Senator McCain, it's not as if you have taken exception to a couple of parts of the Republican agenda. I want to read you a partial list of the issues on which you've diverged from your party: Campaign finance reform, tobacco, Bush's tax cut, drilling in ANWR (Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska), patients' bill of rights, prescription drugs, airport security, the Kyoto Treaty, emission standards, gun control. My hand got tired so I stopped. But I could probably go on.

You have had more problems with your party than Jim Jeffords did, and he switched. Why are you still there?

McCAIN: Well, first of all, by the way, many of you don't know, a couple of years ago I went with a group of people to Hanoi. Tucker was one of them. At the airport he was held up because of a paperwork problem. I should have exercised my influence then and asked them to keep him.

(Laughter)

CARLSON: But you didn't. So you have to answer the question.

MCCAIN: Look, I've supported the president on education and on national defense. I've supported the Republicans on a broad variety of issues. Everybody knows we need a patients' bill of rights. Everybody knows that we need to -- I'll be glad to go through that list.

CARLSON: But my point is these are -- you are on the Democratic side. Why not --

McCAIN: ... National defense -- national defense. I can give you a bigger laundry list of issues that I think, but I also think one other thing. If I can mention it, I was elected by the people of Arizona to represent them first and then the Republicans second. But I believe that my records, of almost 20 years now in the Congress, show that I am a right-of-center conservative, small government, et cetera, et cetera Republican. And as I say, a proud Teddy Roosevelt Republican.

CARVILLE: Looks like he's being attacked for something we can't stand in Washington, that is common sense.