Another Missed Opportunity To Lead

The Maddow Blog

By Steve Benen

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Tue May 29, 2012 8:00 AM EDT

Mitt Romney will join Donald Trump tonight in Las Vegas for a fundraiser, just a few days after the reality-show host reiterated his support for the ridiculous “birther” conspiracy theory. Asked by reporters yesterday whether Trump’s ugly, borderline-racist antics gives him pause, Romney seemed unconcerned.

“You know, I don’t agree with all the people who support me and my guess is they don’t all agree with everything I believe in,” Romney said. “But I need to get 50.1% or more and I’m appreciative to have the help of a lot of good people.”

That’s not much of a response. By Romney’s reasoning, decency is irrelevant — he should partner with anyone, no matter how vile, so long as it furthers his ambitions and gets him more votes.

The Obama campaign released a new video this morning, contrasting Romney’s response to supporters’ extremism with John McCain’s.

MORE HERE

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Two Republican Nominees (VIDEO)

Published on May 29, 2012 by BarackObamadotcom

Facebook it: https://my.barackobama.com/romneytrumpvid Tweet it: https://my.barackobama.com/romneytrumptwvid Tumblr it: https://my.barackobama.com/romneytrumptbrvid
John McCain stood up to the voices of extremism in his party. Will Mitt Romney?

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Santorum Says McCain Doesn’t Know What He’s Talking About When It Comes To Torture (VIDEO)

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Rick Santorum says John McCain doesn’t know what he’s talking about when it comes to torture

Crooks and Liars- By David Neiwert

May 18, 2011 07:00 AM

Well, there’s a frothy mixture of stupidity and arrogance for ya:

HUGH HEWITT: Now your former colleague, John McCain, said look, there’s no record, there’s no evidence here that these methods actually led to the capture or the killing of bin Laden. Do you disagree with that? Or do you think he’s got an argument?

RICK SANTORUM: I don’t, everything I’ve read shows that we would not have gotten this information as to who this man was if it had not been gotten information from people who were subject to enhanced interrogation. And so this idea that we didn’t ask that question while Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was being waterboarded, he doesn’t understand how enhanced interrogation works. I mean, you break somebody, and after they’re broken, they become cooperative. And that’s when we got this information. And one thing led to another, and led to another, and that’s how we ended up with bin Laden.

As Justin Elliott at Salon observes:

Here’s a passage from McCain’s memoir in which he describes being subjected to beatings and telling his interrogators false information in response:

Once my condition had stabilized, my interrogators resumed their work. Demands for military information were accompanied by threats to terminate my medical treatment if I did not cooperate. Eventually, I gave them my ship’s name and squadron number, and confirmed that my target had been the power plant. Pressed for more useful information, I gave the names of the Green Bay Packers offensive line, and said they were members of my squadron. When asked to identify future targets, I simply recited the names of a number of North Vietnamese cities that had already been bombed.

I was occasionally beaten when I declined to give any more information. The beatings were of short duration, because I let out a hair-raising scream whenever they occurred.

In one four-day period, McCain says he was beaten “every two to three hours,” and his arm was broken and ribs cracked. So if nothing else, this is a man who can be said to know how enhanced interrogation works. (Santorum, as far as I can tell, has never been tortured, nor did he serve in the military.)

Khalid Sheik Mohammed, like McCain, also gave bad information after being tortured — a point that McCain himself made in a recent Op-Ed …

Ah, but we know that deep in his heart, Rick Santorum is a manly man who could withstand these puny “enhanced interrogation” techniques, just like McCain. Or at least, deep in his imagination.

VIDEO and SOURCE

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Obama To Send Troops To Arizona Border: McCain Still Not Happy

Obama to Send More National Guardsmen to AZ Border: McCain of Course Still Not Happy

Crooks and Liars- By Heather Wednesday May 26, 2010 6:00am

How’s that pandering working out for you President Obama? Sen. Get-Off-My-Lawn McCain is never going to be happy even if he sent the 6000 troops he’s demanding. As Digby pointed out “it’s paranoid, wingnut crap that has no bearing on reality”. I agree with her here as well:

Mean Old Man McCain says we need 6,000 troops on the border, so I’m guessing President Goldilocks will say his “compromise” on this is “just right.” But hey, ratcheting up xenophobia is so good for everyone right now, why not just pretend there’s a huge problem that doesn’t really exist? We don’t have enough real ones apparently. After all, there are some Democrats who apparently think they need to show how much they hate Mexicans in order to win, so it’s all good.

(Oh, and remember that while there’s a huge “appetite” for expensive, stupid bullshit like this, there’s none for extending unemployment benefits to the lazy bums who want to live like kings on 250 bucks a week from government rather than get a non-existent job.)

That money would be better spent doing something about this disaster in the Gulf as well. Arizona’s Attorney General Terry Goddard on the other hand seemed pleased with the decision and was critical of the tone of McCain’s rhetoric. I’m sure he knows full well we wouldn’t see McCain acting like this if he didn’t have wingnut J.D. Hayworth for a primary challenger.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Transcript via CNN below the fold.

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Rachel Maddow: John McCain’s Abandonment Of “Maverick” Brand (VIDEO)

Early Morning Swim: Rachel Maddow on John McCain’s Abandonment of “Maverick” Brand

Firedoglake- By: Blue Texan Tuesday April 6, 2010 4:50 am

And it’s not just that he’s used that sham of a nickname for years. He just did last week.

At a campaign really for McCain on March 26th, Palin asked Arizona voters to “send the maverick back to the United States Senate” as McCain looked on. She told the crowd that McCain’s “maverick” status hasn’t won him friends from the “Washington D.C. elite machine.”

One reason McCain may be shedding the “maverick” label is that it doesn’t play well with Republican primary voters. McCain is facing a primary challenge from former congressman J.D. Hayworth, who has deemed McCain less than a true conservative.

Really brings the choice of Palin into focus, doesn’t it?

SOURCE

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John McCain: I’m NOT A Maverick — Or Am I? (VIDEOS)

Huff Post- First Posted: 04- 5-10 02:30 PM   |   Updated: 04- 5-10 08:05 PM

John McCain, the maverick? Apparently not anymore.

“I never considered myself a maverick,” McCain told Newsweek’s David Margolick in an interview in which he seems to distance himself from his trademark moniker. “I consider myself a person who serves the people of Arizona to the best of his abilities.”

But as recently as last month, McCain’s 2008 running mate, Sarah Palin, touted the Arizona senator’s “maverick” status, referring to “McCain the Maverick” four times in 15 minutes at a campaign rally in Tuscon.

(The Newsweek piece, is ironically subtitled “A maverick fights for his political life–and his soul.”)

Until now, McCain was never reluctant to embrace the “maverick” label. Here’s a look at some of his past ads and appearances that tout his maverickiness:

MORE “MAVERICK” VIDEOS HERE

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Palin Campaigning For McCain (VIDEO)

John McCain Is So Confused About Everything Right Now

Wonkette–4:51 PM on Fri March 26 2010
By Jim Newell

Here is a clip, ANY clip, of John McCain’s rally with Sarah Palin this afternoon, in Arizona. See she’s bustin’ out the leather tit jacket.  TeLLyPrOmmTr, notes-on-mah-hand, etc.  But just look at John McCain back there.  Just look at him.  At :32, clapping like that robot monkey with the cymbals.  He has no idea what the fuck is happening. [YouTube]

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Palin, McCain Rally In Arizona (VIDEO): GOP Is ‘Party Of Hell No’

HuffPost- First Posted: 03-26-10 02:42 PM   |   Updated: 03-26-10 05:33 PM

John McCain helped Sarah Palin launch her national political career two years ago. Now, she’s trying to help McCain save his. The former running mates campaigned together Friday for the first time since losing the presidential race in 2008.

Palin was a first-term governor of Alaska when McCain plucked her from relative obscurity to be his running mate. She went on to become a conservative rock star and a key Republican critic of President Barack Obama and the Democrats in Congress.

At the rally on Friday, Palin proclaimed that the Republican Party isn’t the party of no — “we’re the party of hell no!”

She derided “this BS coming from the lame-stream media” about “us common-sense conservatives kinda inciting violence,” but added, “We know violence isn’t the answer. When we take up our arms, we’re talking about our vote.”

The Tea Party movement, Palin declared, is “a beautiful grassroots movement that is putting government back on the side of the people. … Everybody here today supporting John McCain, we’re all part of that tea party movement.”

MORE HERE

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McCain’s DADT Support Letter Signed By Dead Men…

McCain’s DADT Support Letter Signed By A Bunch Of Dead Guys

Jason Linkins Huff Post- First Posted: 03- 5-10 10:10 AM   |   Updated: 03- 5-10 10:42 AM

On the matter of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,” Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) once promised that he would listen to “leaders in the military,” telling people that the “day that the leadership of the military comes to me and says, Senator, we ought to change the policy, then I think we ought to consider seriously changing it.” But when those military leaders came to him and told him it was time to change the policy, McCain retreated from his previous pledge, because it turns out he gets to pick and choose which military leaders he gets to heed.

And in this case, McCain has chosen the signatories of a letter signed by “over a thousand retired and flag general officers,” among other folks. But, as noted by Amanada Terkel, that letter turns out to be something of an exercise in ghost whispering:

…a new Servicemembers United report obtained in advance by DC Agenda severely undermines the legitimacy of this letter. Some of the problems:
– The average age of the officers is 74. The “oldest living signer is 98, and several signers died in the time since the document was published.” Servicemembers United Executive Director Alex Nicholson added that only “a small fraction of these officers have even served in the military during the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ period, much less in the 21st century military,” so it’s hard to believe that they “know how accepting and tolerant 18- and 21-year-olds are today.”

– “At least one signer, Gen. Louis Menetrey, was deceased when the letter was published and didn’t sign the document himself. According to a footnote on the letter, his wife signed the document for him after his death using power of attorney — six years after Alzheimer’s disease robbed him of the ability to communicate.”

Additionally, there’s the little problem of those living signatories who “never agreed” to sign the letter, as well as a handful who have some remarkably backward views on the world in which we live, such as this guy.

Anyway, for his next trick, John McCain will produce an 1876 letter from General George Armstrong Custer that reads, “No, no, don’t worry, I can totally take these guys!”

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Scott Brown To Campaign For John McCain

Naked Scott Brown To Campaign For John McCain!

Wonkette- WASHINGTON, DC, 11:20 AM, FRI MARCH 5

A certain nude senator from the state of Taxachusetts wowed the Tea Party Nation with his non-Martha-Coakleyness, which was enough to get him elected, but ever since then he has been SELLING OUT. Exhibit A: his outrageous vote for the jobs bill, which might someday result in actual employment for the lamers who currently spend their days angrily Tweeting about what a SELLOUT he is. Exhibit B: his support for a so-called Republican senator from Arizona, who is the widely acknowledged King of RINOS.

What is it with John McCain and his love of campaigning next to firm-fleshed conservative younglings?

[T]oday, McCain will attempt to enhance his conservative bona fides by hosting the party’s new darling, US Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts, on an Arizona campaign swing.

Brown is planning to accompany McCain at a campaign rally and fund-raiser in Phoenix today, followed tomorrow by a trip to Tucson, where they will attend a University of Arizona Wildcats basketball game.

This will be the first campaign event outside Massachusetts for Brown, who was virtually unknown outside his Wrentham state Senate district just three months ago. The new senator has received dozens of invitations from candidates wanting him to campaign on their behalf around the nation, but he has no other events scheduled beyond McCain’s.

“John McCain is a personal friend, an American hero, and someone who stood by him when no one else thought he had a chance,’’ said Gail Gitcho, Brown’s communications director.

McCain was the first US senator to encourage Brown in his run for the seat left vacant by the death of liberal lion Edward M. Kennedy, and Brown has said he idolizes the former Navy pilot.

In conclusion, naked Scott Brown is totally gay for John McCain, which is why J.D. Hayworth will be the next Barry Goldwater.

Brown answers McCain’s call for help [Boston Globe]

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Obama Smacks Down McCain At Health Care Summit (VIDEO)

McCain SMACKS DOWN Obama, Who SMACKS DOWN McCain

Wonkette

1:02 PM on Thu February 25 2010
By Jim Newell

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McCain Is One Of The Leading Critics Of President Obama

Since the inauguration, McCain has emerged as one of the leading critics of President Obama. Illustration by Matt Wuerker

John McCain, critic-in-chief?

POLITICO

By JONATHAN MARTIN & MANU RAJU | 12/11/09 12:17 AM EST

Barack Obama began his presidency with an open hand toward the man he had just defeated in a race that was at times bitter.

“There are few Americans who understand this need for common purpose and common effort better than John McCain,” said Obama at an inauguration-eve tribute dinner to his former foe.

But in the year since that evening of comity and collegiality, McCain has emerged as one of the leading critics of the new president. On foreign policy, his traditional area of expertise, and domestic affairs, where McCain has shown new passion, the 72-year-old Arizonan is making it plain that he has no plans to serve out his years in the rank-and-file, as a politician known more for what he lost than what he will yet accomplish.

For years, McCain relished being an outsider and a maverick, a style that often led to battles with his own party’s leadership. Today, for reasons that friends and McCain observers say could range from unresolved anger to concern for his right flank as he seeks re-election to genuine dismay about Obama’s agenda, he is helping lead a fiery crusade of GOP loyalists against Democratic priorities – and irked some of his Democratic colleagues in the process.

“The same ferocity he had about beating on Republicans … is now being focused on people on the other side whose agenda is really overreaching,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), one of McCain’s closest friends in the Senate. “He has every reason to be upset. There’s no change there. What would have been a change was if he wasn’t pissed off.”

“He is now the de facto leader of the Republican Party.”

Because of his Senate platform, longtime fame and a relative dearth of high-wattage Republicans, McCain has become something close to an opposition leader in the Obama era: There he is on the Senate floor denouncing Democrats’ health care plans; there he is on “Meet the Press,” offering the GOP response to the administration’s Afghanistan policy; and there he is back down in South Carolina, holding another town hall meeting with Graham as though the race never ended and the Straight Talk Express is still gassed up and ready to go.

“The first year has been like an extension of the presidential campaign in many ways,” said John Weaver, formerly one of McCain’s closest advisers.

Democrats argue that McCain has marched to the right, pointing to his opposition to Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination to the Supreme Court after years of trying to avoid battles on judicial nominations; his damaging criticism of the Democrats’ climate change plans when he was an early supporter of cap-and-trade legislation; his attacks on AARP when he actively sought the powerful lobby’s support in the 2008 campaign.

MORE HERE

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