Des Moines Register - Michigan's McCotter Keeps Critics, Allies Guessing

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Fifth-term U.S. Rep. Thaddeus McCotter of Michigan can sometimes be found strumming an acoustic or electric guitar in his office.

He plays in a band, the Second Amendments, with several other congressmen, and has been known to quote Led Zeppelin on the House floor.

This enigmatic conservative from Detroit's northwest suburbs is also running for the Republican nomination for president on a platform that emphasizes shrinking government and rebuilding the nation's manufacturing engine.

He paid for tent space to make his pitch to Iowa Republicans at the straw poll in Ames on Aug. 13.

Since his muted announcement July 2, observers have largely dismissed and puzzled over McCotter's decision to enter the race: Is he trying to boost his name recognition or sales of his recently published book?

Many expect him eventually to return home to run again for his House seat.

"It's not like people are standing up and cheering," said Bill Ballenger, editor of Inside Michigan Politics, who described the congressman as "not a major political figure in Michigan" and "kind of a lone wolf."

But McCotter, 45, who has a reputation for speaking frankly even when it rankles his own party, says he is in it to win it. In fact, he has for years quietly laid the groundwork for a run.

Conservative commentator S.E. Cupp has hosted informal discussions in New York City between McCotter and other young Republicans over the past three years, since she became familiar with his dry wit through appearances on the Fox News late-night talk show "Red Eye w/Greg Gutfeld."

The bald, lanky congressman offers opinions but mostly listens, Cupp said. Recently, the talk turned to brainstorming over a potential presidential run, with the upcoming debate and straw poll in Iowa as a possible launching pad.

"If he can influence the conversation and force some discipline on the other candidates, that's a winner for all of us," she said. "When it comes to substance, I'm not sure anyone can beat him. He's so smart, so quick and so articulate."

He sees manufacturing as key to prosperity

McCotter's not the kind of candidate you picture endlessly working rope lines and kissing babies.

In the Dennis Kucinich-Ron Paul-Newt Gingrich mold, he's an ideas guy.

McCotter says the Republican field is not talking enough about the need to restructure big government and "the big bailout banks," whose rescue package he opposed in 2008. Born at the height of Detroit's boom years, he surveys the economic wreckage in his Rust Belt district and argues for rebuilding America's manufacturing base to compete with China.

"In the end, this issue is larger than the Big Three (automobile manufacturers), in many ways larger than the economy," McCotter said in a 2008 committee hearing on the auto bailout, which he supported. "It is: What type of nation do we become? Do we become a nation that no longer produces wealth, that no longer has a path to middle-class prosperity? Do we remain the America we inherited, or do we just let it go and watch real people suffer in the process?"

Asked about his slim chances, McCotter jokes that he is named after the patron saint of lost causes. But the most important patron in his early political life was his mother, Joan McCotter, a longtime council member and city clerk in Livonia, Mich.

Even as a teenager, he thought he could run a campaign better than her aides could, she recalled.

Joan McCotter was not surprised but "a little in awe" when her son told her, the day before his announcement, that he was running for president, something she says people around town had always expected him to do. She says his candidacy is "not about him, it's about his message."

"Thaddeus is low key," she said. But despite his reserved ways, "I never underestimate him."

Inspired by Reagan, he's blunt about views

Those who know him best see his presidential run as less of a mystery than others do.

A devout Catholic, he graduated from Detroit Catholic Central High School and earned bachelor's and law degrees at the University of Detroit. While in college, close friend Dave Owsiany encouraged McCotter to become active in the Republican Party.

"Thad and I used to talk in high school about the country and what we wanted from our leaders. We were both inspired by (Ronald) Reagan," Owsiany said. "I asked Thad to come to meetings, and he jumped right in," walking neighborhoods as a precinct delegate and making phone calls.

After a brief stint in a solo law practice, McCotter was elected to the Wayne County Commission, then the Michigan state Senate, then Congress.

Kurt Berryman, McCotter's chief of staff for the first two years and now a lobbyist for Michigan auto dealers, described him as "very blunt, very happy to say no."

"He's never been a wallflower," Berryman said.

McCotter gained chairmanship of the House Republican Policy Committee and along with it a seat at the leadership table. In 2010, having in his mind finished the group's work with a report recommending policy directions for the party, he proposed dissolving his committee to save money. Not for the only time, observers scratched their heads.

He's a conservative with a pro-labor streak

McCotter mostly holds orthodox conservative views: He wants to cut government spending and brags on his congressional website that he has never voted for a tax increase. He opposes abortion and same-sex marriage and favors gun rights.

But he has voted for labor-friendly measures such as a minimum-wage hike and collective bargaining agreements for government jobs. He also voted to allow employees to decide to form a union by signing an authorization card, viewed as an easier way to unionize, but now says his vote for the so-called card check method was a mistake.

He warns often against blind pursuit of ideology. Speaking on the floor last week during the debt limit debate, he called for Republican Party unity. "The time has come for the tea party to grow up and the Republican Party to wake up," he said.

He voted for the final debt limit compromise despite warning that it contained a "tax trap."

McCotter has supported the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and called for the Obama administration to more forcefully back the 2009 protests in Iran. In June, he introduced legislation to cut off U.S. funding of the United Nations if the U.N. recognizes a Palestinian state.

McCotter eschews any label other than Republican.

"People have been trying to figure out Thad McCotter for years," Cupp said. "I think we have to agree he's smarter than all of us, and we'll never figure him out."

Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., got to know McCotter when they spent a day exploring their roots in Ireland en route to Iraq. Together, they also attended the installation of Pope Benedict XVI in 2005.

"Thad's a really smart guy," King said. "He alternates between being a comedian and a scholar."

King believes McCotter's Catholic education laid the foundation for his deliberate, ordered thinking.

McCotter talks with authority in discussing policy, history and philosophy. In interviews, supporters and critics alike said McCotter generally considers himself the smartest person in any room.

"He's quick to lecture you on things, even when he's wrong," said Michigan Democratic consultant Todd Cook. "He does have an edge to him at times. It's great for the media because you just never know what's going to come out of his mouth."

He'll spread message using social media

Conventional wisdom says he doesn't have a chance of winning the nomination.

The way McCotter sees it, if he is viewed as unconventional in a Washington full of crazy people and dysfunctional institutions, that can only be a good thing.

He's done little traditional retail caucus campaigning in Iowa. He believes 2012 will be the first social media campaign on the Republican side, giving him a chance to take his ideas directly to voters.

"It's all going to depend on the message, affirming American exceptionalism in the 21st century," McCotter said. "It's a novel approach. I'm trying to put the message ahead of the money."

While a congressman, he has flown home every weekend to his wife, Rita, who is a nurse, and their three children.

But Natalie Mosher, McCotter's 2010 Democratic opponent, said he does not hold enough town halls and community forums.

"He is not accessible to a great many of his constituents, and that's an integral part of his job," Mosher said. "What the heck is he doing in Iowa running for president?"

McCotter resists the notion he's out of touch. "My constituents show that every time they vote," he said.

Colleagues are not ready to discount him -- or at least his ability to make an impact. They eagerly await the Aug. 11 Republican candidates debate in Ames. However, debate organizers said Wednesday that he had yet to qualify to participate.

"He's going to open up a lot of people's eyes," said Rep. Candice Miller, a Republican who represents a neighboring Michigan district. "There will not be one person on stage with a better handle on foreign policy than Thad McCotter."

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