McCain caught playing poker on his phone during Syria hearing

By Arturo Garcia/Raw Story

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) had a flippant response on Tuesday to getting caught playing games on his phone during the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing concerning a U.S. military strike against Syria.

The Washington Post posted a picture of McCain playing poker on his phone in the midst of the hearing, prompting him to respond on Twitter, “Scandal! Caught playing iPhone game at 3+ hour Senate hearing — worst of all I lost!”

McCain, who earlier in the day mocked conservative radio host Laura Ingraham, also joked with Secretary of State John Kerry’s wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, before the hearing began, telling her, “Sorry for what I’m about to do to John.”

McCain Slams Efforts To Curb Rampant Campus Sexual Harassment As Violating Free Speech

By Kumar Ramanathan/Think Progress

Over the past month, conservatives and libertarians have criticized efforts to curb sexual harassment on college campuses as “de-eroticizing universities” and claimed they violate free speech. Now, Sen. John McCain has jumped on the bandwagon in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder.

McCain’s letter, sent to Holder last Wednesday, accuses Assistant Attorney General Tom Perez and Department of Justice (DOJ) lawyers of having “single-handedly redefined the meaning of sexual harassment at all universities and colleges across the country.” Endorsing claims made by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), which has led the attack on the DOJ and OCR, McCain suggests that guidelines set out by the DOJ and the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) with one university in the wake of increasing student protest and complaint over the epidemic of rape culture across college campuseswould somehow restrict free speech.

As ThinkProgress reported in June, the agreement in question was reached by the DOJ and OCR with the University of Montana in May in an effort to prevent sexual harassment and assault following a string of high-profile cases and subsequent mishandling by campus authorities. Inone particularly notable case, a woman who reported her attempted rape was told “not to expect much” and told that half of all rape allegations were false. The final agreement is so measured that it has been met only with hopeful skepticism from campus activists.

Over the past two months, conservative and libertarian critics of the agreement have seized on one section of the lengthy agreement, which is intended to encourage students to feel more comfortable reporting conduct they feel harassed by, rather than be burdened with interpreting Title IX regulations themselves. In that vein, the section defines sexual harassment for the purpose of student reporting as “any unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature.” Government officials have repeatedly reiterated that only conduct that meets the legal standard of being “severe or pervasive” and creating “a hostile environment” will be subject to enforcement, and that the guidelines merely try to “ensure students are not discouraged from reporting harassment.” But that has not stopped McCain and other conservatives from insisting that this section creates a new and expanded definition of sexual harassment, alleging that it could even encompass a student asking another on a date.

McCain’s letter includes several questions asking for clarification on the DOJ’s definition of sexual harassment and the implications of its agreement with the University of Montana, and requests a response by July 17. A DOJ representative said in a statement to the Huffington Post said that the Department was reviewing McCain’s letter.

Despite the controversy, University of Montana officials have said that they will go ahead with implementing the agreement and do not see it as unconstitutional. “I don’t believe we’ve been instructed to [create a new category for sexual harassment],” Lucy France, legal counsel for the University, told the Moussilian. “We’re working on a draft policy that’s consistent with the law, and not inconsistent with First Amendment rights and academic freedom. That’s what we agreed to do with the DOJ.”

Tea Party Labels John McCain An ‘Illegal Immigrant’

By Esther Yu-Hsi Lee/Think Progress

On Tuesday, the Tea Party website ‘Tea Party Nation’ put out an article that labeled Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) an “illegal immigrant” because he had sneaked into Syria to visit rebels fighting against the Bashar al-Assad regime. Although the White House was aware of McCain’s Syrian visit, the article indicated that his visit was virtually the same as undocumented immigration. It also noted that McCain’s humanitarian support for rebels could be attributed to his lack of intelligence, and Democratic turnout for his unsurprising win in the Arizona Senate race.

The characterization of McCain is just one incident in a long series of efforts by the group to unjustifiably incite hatred against undocumented immigrants. While the Tea Party is ostensibly meant to represent true American virtues, it’s better known for its outlandish values that border on racism, particularly when it comes to immigration. Tea Partiers have deemed pejorative phrase “illegal immigrant” and “illegal alien” a “fair” phrase, even when it is not applicable in many instances. For example, in the latest gubernatorial race in Virginia, Terry McAuliffe was portrayed as an “undocumented Virginian” even though he had lived twenty years in the state.

Some major newspapers like the New York Times, the LA Times, and the AP have dropped the use of “illegal immigrant” from its coverage of undocumented migration. Immigration advocates view the phrase as offensive, citing that “no human being is ‘illegal,’ drop the I-word.” Yet Tea Party organizations have hardly budged.

The definition that Tea Partiers give for an illegal immigrants is “someone who sneaks into another country… even if they do not stay long.” Although the Tea Party has had a long history of describing undocumented immigrants as “illegal” and “invasive,” it sometimes does so in particularly inaccurate ways, such as last Thursday’s article headine, “Obama Meets In Oval Office With Illegal Aliens.” In actuality, Obama was meeting with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients, who, through executive action, are actually lawfully present in the U.S. In the past, Tea Partiers have asked the public to detail their encounters with illegal aliens, like if they are “showing racist posters” — something which the Tea Party is itself not immune from doing.

In pandering to Tea Party advocates, some politicians are in fact hurting progress more than anything. Across many issues, Republican senators have quietly shifted their concerns to appease Tea Party supporters. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), for example, has shifted towards a Tea Party-style concern for states’ rights, when it comes to the ability of American children of undocumented immigrants to recieve federal benefits.

McCain's grudge against Hagel holds up nomination

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The Problem Isn’t Just McCain’s Racist Tweet, but Conservatives Defending Racism

By: Sarah Jones/politicususa

John McCain tweeted, “So Ahmadinejad wants to be first Iranian in space – wasn’t he just there last week?” In this tweet, he linked to a story about Iran launching a monkey into space. After some backlash, McCain pulled out his “I was just joking, lighten up” card, which is crumbling from over-use but this is John McCain.

Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) tweeted, “Maybe you should wisen (sic) up & not make racist jokes. “@SenJohnMcCain: Re: Iran space tweet – lighten up folks, can’t everyone take a joke?”

It’s true that John McCain can’t get out of the locker room long enough to realize how inappropriate he can be. McCain is known for making tasteless “jokes” while taking great umbrage at things he imagines others did or said.

George W. Bush supporter John Podhoretz, also a columnist for the New York Post and a speechwriter for former President Ronald Reagan as well as former President George H.W. Bush, stepped into the fray in order to defend McCain by explaining that it’s okay to be a racist against an anti-semite, “How dare McCain say something demeaning & disparaging abt the foremost anti-Semite on the planet.” He added, “So…it’s defend-the-Jew-hater-from-the-war-hero day.”

Podhoretz isn’t the most rational guy in the world, but then what do you expect from someone who called W “the first great leader of the 21st century”. He has defined anti-semitism as Pat Buchannan calling Israel’s military action “Un-Christian” (talk about a war between reactionaries). “You want to know what anti-Semitism is? When Pat Buchanan calls Israel’s military action ‘un-Christian’, that’s anti-Semitism.” So those are his standards for what he sees as “his side”.

What is really telling is how Podhoretz justified McCain’s “joke”. It’s hard to stand tall against anti-semitism while concurrently justifying racism. Some people don’t seem to get this, but racism is the same mechanism as anti-semitism and it’s used for the same purposes. In other words, children, if you don’t want it done to you, don’t do it to others. Calling someone a “Jew-hater” does not excuse you from upholding your own value system, provided you have one.

And there it is. Republicans don’t seem to have a set of values, but rather cherry picked causes of resentment. According to them, it’s not okay to use some people’s heritage against them, but Republicans have made a party out of using other people’s heritage against them. That means that they don’t have a value or a certain level of behavior to which they don’t permit their leaders to stoop publicly. A value is something you apply to yourself as well as others, even when it’s not easy.

Imagine if a Democrat tweeted what McCain tweeted, but insert a different target. Insert a Republican cause. The wounded cries of self-pity would be echoing off the Hill for years to come. Instead, we have conservatives petulantly justifying McCain’s tweet because the other guy started it. It’s okay to be a racist if the other guy hates someone you don’t hate.

Personally I don’t believe that John McCain is a racist in the purest sense of the word. No, I am not excusing the racism inherent in his party or his pandering to the racists in his party. He is guilty of using racism politically when it suits him, but McCain’s adopted daughter was also the victim of racist attacks by his own party (while I’m distinguishing between the true believers and the cynical abusers of “isms”, neither is okay). That said, his tweet was an inappropriate racial attack and as such, it painted him out to be a racist.

McCain has always suffered from an out of control temper, bad judgment and jokes better suited for the last century. That’s nothing new.

The interesting nugget born of this scuffle is the thinking behind conservatives’ reactionary, immature and ever moving principles. Podhoretz just defended racism because he hates the other guy for hating more. And these are the people who criticize Obama’s foreign policy. Talk about leading from behind.

Hagel Takes On McCain: Calls Iraq War ‘Most Fundamentally Bad, Dangerous Decision Since Vietnam’

I'm still mad that I lost to that tall nergo Kenyan socialist.

By Hayes Brown/Think Progress

The confirmation hearing of former Sen. Chuck Hagel to take on the role of Secretary of Defense — already sure to be testy — heated up with Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) pointedly asking Hagel to justify his stance on the Iraq War.

McCain, an ardent supporter of the Iraq War from the start, began his questioning of Hagel by asking about the latter’s past statements regarding the so-called “surge” of forces into Iraq in 2007. Hagel, by then a vocal critic of the war, came out strongly against adding additional troops to the conflict soon after the policy’s announcement — just like President Obama, Vice President Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had — calling it “the most dangerous foreign policy blunder in this country since Vietnam.”

Hagel didn’t back away from previous statements, saying “Senator, I stand by them, because I made them.” When McCain continued to push Hagel, refusing to allow him to offer a nuanced response to the question of the surge, the Nebraska Republican shot back, noting that the surge tactic took place in the wider context of the most “dangerous decision since Vietnam”:

MCCAIN: Are you going to answer the question? Were you right or wrong? That’s a straightforward question. Answer whether you are right or wrong and then you are free to elaborate.

HAGEL: I’m not going to give you a yes or no answer.

MCCAIN: Let the record show he refuses to answer the question. Please go ahead.

[...]

HAGEL: I’m not going to give you a yes or no. It’s far more complicated than that. I will defer that judgment to history. As to the comment I made about the most dangerous foreign policy decision since Vietnam, that was about not just the surge, but the overall war of choice going into Iraq. That particular decision made on the surge, but more to the point, our war in Iraq, I think was the most fundamentally bad, dangerous decision since Vietnam.

Watch their exchange here:

“Aside from the cost that occurred to blood and treasure, what that did to take our focus off of Afghanistan, which in fact was the original and real focus of the national threat to this country. Iraq was not. I always tried to frame all of the different issues before I made a decision on anything,” Hagel continued. Hagel’s response is a continuation of his previous assertions that the war in Iraq is one of the “great blunders” of American history.

Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) picked up on Hagel’s critique in his questioning, referring to Iraq as a war that never should have taken place. “I always ask the question is this going to be worth the sacrifice, because there will be sacrifice,” Hagel said in response. “In the surge in Iraq, we lost almost 1200 dead Americans and thousands of wounded. Was it required? Was it necessary?” Over four thousand Americans total lost their lives during the Iraq War.

Hagel is also in the right, of course, that the surge can’t be viewed as the only cause for a reduction of violence in Iraq. CAP Senior Fellow Larry Korb and Policy Analyst Matt Duss today published an op-ed in Politico making clear that Hagel’s stance on Iraq was essentially correct:

While historians will of course continue to debate the actual impact that the addition of 20,000 U.S. troops made on the war’s outcome, a rough consensus has developed that recognizes that while the addition of troops did make some positive impact, it did so mainly by facilitating events that were already underway, such as the revolt by Sunnis in Anbar province against al-Qaeda and the decision by Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr to stand down his Mahdi Army militia.

The argument between McCain and Hagel marks the latest low point in a relationship between two previously close friends. In 2000, during his first run at the presidency, McCain cited Hagelas a potential Secretary of Defense should he take the White House.

John McCain Supported Condi Rice After Massive Intelligence Failure

By Igor Volsky/Think Progress

President Obama has yet to nominate anyone to succeed Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, but Republicans are already lining up in opposition to potential replacement U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, citing her complicity in the administration’s alleged failures in responding to the attacks in Benghazi, Libya.

On Wednesday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) promised to filibuster Rice’s nomination and “do whatever to block the nomination that is within our power.” “She’s not qualified,” McCain explained, arguing that she misled the public by initially attributing the September 11 Benghazi attack to protests over an anti-Islam video. He claimed that at a minimum, Rice is guilty of “not being very bright, because it was obvious that this was not a ‘flash mob’ and there was additional information by the time she went on every news show…in America.”

But interestingly, McCain took a far different approach to another Rice in 2005. When President George W. Bush nominated National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice to the post, McCain defended the nomination, despite Rice’s central role in spreading the false intelligence that Saddam Hussein was developing weapons of mass destruction. The Democrats held hours of hearing and ultimately confirmed Rice, but not before McCain accused the opposition of using politics to delay her confirmation and challenging her “integrity”:

McCAIN: Condoleezza Rice is a great American success story. This is what America is all about. A young woman who grew up in a segregated part of America where Americans were not treated equally, to rise to the position of secretary of state. We should have been celebrating, I believe, this remarkable American success story.

Also, I thought that some of the remarks — and I’m not going to mention my colleagues’ names — some of the remarks aimed at her during the hearings challenged her integrity. We can disagree on policy and we disagree on a lot of things, but I think it is very clear that Condoleezza Rice is a person of integrity. And yes, I see this, some lingering bitterness over a very tough campaign. I hope it dissipates soon.

“I can only conclude we’re doing this for no other reason than because of lingering bitterness at the outcome of the elections,” McCain told CBS Morning News on January 27, 2005.

Seven years later, there is no evidence that Susan Rice mislead the public, yet McCain is leading the charge to oppose her. Rice was “speaking from a set of talking points provided by the U.S. intelligence community, which was also provided to Congress. The video has also been cited by those on the ground as being an impetus for the attack in recent weeks, challenging the Republican narrative.”

During a press conference on Wednesday, Obama defended Rice, saying that the has “done exemplary work.” Rice “gave her best understanding of the intelligence that had been provided to her,” he said, adding that for McCain “to go after the U.N. ambassador who had nothing to do with Benghazi, who was giving a presentation based on the intelligence she had received…is outrageous.”

UPDATE

BuzzFeed’s Zeke Miller notes that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-NC), who is also opposing Susan Rice, backed Condoleezza. “[E]very intelligence agency in the world was misled. And to connect those two to say that she’s a liar is very unfair, over the line.”

Tea Party Congressman Calls McCain ‘Numb Nuts’ For Criticizing Bachmann’s Anti-Muslim Witch Hunt

By Igor Volsky/Think Progress

Tea Party Congressman Louie Gohmert (R-TX) lashed out at Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) for criticizing him and his fellow conservative members for suggesting that a senior aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood. Gohmert is part of a small group of five Republican members, led by Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), who are demanding an investigation into whether Clinton deputy chief of staff Huma Abedin is connected to the group.

“Normally you don’t go blast somebody on the floor who is a colleague on the same side of the aisle unless you touch base with them,” Gohmert complained during an appearance on the Dennis Miller Show on Tuesday, referring to McCain’s denunciation of the group’s allegations as “nothing less than an unwarranted and unfounded attack.” The fiery Texan then launched into a personal attack against McCain, calling him “numb nuts” and suggesting the Muslim Brotherhood is now influencing him too:

GOHMERT: Well, it’s obvious that John McCain didn’t even read the letter because of what he said in accusing Michele and us of making these horrible accusations. There were five letters and there were many things that are stated that are facts in each letter. And I wish some of these numb nuts would go out and read the letter before they make these horrible allegations about the horrible accusations we’re making. But we also know that John McCain himself had said back in the early stages of stuff going on in Egypt that he was, in his words, “unalterably opposed to helping the Muslim Brotherhood.” Well, obviously the unalterable person has been altered, so he is okay with it now.

Listen:

Gohmert has long believed that Muslim extremist organizations have infiltrated the American government. At a recent Congressional hearing, he furiously questioned Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano about whether Mohamed Elibiary, a member of DHS’s Combatting Violent Extremism Working Group (CVE) and a Muslim is part of a terrorist organization.

While Bachmann and her small group of supporters are doubling down on their attacks, a growing number of Republicans are distancing themselves from the charges.

Four Questions John McCain Needs to Answer before Leaving Michigan

From Michigan Democratic Party

MDP Chair Brewer Challenges McCain to Put ‘America First’ and Level with Michiganders about Romney’s Tax Returns

LANSING – While Senator John McCain is campaigning in Michigan on behalf of Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, MDP Chair Mark Brewer is challenging the 2008 Republican nominee to answer four important questions about the man he passed over to be his running mate four years ago:

1. You are one of the only people ever to see Mitt Romney’s tax returns. He gave you 23 years’ worth of returns. What is he hiding?
2. When you set up your running mate criteria and asked your finalists to submit records for vetting, how many years’ worth of tax returns did you require them to turn over? Was it more than one?
3. Knowing what you know now about Governor Palin’s political liabilities – and also knowing what is hidden in Governor Romney’s tax returns – would you still have picked Governor Palin over Governor Romney as your running mate?
4. Do you believe you had some sort of unique right to see Governor Romney’s tax returns before making your Vice Presidential decision – a right that does not extend to the voters of Michigan, who are making a decision about a President? Do you believe the voters of Michigan aren’t capable of making the same informed decision that you made?

Romney’s stubborn refusal to release more than his 2010 tax returns and 2011 estimate continues to dog him, with a number of prominent Republicans joining the chorus for greater disclosure over the weekend.

“As the man who ultimately chose former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin over Romney in 2008, McCain is in the unique position to tell us exactly what information may be contained in Romney’s tax returns,” Brewer said. “The man whose campaign slogan was ‘America First’ should be willing to share what he knows with the American people.”

McCain Attacks Romney Super PAC, Says ‘Corporations Are Not People’

By Josh Israel/Think Progress

Though he has been one of Mitt Romney’s most visible supporters, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) took aim yesterday at both Romney’s Super PAC and one Romney’s most controversial talking points. In an interview on PBS’sNewsHour, McCain told Judy Woodruff that becausecasino billionaire Sheldon Adelson makes a huge portion of his profits from a casino in Macau, his massive spending in support of Mitt Romney and other right-wing candidates is a form of foreign money influencing American elections:

WOODRUFF: This question of campaign money, highlighted today by the announcement that there’s a huge amount of money coming in from one donor in the state of Nevada.

MCCAIN: Mmmm hmmm. Mr. Adeleson, who gave large amounts of money to the Gingrich campaign and much of Mr. Adeleson’s casino profits, that go to him, come from this casino in Macau.

WOODRUFF: Which says what?

MCCAIN: This which says that obviously, maybe in a round-about way, foreign money is coming into an American campaign, political campaigns.

WOODRUFF: Because of the profits that the casinos in Macau…

MCCAIN: Yes, that is a great deal of money. And, again, we need a level playing field and we need to go back to the realization that Teddy Roosevelt had that we have to have a limit on the flow of money and that corporations are not people. That’s why we have different laws that govern corporations than govern individual citizens. And so to say that corporations are people, again, flies in the face of all the traditional Supreme Court decisions that we have made — that have been made in the past.

Watch the video:

Romney, of course, said in August that “corporations are people, my friend,” a claim that he and his campaign surrogates have vigorously defended since.

Adelson gave $10 million to the pro-Romney Restore Our Future Super PAC this week — after giving millions more to fund a pro-Newt Gingrich Super PAC’s attacks on Romney during the GOP primaries. According to Forbes, Adelson and his wife are willing to spend a “limitless” amount in order to defeat President Obama.

Though it is illegal for non-citizens to spend any money to influence U.S. selections directly, the Supreme Court’s 5-4 Citizens United ruling left the door wide open for the American employees of American subsidiaries of foreign owned corporations — and even sovereign wealth funds — to spend millions or billions from their corporate treasuries on “independent” expenditures.

McCain In 2008: Romney Presided Over Bain As It ‘Laid Off Thousands Of Workers’

By Alex Seitz-Wald/Think Progress

Before Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) was trying to help Mitt Romney win the White House, the senator spoke out against Romney’s former company, Bain Capital, for engaging in the type of behavior that is now drawing the ire of the other GOP presidential hopefuls. McCain has endorsed Romney this year, and is defending him against attacks on Bain’s “vulture capitalism” from Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry. But as BuzzFeed points out, even McCain saw the problems with Bain four years ago when he ran against Romney.

In Florida, McCain shot at Romney: “As head of his investment company he presided over the acquisition of companies that laid off thousands of workers.” In a debate, McCain charged, “He managed companies and he bought and he sold and sometimes people lost their jobs.” McCain’s campaign manager added, “He learned politics and economics from being a venture capitalist, where you go and buy companies, you strip away the jobs, and you resell them,”

But today, McCain suggested attacks on Romney’s jobs record at Bain are akin to “communism.”

Meanwhile, former GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee is also defending Romney on Bain, even though he once quipped that Romney looks “looks like the guy who fired you.”

McCain goofs at Romney event: ‘Obama will turn this country around

By David Edwards/Raw Story

Failed Republican presidential candidate John McCain’s endorsement of current candidate Mitt Romney may being doing more harm than good.

At an event in South Carolina Thursday, the Arizona senator managed to confuse the candidate he was supporting with Democratic President Barack Obama.

“I am confident with the leadership and backing of the American people, President Obama will turn this country around,” McCain told the Charleston crowd before Romney and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley both stepped in to remind him who he was campaigning for.

“Excuse me. President Romney. President Romney,” McCain said, correcting himself. “President Romney will turn this around.”

Following his narrow win in the Iowa caucuses this week, McCain had endorsed Romney at an event that went badly for the candidate.

After enduring McCain’s corny jokes about the less-than-impressive Iowa win, Romney wasforced to listen to hecklers and a woman who implied he was insulting Asians.

“I hope I haven’t put any Asians down,” Romney replied.

Watch this video from CNN, uploaded Jan. 5, 2012.

Leaked Cable: McCain Promised Qaddafi To Help Secure Military Equipment From U.S.

By Ali Gharib/Think Progress

For all the braying by the Senate’s top three hawks about how the U.S. wasn’t doing enough to oust Libyan dictator Col. Muammar Qaddafi from power, one might be surprised to learn that exactly two years ago, Sens. John McCain (R-AZ), Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) were in Tripoli meeting with the erratic leader and giving him assurances that relations between the nations were on the mend.

According to a leaked August 2009 U.S. diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks recounting the Senators’ junket, the neoconservative Connecticut Senator captured the dynamic of aligning with a brutal dictator:

Lieberman called Libya an important ally in the war on terrorism, noting thatcommon enemies sometimes make better friends.

Qaddafi’s history as a top enemy of the U.S. stretched back decades, but his change of heart came quickly after the U.S. invaded Iraq under the pretense of Saddam Hussein’s development of weapons of mass destruction. Hawks seized on Libya’s détente with the West as a sign that Bush’s tough actions in Iraq were having a ripple effect, though patently not, as Iraq War boosters had predicted, with regard to democratic reforms. “We never would have guessed ten years ago that we would be sitting in Tripoli, being welcomed by a son of Muammar al-Qaddafi,” said Lieberman, according to the leaked cable.

The three Senate hawks discussed in detail the Qaddafi regime’s security needs with Libyas National Security Adviser, Qaddafi’s son Muatassim. According to the cable:

5.(C) Senator McCain assured Muatassim that the United States wanted to provide Libya with the equipment it needs for its [a Libyan security program]. He stated that he understood Libya’s requests regarding the rehabilitation of its eight C130s [a transport plane] and pledged to see what he could do to move things forward in Congress. He encouraged Muatassim to keep in mind the long-term perspective of bilateral security engagement and to remember that small obstacles will emerge from time to time that can be overcome.

At another point, McCain and Graham reiterated pledges to push to fulfill the Qaddafi regime requests at the Pentagon and on the Hill:

Senators McCain and Graham conveyed the U.S. interest in continuing the progress of the bilateral relationship and pledged to try to resolve the C130 issue with Congress and Defense Secretary Gates.

But 18 months later, Qaddafi reacted to mass protests by mobilizing his military, bringing down international condemnation and, in just a few short weeks, a U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing the use of force. The U.S. and it’s allies in NATO and elsewhere rained down bombs to hold Qaddafi’s forces at bay as rebels organized a coherent opposition council. As the rebels went on the offensive, Western and allied bombers lent them air support with surveillance and tactical bombings.

When suddenly — as if Qaddafi’s repression had emerged from out of the blue — McCain and his clique returned to their perches as the staunchest advocates of U.S. military action in Liyba, taking to the airwaves to lament the U.S.’s mere three-week delay to build international consensus and calling for arming the Libyan rebels.

Just as the political winds around Qaddafi seemed to determine the senators’ stand — for him when it was convenient as a win for the Bush administration, and against him when the uprising began and in the month it took to rally the Security Council — McCain and Graham took a curious political shot at Obama just as Qaddafi’s regime crumbled. In a statement, they thanked everyone but the U.S. Starting with the Libyans themselves, they went on to

also commend our British, French, and other allies, as well as our Arab partners, especially Qatar and the UAE, for their leadership in this conflict. Americans can be proud of the role our country has played in helping to defeat Qaddafi, but we regret that this success was so long in coming due to the failure of the United States to employ the full weight of our airpower.

One wonders if August 2009 was too soon to press Qaddafi on the well-being of his people: there’s no hint of democratic reforms, or indeed the Libyan people, in the WikiLeaks cable.

McCain To ‘Foolish’ Republicans Demanding A Balanced Budget Amendment: ‘It’s Bizarro’

By Tanya Somanader/Think Progress

In exchange for not sending the nation into economic ruin, a swath of Republicans are demanding to pass a Balanced Budget Amendment (BBA) to the Constitution. By forcing government to actively slash spending in the face of falling revenues, such an amendment “would greatly damage an already-weak recovery,” “mandate perverse actions in the face of recessions,” and is considered one of the worse ideas in Washington. Nonetheless, as House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said today, the fringe contingent of the GOP is aiming to create “enough chaos” to force the Senate and the White House to accept a BBA. Freshman Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), sponsor of the Senate’s BBA bill, actually wants America’s “house to come down” unless he gets his way.

But today on the Senate floor, a more seasoned senator schooled the freshman contingent on economic reality. Though an avid supporter of the BBA, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) stood amazed that some members actually believed a BBA could pass in the Senate. Such a belief, he said, is “worse than foolish. That is deceiving.” Taking heed of numerous economists’ warning about the Aug. 2 deadline, McCain said that Republicans who are holding out on raising the debt ceiling for an impossible amendment is “unfair” and “bizarro”:

MCCAIN: Over here, we have individuals who believe somehow that there is still chance, at least in this Congress, to pass a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. Now, I will take back seat to none in my support of the balanced budget amendment. Thirteen times I voted for it. I will vote for it tomorrow. But what is really amazing about this is that some, some members are believing that we can pass a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution in this body with its present representation, and that is foolish. That is worse than foolish. That is deceiving. Many of our constituents, by telling them that just because the Majority Leader tabled the Balanced Budget Amendment legislation, that somehow through amending and debate, we could somehow convince the majority on the other side of the aisle to go along with a balanced budget amendment of the constitution. That is not fair.

That is not fair to the American people, to hold out and say we won’t agree to raising the debt limit until we pass a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. It’s unfair, it’s bizarro. And maybe some people who have only been in this body for six or seven months or so really believe that. Others know better. Others know better.

Watch it:

The senators McCain was taking to task include Sens. Jim DeMint (R-SC), Mike Lee (R-UT), and Rand Paul (R-KY).

McCain also read aloud from a Wall Street Journal editorial today that depicted conservatives anxiously waiting for a BBA as living in a fantasy world in which they are “tea-party Hobbits” that “could return to Middle Earth having defeated Mordor.” “This is the kind of crack political thinking that turned Sharron Angle and Christine O’Donnell into GOP Senate nominees,” said WSJ. “The reality is that the debt limit will be raised one way or another, and the only issue now is with how much fiscal reform and what political fallout.”