McCain Accuses Tea Party Colleagues Of Pushing Dems Too Far

CBS DC ^ | 5/23/13

[SoFloFreeper]

A long-simmering feud between establishment Republicans and Tea Partyers broke into full view Thursday, with Sen. John McCain accusing younger colleagues of overplaying their hands and tempting Democrats to change Senate rules that protect the minority party.

Tactics for dealing with the government’s budget and debt became the latest quarrel In a string of them between McCain —sometimes joined by....

[jpsb]

Click here to watch Cruz destroy McCain on the Senate floor. I don't care if he is NBC or not, Cruz would make a great president.

[Aria]

True....why do the voters of Arizona keep voting for this loud mouthed RINO? We had a chance to get rid of him with JD Hayworth...but no...McCain fought against JD wayyy harder than he did against Obama. I’ve always suspected that being a POW permanently affected him.

But the image of McCain and zero kissing...ACCK!

[DoughtyOne]

Oh yeah Sarah, he’s one with the Tea Party. We can take that to the bank. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight!

[ProudFossil]

Why doesn’t McSlaim just change parties to Dimocrat?

[lodi90]

That is exactly right, McCain is giving Reid cover.

McConnell is such a weak “leader” he probably doesn’t mind either. I don’t think McCain would be this far off the reservation again without some tacit approval from McConnell.

McConnell wants the Reid conference deal but doesn’t want to get his hands dirty in an election year. He probably doesn’t even mind the nuclear option because then the Dems can get everything they want through the senate in straight party line votes. No tough votes for the GOP Senators to take at that point.

These guys are sickening. Boehner & McConnell. Laurel and Hardy. Same old milquetoast loser strategy snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

[nathanbedford]

It is easy to know who was on the side of the angels in this dispute. John McCain has been a source of problems to us for years. Some time ago when he was making his run for the presidency I tried to understand the essential character of John McCain. Here is my conclusion posted once already today which I believe has stood the test of time:

Understanding John McCain

McCain's Vietnam experience was so shattering that he sees the world through a new lens, the experience so profound that he has emerged from it with a lifelong commitment to country. This gives credibility to McCain's claim that he is a maverick, beholden not to party but to principle and country. This claim to independence is necessary in a political climate in which the present occupant of the White House is found to be unsatisfactory by nearly three out of four Americans. So, the narrative explains why a voter can believe at John McCain is different from ordinary politicians, especially ordinary Republican politicians, and they can't believe he should be trusted to embark on a new course away from current administration policies.

At the end of his acceptance speech, McCain recited how he came to be utterly broken but then restored, even redeemed with a new commitment to service to others when a fellow prisoner urged him by prison telegraph not to quit and die but instead to carry on the fight out of respect for his comrades who even then were carrying on the fight for him.

Psychologists and scholars of religious experience, especially Christian scholars, have long been aware of the empowering release generated by total surrender of the will. One can describe this in psychological language, or in Biblical language, or even in evangelical idiom.

Whatever language one uses to describe these epiphanies there is no question that very often they are real and long lasting. Psychologists would begin to explain the phenomenon by reference to the ego. An Old Testament scholar might think in terms of the first and second Commandments and the muscular faith which follows adherence to them. Christians speak of dying to the self, picking up the cross and following the Savior to become a new man-to be born again. Perhaps the most famous example is recounted in the Book of Acts which tells that Saul of Tarsus was physically knocked off his horse by the Holy Spirit. Saul experiences an epiphany, Saul becomes Paul, and is transformed from a murderous persecutor of Christians to a fully committed martyr who becomes the great evangelist of the early church, indomitable in spirit, inflexible in commitment, and-like the other disciples- utterly fearless. Significantly, Paul, the newbie Christian, does not shrink later from taking on Peter the acknowledged leader of the disciples "to his face" to dispute matters of doctrine.

In contemporary history we have the example of George Bush and his transforming encounter with Reverend Billy Graham. Indeed, we have the Reverend Billy Graham's own epiphany in the forest. We have the numberless examples recited daily in meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous. It is from the success of this group that countless so-called "12 step" groups have been formed to apply successfully the same empowering message of surrender.

The important thing to understand about these epiphanies is that when they are genuine they are often life-long and tremendously empowering. Lives really are transformed forever. Criminals go straight, alcoholics stay sober, and the miserable are made happy. In fact, these newly born spirits enjoy their new condition so much that they seek ways to prolong the joy they have obtained in their moment of sweet release. Almost universally, these people find that service to others is the surest way to prolong that wonderful feeling of well-being.

Isolated, sick, starved and beaten beyond human endurance, John McCain ultimately broke and signed a confession which he mistakenly assumed amounted to a betrayal of his country. Who was this wretched man who lay so anguished in that cell? In his memoir and in his speech, McCain described himself as a kind of a hotshot jet jock, a screwup, a discipline problem in school, and an accomplished accumulator of demerits as a midshipman. Evidently, he was also an enthusiastic swordsman. In short, he was an arrogant SOB. Now, in that cell, he had fallen far. The classic description of the crushing of the ego. At this pivotal moment came the means of his redemption via the prison telegraph: Service to others out of love of country. In his speech McCain declared:

"And I wasn't my own man anymore, I was my country's"

And now we know the rest of the story. This is not to say that John McCain was instantly sanctified in all respects, far from it. He still had to swim his way out of a giant mental, moral and spiritual hangover from his ordeal. His screwing around would cost him his marriage before he could swim to shore. Even today, the old self bursts out in temper. But when one lays this template over the rest of John McCain’s career, one should have little difficulty accepting the story as being essentially true (I for one believe it) and to accept it as a convincing explanation of his career and his conception of his role as president.

Before considering the implications of all of this for conservatives, it is instructive to consider what it means to liberals. [And to compare it to Barak Obama's story]

In a word: "nothing." Liberals do not see it because they cannot see it. They simply do not get it. The whole idea of gaining empowerment through surrendering is as psychologically repugnant to liberals as is the idea of accepting a higher authority in their lives. Consider the Democrat party to be a gigantic creaking contrivance to legitimatize liberals in their insatiable quest to feed their egos. The job of this machine is to provide rationalizations. The obvious examples are sex without consequences and abortion without guilt. These examples demonstrate that the rationalization machine can be quite deadly as it kills 3 to 4 million babies a year. The pernicious doctrines emanating from The Frankfurt School such as moral relativism, feminism, and critical theory find application not just in cultural issues like abortion which kill babies but across the board, touching all government policy and every aspect of our lives.

To repeat, the whole purpose of this Democrat apparatus is to turn thinking on its head and provide a language to liberals so they can continue to play God (especially with other people's lives). Liberals will never about-face and cast away everything that feeds their ego addictions. That is why we hear them using English words but it comes out as a different language.

What about the implications for us conservatives of John McCain's epiphany?

Well that of course depends on how John McCain defines putting country first. It's quite clear that he is not replaced his giant ego trip with a classic Reaganesque conservative philosophy. The danger for conservatives is that John McCain has no identifiable framework, no principled political philosophy upon which to identify the nation's interest.

The great danger to us conservatives, and of course to the nation as a whole, is that John McCain operates ad hoc.

This is what George Will has been alluding to in his column in which he expressed his dismay that McCain has called for the firing of SEC Chairman Cox, "It is arguable that, because of his inexperience, Obama is not ready for the presidency. It is arguable that McCain, because of his boiling moralism and bottomless reservoir of certitudes, is not suited to the presidency. Unreadiness can be corrected, although perhaps at great cost, by experience. Can a dismaying temperament be fixed"

We know what Barak Obama's vision for America is, it is written down, not in his own autobiographies, but in Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals. We know also that John McCain has been intensely energized with a vision for America. We're just not quite sure what it is that informs that vision.

[jpsb]

Opps better link better here

If you are a Cruz fan or someone that has had it with McCain this is a must see video. 11 minutes of FU JM.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmjM9JHnktg&feature=player_embedded

[Still Thinking]

I firmly believe that the reason we have not heard from Tea Party folks in the last few years is because people like McCain and other senior senators have told them to stand down. I believe ever word I just typed too.

That doesn't make sense. If you were someone of principles to begin with, and Tea Party values specifically, and some RINO asshat told you to sit down and shut up, would you do it?

[Mad Dawg]

McCain is the McClellan of this war.

[TexasFreeper2009]

let them change the rule!

(nothing is getting past the Tea Party controlled house anyway)

plus! as a huge bonus the damn filibuster will be gone when we retake the Senate next year!

[lodi90]

McCain’s mediocrity predates his stint as a POW. He finished nearly bottom of his class at the Naval Academy and was a lousy pilot.

[ladydane]

You can’t get elected in Arizona running as a Democrat. That’s why he’s always been a fake Republican. Why haven’t the people of Arizona realized yet that they’ve been duped all these years.

[ladydane]

I couldn’t bring myself to vote for McCain. It seemed like a total betrayal. I still don’t comprehend why the RNC even supported him. I no longer accept any phone calls, emails, etc from the lame RNC. I held my nose and voted for Romney because I foresaw what we had coming with Obama. Unfortunately his gangs manipulation of the campaign and voting laws worked against us.

[Hardraade]

Pushing them into a woodchipper might be pushing them too far.

A little.

Then again...

[nikos1121]

I heard him yesterday rediculing Senator Lee, thinking that Lee is a democrat. Turns out he’s a republican?

I think McCain is an idiot.

[TexasFreeper2009]

Anyone wanna bet that before we die McCain will eventually leave the Republican party to side with the Democrats accompanied by a statement to the effect of... I didn't leave the Republican party it left me?

[okie01]

That is exactly right, McCain is giving Reid cover.

No question about it. Agree.

McConnell is such a weak “leader” he probably doesn’t mind either. I don’t think McCain would be this far off the reservation again without some tacit approval from McConnell.

McConnell wants the Reid conference deal but doesn’t want to get his hands dirty in an election year.

Disagree. I believe McConnell is actually in the Cruz/Lee/Paul court. He has generally encouraged them...and made no move to discipline them.

My guess is that McConnell detests the unreliable McCain and his "maverick" antics. Juan is the guy who is "off the reservation".

[isthisnickcool]

I’ve been around McCain in a small group several times in AZ and in TX. He is crazy and incapable of modifying something he believes even in the face of facts to the contrary. The guy is really strange. Not creepy strange, more autistic kinda retarded but high functioning strange. See Dustin Hoffman in the movie Rain Man.

John McCain needs to resire, go to AZ, get himself a very large bowl of Viagra and hit Cindy until he can’t anymore. FYI, she is smoking hot or rather she was 5-6 years ago when I was around her. In person, when they stand next to each other you wonder “what the hell is she thinking?”.

John McCain does not really understand anything about the United States of America. Why not? Why doesn’t he? Because he has never really lived here. His entire world exists in a handful of buildings that connect to the floor of the US Senate. He is akin to the person wearing the Mickey Mouse costume at Disney World. He has devolved in to a character that only understands the pretend world he has lived in inside the beltway for most of his adult life.

Our only hope are with Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and a handfull of others that have yet to be lobotmized by Washington.

Changing subjects. Thanks to all that have served this country and especially to those that gave their all.

[soycd]

Yes, the VC broke him. His survival of that ordeal is likely due to his caving to their interrogations and playing ball with the enemy. Just as he is doing now.

[Paladin2]

"John McCain needs to resire...."

I agree, Megan is no prize.