Obama Gets on McCain's Bad Side

By Amy Hart in News on Feb 7, 2006 1:05PM

When Chicagoist thinks about the possibility of senators going at each other's throats, we usually daydream about Ted Kennedy bitchslapping Rick Santorum. So imagine our surprise when the latest political tiff appears to be between Arizona Senator John McCain and our very own Senator Barack Obama.

The whole thing started last week when Obama wrote McCain a thank you letter for including him in bipartisan talks on lobbying reform, but stated stricter reforms than the ones recommended by Republican leaders should be considered.

McCain took Obama's letter as a personal and political jab and fired back with his own letter, which snarkily begins, "I would like to apologize to you for assuming that your private assurances to me regarding your desire to cooperate in our efforts to negotiate bipartisan lobbying reform legislation were sincere." It only gets better from there, so read the whole thing.

Obama responded to McCain yesterday with another letter in which he says he is "puzzled" by McCain's response to his original letter and truly wants to work together for a bipartisan solution for ethics reform.

Can't we just all get along? McCain, we know you want to be known as the reformiest reformer around, but listening to other ideas is part of Decision Making 101. Obama, watch out, you are still a junior senator and McCain has an angry side. And why can't you guys keep this lovers' quarrel private? We expect public argumentation between our local county officials, but we need our senators to work together to solve the big problems... like the possibility of human-animal hybrids taking over the country.

Update: It appears Obama and McCain have kissed and made up.