sen john mccain

McCain–VS- McCain

Don’t you just love a little domestic drama?

Sen. John McCain's wife Cindy appears in a new ad that harshly criticizes the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, and government officials and religious leaders generally, over what she and others describe as complicity in the bullying that has led to a rash of highly-publicized suicides among gay youth.

The Republican senator from Arizona has spearheaded opposition to legislative repeal of the military's ban on openly gay servicemembers in the upper chamber, vowing to filibuster if necessary a bill similar to the one that passed the House earlier this year. In the ad from the NOH8 campaign -- an activist group formed in response to Proposition 8, the California ballot measure that banned same-sex marriage -- Cindy McCain seems to be suggesting that her husband is partly responsible for the bullying that has claimed a number of gay teens' lives.

"Our political and religious leaders tell LGBT youth that they have no future," Mrs. McCain says in the ad, which features her alongside celebrities such as Denise Richards and Gene Simmons. "They can't serve our country openly."

National Security

David Petraeus Faints At Senate Hearing

Just got this breaking news alert from the Washington Post:

Gen. David H. Petraeus, the commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, fell ill at the witness table during a Senate hearing Tuesday and had to be escorted from the room.

Petraeus was listening to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) express concern about the direction of the U.S. war effort in Afghanistan when he appeared to faint. Aides immediately rushed to help him, and he was led out of the hearing room.

Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.) said, he 'appears to be doing very well.'

Hopefully he is doing well, but I would be amiss if I didn't point out the irony that he fainted while listening to John McCain speak. That is priceless.

National Security

Republicans Show Their Disdain For The Constitution

With the arrest of a Pakistani born, U.S. citizen in connection with the failed car bombing on Times Square, the Republican members of Congress are starting to show that they have absolutely no respect for the Constitution of this land:

The morning after the arrest of 30-year-old Faisal Shahzad at John F. Kennedy airport on Monday evening, the usual suspects in the GOP took to print and the airwaves to whack away at the president and his top lawyer. Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) mocked the idea that Attorney General Eric Holder might read the suspect his Miranda rights or consider trying him in a civilian court.

"I hope that [Attorney General Eric] Holder did discuss this with the intelligence community. If they believe they got enough from him, how much more should they get? Did they Mirandize him? I know he's an American citizen but still," King said.

Notorious for jumping into the political fray in the wake of attempted or successful terrorist acts, King was quickly joined in the ring by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who called the idea of reading Miranda rights a "serious mistake."

As matter of fact McCain has even gone to the right of Glenn Beck now:

"He is a citizen of the United States, so I say we uphold the laws and the Constitution on citizens," the bombastic Fox News host said to the stunned co-hosts of "Fox and Friends". "If you are a citizen, you obey the law and follow the Constitution. [Shahzad] has all the rights under the Constitution."

"We don't shred the Constitution when it is popular," Beck added. "We do the right thing."

Politics

Senile Old Man – Episode 1001

Today we have another episode in the dementia that is John McCain. Remember the maverick? Well then you must be thinking of the wrong person, because John McCain says he never called himself a maverick.

For more than a decade, famed 'Straight Talk Express' rider John McCain has had 'maverick' as his and his supporters' moniker of choice. And friends and foes alike have followed suit to such a degree that it can almost sound like an official title ('maverick Sen. John McCain'). But running in a surprisingly contested Republican primary against a former member of Congress who says McCain is too moderate may be taking its toll.

Sen. McCain (R-AZ) now tells Newsweek that he was never a maverick.

"I never considered myself a maverick," McCain said. "I consider myself a person who serves the people of Arizona to the best of his abilities."

Does McCain really think such a flip-flop will win votes? Is he really that much of a dumb ass? If anything this ploy will cost him more votes. Of course that would be a good thing. We need to rid the Senate of the moron from Arizona.

Media

Oh Boy – CNN Has An Exclusive Tomorrow!

And check out who it is:

This week, John's exclusive guests are Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) LIVE from Jerusalem. We'll get their insight on the foiled airline terror plot and President Obama's strategy on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

As Benen points out:

Hmm, McCain and Lieberman, talking together about foreign policy and national security. Now that's a balanced pairing.

CNN – The worst rated name in news! Keep this crap up and before long CNN will lose the ratings game to public access.

Politics

Steele Says Republicans “Screwed Up” After Reagan

Michael Steele’s new book is being coined as a big mea culpa for the Republican party, but how can they admit their failures when they won’t even admit that they ever happened?

Let me take a few bullet points from the AP’s article on Steele’s book:

-President George H.W. Bush for raising taxes two years after President Ronald Reagan left office, though Steele ignores the fact that Reagan raised taxes too.

Right there the AP admits part of the problem – Steele ignored Reagan’s record also. As matter of fact, just try to tell a Republican that Reagan raised taxes and they will look at you like you just got caught raping a kitten. They refuse to accept history.

-President George W. Bush for not vetoing any spending bills during his first five years in office. He calls Bush and other Republicans "enablers for big government" and derides the Bush administration's Troubled Asset Relief Program as "a massive government slush fund."

Hindsight is good and all, but Steele was one of those people out there constantly supporting Bush policies. The Bush tax cuts alone were enough to put this country in financial ruins, yet Steele and other Republicans still champion them as the epitome of conservatism. Or how about the highly expensive and totally unnecessary Iraq War? Steele and Republicans never once say that we should have taken a pass on it.

As for the TARP fund, well I seem to remember the Republican candidate for President doing an unprecedented move of suspending his campaign to fight for TARP. Steele wasn’t out blasting that move then, and we are talking about something that happened only a little over a year ago. Redemption doesn’t happen that fast buddy.

So Do The Birther Republicans Also Believe 9/11 Was An Inside Job?

Here’s what really started the whole birther movement:

In the final months of the 2008 presidential race, Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) campaign learned of a lawsuit filed in Pennsylvania that asked the state to strip Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) of the Democratic nomination on suspicion that he was not an American citizen. The complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief was filed by Phil Berg, a former deputy state attorney general who left government in 1990 for a series of gadfly political campaigns. His last round of notoriety had come when he filed RICO complaints against George W. Bush, Saddam Hussein and multiple members of the Bush administration for “accountability” for the 9/11 attacks. Still, Berg’s complaint had gotten glancing local media attention, and the Democratic National Committee’s counsel had filed a motion to dismiss it. One lawyer who was doing some work for the campaign was tasked with reading Berg’s lawsuit and gauging its chances of success

The person who started it all is also a “truther”. So does that mean Liz Cheney, Michelle Malkin and the rest of the right wing loonies think that 9/11 was an inside job? Hopefully they will start being asked this question.

A New Republican Leader?

Chris Cillizza thinks we could be seeing the emergence of a new Republican Leader in Lindsey Graham:

Graham, who spent the 2008 election cycle as Sen. John McCain's loyal sidekick, appeared alongside former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, the GOP frontrunner in advance of 2012, and managed to stand out.

Why? Because unlike other Republicans who seem to be so fixated on scoring political points on President Obama, Graham was willing to point out where his own party had strayed while also making a reasonable argument for GOP ideals.

Asked about Gov. Mark Sanford's extramarital affair, Graham, who is close to the governor, said that he was "disappointed" in his friend's behavior and praised Obama as "one of the better role models in the entire country for the idea of being a good parent, a good father."

Graham is playing the good guy right now, but that isn’t what the higher-ups in the GOP want. Instead they want attack dogs; people who will viciously attack anything President Obama does. That will prevent someone like Graham from becoming a de facto leader, and will help keep the GOP in the minority for some time to come.

Will Sarah Palin Denounce Rush Limbaugh?

Republicans loved Chelsea Clinton. She instantly became their constant punch line. For example here is John McCain:

Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because her father is Janet Reno."

-- Sen. John McCain, speaking to a Republican dinner, June 1998.

And let’s not forget Rush Limbaugh:

it was Limbaugh who ridiculed Chelsea Clinton, then 13, as the "White House dog."

Now those aren’t jokes as sick as making one about raping a child, but that kind of joke wasn’t even made, but Letterman never made a joke about anyone being raped. Instead he simply said that the Palin’s daughter got knocked up by A-Rod. He didn’t even specify which daughter. It was the Palins who decided to make it about their 14 year old daughter.

But Republicans seem to forget that they loved the jokes when they were going against Chelsea Clinton. Even Palin’s own running mate was out there trying to get the chuckles. But today we have Republicans trying to say that never happened. Here’s Republican talking head John Feehery trying to say it never happened. Luckily Contessa Brewer brought her A-game and quickly shot him down:

So since there is all this outrage from the right over “leave the kids out of it”, will they start boycotting Rush Limbaugh, who never could do that? Hell no.

Republicans Using Taxpayer Money For Their “Rebranind Effort”

Roll Call has blasted Eric Cantor and the GOP’s “rebranding effort” for their use of taxpayer dollars to foot the bill for this:

As believers in a strong two-party system, we support Republican efforts to “rebrand,” “reach out” to the public and develop new ideas.

But political work, such as that being done by the National Council for a New America created by House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.), should be done with political money and not with resources paid for by taxpayers.

As Roll Call reported on Monday, Cantor staff and GOP ethics attorney Jan Baran have walked a very fine line to comply with House rules in funding, publicizing and staffing the new organization.

But we think that the whole endeavor ought to be paid for out of political contributions.

The NCNA’s original launch letter carefully — though disingenuously — declared “this is not a Republican-only forum.”

And Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said in one conference call that “this is a conversation with America. This is not a rebranding effort.”

Just think about this for a minute. The Republicans are using taxpayer funds to try and fix their own public image. How does this sit with conservatives? Should people have to pay taxes to help fix the Republican brand? Couldn’t this start the slippery slope to socialism?

I think the Republicans have a lot to answer for on this. If the conservative branch of their party is truly conservative then the harshest questions should be coming from those who say they champion for smaller government spending and a reduction of the abuse of taxpayer dollars.

Temper Tantrum

Meghan McCain didn’t get everything done her way at the correspondents’ dinner, so she ended up having a little temper tantrum:

Sen. John McCain’s daughter — who writes online for The Daily Beast and will soon release a book about life as a Republican — lost it after getting stopped by security when she arrived at the White House Correspondents dinner Saturday. The problem? She had only two tickets, but brought two friends.

“The security guard sent her to talk to someone to sort out the situation, but Meghan got bratty and nastily told him, ‘We’ll just stand here then,’ like an insolent child,” our source said, adding that after dealing with the guard, “She muttered to her friends, ‘Does he even know who the f--- I am?’ ”

That wasn’t it. She also complained about the air-conditioning, having to wait and get upset that Wanda Sykes poked fun at her family. Little rich brat. That pretty much sums it up. Well maybe not the little part.

And You Thought There Was Change!

You would never guess that if you went on the Sunday talk shows lineup:

ABC's "This Week" — Retired Marine Corps Gen. James Jones, the president's national security adviser; Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

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CBS' "Face the Nation" — Former Vice President Dick Cheney.

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NBC's "Meet the Press" — Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai; Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari.

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CNN's "State of the Union" — Gen. David Petraeus, head of the U.S. Central Command; Sens. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Bob Casey, D-Pa.

Kind of gives you a nostalgic Bush-era feeling, doesn’t it? Oh wait – that isn’t nostalgia, that’s nausea.

How Low Do They Want To Go?

Well, Specter, take [Sen. John] McCain with you. And his daughter [Meghan]. Take McCain and his daughter with you if you're gonna…

Republican Leader Rush Limbaugh on news of Specter switching parties. That’s a pretty bad statement, but even worse is his rationale for it:

…..It's ultimately good. You're weeding out people who aren't really Republicans

Only 21% of the people in this country identify themselves as Republican now. How low does boss Limbaugh want to go? 14%? 7%?

I also wonder how long it will take before the Democrats stop gloating and realize that this is actually bad for our country and take action to fix this problem? It might sound odd that Democrats would be worried about the demise of their opponent in our political fabric, but having two strong parties is necessary to ensure our system of checks and balances. So if it gets to the point that Democrats have a 65 or 70 seat majority in the Senate, will Democrats take action to force a restructuring of the Republican Party, or leveling the playing field to help bring in other parties like the Libertarian movement? Our country does depend on it.

Will McCain Share Now?

McCain is back to being a Senator and offering advice on Afghanistan:

Sen. John McCain says the situation in Afghanistan will get more difficult before it gets easier — "just like the surge in Iraq was."

The former Republican presidential candidate visited the southern province of Helmand on Sunday, where he said NATO forces are at a stalemate with insurgents. McCain says the U.S. will be paying more attention to that part of the country with an influx of troops.

Throughout the campaign, McCain said if he was President he would capture Osama bin Laden – that he knew how to. A lot of people questioned rather he had some great plan to fulfill this promise that he decided to hold onto, instead of sharing with the current administration so that we could capture public enemy number one. Now that McCain has lost the election, and said he has no plans on running again, will he share his great knowledge with Obama, or was he just blowing a bunch of smoke up our asses?

Meet Your New White House Chief Counsel

A familiar face from the Clinton years:

Gregory B. Craig, a well-known Washington lawyer who quarterbacked President Bill Clinton’s impeachment defense, has been chosen White House counsel by President-elect Barack Obama, according to Democratic officials.

Craig is intimately familiar with the president-elect’s record because he played the role of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in debate preparations.

The officials said Obama has settled on Craig but were not sure when the appointment would be announced.

Harriett Miers he is not – thank God!