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A trio of leading US senators on Tuesday warned Egypt that the risk of a "disastrous" rupture in ties had "rarely been greater" amid an escalating row over the planned trial of US pro-democracy activists. Republican senators John McCain and Kelly Ayotte, joined by independent Joe Lieberman, also warned that US congressional "support for Egypt -- including continued financial assistance -- is in jeopardy." "The current crisis with the Egyptian government has escalated to such a level that it now threatens our long-standing partnership," the three senators wrote in a joint statement. "There are committed opponents of the United States...

Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) have introduced legislation that would permanently discontinue the $1 dollar note and replace it with a coin. Harkin and McCain penned The Currency Optimization, Innovation and National Savings (COINS) Act in response to reports from the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) that indicate that abandoning the note could save around $5.5 billion over the next 30 years. Specifically the COINS Act would require that Federal Reserve Banks discontinue the $1 note four years after enactment or once circulation of $1 coins exceeds 600 million annually.

At least one well-known conservative has begun speaking out-loud the notion that an Obama re-election might not be the very worst thing that could happen, either to the nation or to Republicans—even to REAL Republicans–that is, conservatives, members of the Party base whose mistrust of Obama is nearly equaled by their mistrust of Mitt Romney and the 2008 ‘Ghost of Romney past’, John McCain. The best-selling author of “Looking out for Number One” and “Restoring the American Dream”, Robert Ringer has been a Libertarian/conservative for decades. And given 5 decades of Libertarian leanings, his support of Ron Paul should surprise...

Think Mitt Romney has been hit hard this Republican primary campaign? Try reading through what John McCain had in store for the former Massachusetts governor in 2008. Two hundred pages of what appears to be the McCain campaign’s old opposition research book against Romney was published on Tuesday by BuzzFeed, offering in great detail a litany of potential vulnerabilities in his record. Many of the issues – like Romney’s past support of gay rights and abortion rights – are familiar to GOP voters, but at minimum, the book serves as a vivid reminder of why many conservatives are wary of...

When the top elected official of your political Party who is also your country’s President, or past President, endorses a candidate to run for that high office, it means something! It is not insignificant. It represents a symbolic passing of the torch! Not quite an anointing with oil, but more than a mere casual nod of approval, it is kind of like the white smoke that rises from the Sistine Chapel, that signals the moment when the Cardinals of Vatican City have chosen their next Pope. In the realm of politics it is the traditional signal that the ‘Establishment’ has...

I'm sure tonight.. I'm going to be thrown off this forum....so what if I do... I'll go down swinging... Buy before I go... I'm speaking my mind.... Gutless wonder Rush Limbaughs....Hey..Charles Krauthammer... Ann Coulter.. Chris Christie...are you listening... Mark Steyn... the editors of NRO... You are all the coward of cowards... You are all covers for Mitt Romney...You are all his Lackeys.... But let me ask you all something... esp you, Ann.... What was Mitt Romney doing in France as a Mormon missionary...? Hmmmmmmm? He speaks Fench.... Tell us Ann Coulter... what was he doing there? Ask him how many...

Tomorrow less than 20 percent of registered Republicans in Iowa are going to tell us who they believe should take on President Obama. Presidential candidate Jon Huntsman, who has bypassed the caucuses, said last week that Iowa picks corn, not presidents. Is he correct? Well, if you ask Mike Huckabee, he would say yes. But on the other hand, Obama did win the state. Iowa’s importance will be in whittling down the field of contenders. It is most likely going to claim several conservatives, which means that their voters could flock to another right-wing candidate — not necessarily the frontrunner....

I have grown cynical of party politics in mature democracies, including the most exciting democracy of all, the United States. In the middle of a spectrum exclusively defined by Republicans and Democrats, personality and style must be favored over platforms that few candidates are ever able to implement. So many people are bored by politics in the U.S. that half of the voters don’t bother to vote. This is not necessarily a bad thing. If politics does not affect the daily life of citizens, to the extent that most can choose to ignore it, then some wisdom has been found...

What a way to celebrate the 220th Anniversary of the Bill of Rights. Each member of Congress, before assuming office, took an oath swearing to protect the Constitution, yet here we now have a Congress which has instead decided to ignore the fact that they are guardians of the Constitution. Instead they have approved an act which now permits indefinite detention of anyone deemed a terrorist in America.... Essentially, Congress has granted the President the power to ignore the Bill of Rights and detain Americans without due process. So, a brief recap, since terrorists threaten the lovely liberties we wrap...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sen. John McCain says the world is better off now that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has died, and predicted the dictator would join the likes of Adolf Hitler "in a warm corner in hell." McCain's political colleagues, including GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, have joined the prominent and outspoken senator in saying bluntly that Kim will not be missed after decades of oppression and threatening the world with his nuclear program.

PHOENIX—Arizona's two U.S. senators said Thursday they are concerned about reports of a large number of sex-crime investigations being botched by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's office during a three-year period ending in 2007. Sens. John McCain and Jon Kyl issued a written statement involving the reopening of 432 sex-crime cases -- including dozens of alleged child molestations -- after the sheriff's office learned the cases hadn't been investigated adequately or weren't examined at all. "Victims of abuse not only deserve the respect of law enforcement, but their rights must also be protected throughout the criminal justice process," the statement...

Sen. John McCain, who won the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 election, has largely avoided commenting on the 2012 field of candidates. But he’s gearing up to finally endorse one of them. Sources tell The Hill it won’t be Newt Gingrich. Republican sources familiar with his thinking say he will probably endorse his onetime political enemy, Mitt Romney. There is virtually no chance, sources say, that he will pick former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), who has surged into the lead in polls, stoking consternation among his ex-colleagues on Capitol Hill. The reason: the same one that keeps...

Complete title: ‘On What?’--McCain Says He Didn’t Know Defense Bill He Approved Repealed Military Ban on Sodomy, Bestiality Video at link (CNSNews.com) - Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told CNSNews.com on Wednesday that he did not know that the 926-page Defense Department authorization bill that came through his committee and was approved by the Senate last week on 93 to 7 vote included a provision that would repeal the military’s ban on sodomy and bestiality if the bill becomes law. CNSNews.com asked McCain: “Senator, did you read the Defense authorization bill that...

In an obvious effort to get conservatives to warm up to the idea of moderate Mitt Romney as the GOP nominee for president, talk show host Michael Medved does a little jujitsu move against election facts. As I have shown elsewhere, in every presidential election since 1972, GOP candidates do better when they are seen in greater contrast with the Democratic nominee. This was never more true than in 2008, and though Medved admits that John McCain was a moderate, he implies that the GOP would have won if they had nominatedsomeone even more moderate than McCain. This is pure poppycock. Medved confuses...

Sen. John McCain said Sunday that the potentially powerful Hispanic vote in the upcoming presidential election remains "up for grabs" because neither President Barack Obama nor Republicans have convinced these voters that they are on their side. The one-time GOP presidential hopeful, whose own 2008 candidacy was shaped in part by immigration, said that large Hispanic populations in his home state of Arizona and elsewhere are listening carefully to what Republican candidates have to say on immigration and could become a "major factor" in 2012. "I think that the Republican Party has to discuss this issue in as humane way...

Either Monday or Tuesday the Senate will vote on a bill that allows the US military to imprison civilians with no formal charges and hold them with no trial. The ACLU reports even US citizens wouldn't be immune as the legislation aims to declare national territory part of the "battlefield" in the War on Terror. Termed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and drafted behind closed doors by Senators Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) the NDAA would: 1) Explicitly authorize the federal government to indefinitely imprison without charge or trial American citizens and others picked up inside and...

An ad from the Mitt Romney presidential campaign is drawing criticism from the White House and other political observers, saying it takes the president out of context. The ad attacks the president's handling of the economy, showing footage from an Obama rally cut with images of closed businesses and foreclosed homes. But the part of the ad drawing the most criticism is when it shows Obama saying: "If we keep talking about the economy, we're going to lose." It gives the impression that Obama doesn't want to talk about the state of the economy. But in fact, Obama was quoting...

Good Morning, Barack! With his poll numbers dropping like dissidents in Syria, President Barack Obama has to be hoping the national media will continue to help him out. Last time around, the network news organizations swooned over the junior senator from Illinois and marginalized his opponent, Sen. John McCain, as much as possible. According to a new study by the conservative Media Research Center, the president has some reason to be optimistic about the media in 2012. The group examined the morning shows on ABC, CBS and NBC in order to ascertain campaign attitudes. The headlines are these: -- So...

Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the 2008 Republican presidential standard-bearer, has taken pains to avoid weighing in on the 2012 GOP primary. But on Sunday, McCain said he was "very disappointed" that some Republicans defended waterboarding at Saturday’s National Journal/CBS debate in South Carolina. “Waterboarding is torture,” McCain, who was a prisoner of war and tortured during the Vietnam War, said via Twitter. On Saturday, Herman Cain and Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota both endorsed waterboarding as an interrogation technique. President Obama banned its use at the beginning of his term, calling it cruel and counterproductive.

George W. Bush-era energy policy wonks are finding a new home with Mitt Romney. The former Massachusetts governor can count on support from a who’s who of former Bush officials willing to raise money, brainstorm policy ideas and generally help spread the word among the ranks of like-minded GOP energy experts. Already on board the Romney train are Jim Connaughton, who ran Bush’s White House Council on Environmental Quality for all eight years; former Assistant Energy Secretary Andy Karsner; former EPA air chief Jeff Holmstead; and former EPA congressional affairs liaison Edward Krenik. The former Bush officials all told POLITICO...

Newt Gingrich was full of praise for the man besting him in the polls for the Republican presidential nomination, calling Mitt Romney "an enormous improvement" over President Obama. Given an opportunity to take a free swing at Romney during Saturday's CBS/National Journal debate, Gingrich demurred.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senator John McCain predicted on Tuesday a third political party will emerge in response to Americans' economic frustrations and said it might as well be called "the Fed-Up Party." The Republican Party's presidential nominee in 2008 raised the possibility of a third party about a year ago, but his comments on Tuesday suggest he has hardened his views as polls show Americans increasingly disillusioned with Washington politics. The 75-year-old McCain may now be the most prominent politician forecasting Americans will look to another party to compete with Democrats and Republicans. "Unless both parties change, then I think...

BREAKING NEWS. Meghan McCain reveals that no one has ever sexually harassed her, or even hit on her. In a not so shocking revelation, Meghan McCain, aka Tits McGee, aka The Daily Beast has revealed she has never once been hit on in her life. Furious, she describes daily events where children run in horror of her and even Karl Rove wears a blindfold to their daily meetings. Meghan McCain has also revealed that she plans to endorse Mitt Romney for President. She said he is the most qualified candidate because he is the only one who hasn't attempted to...

Republican candidates for president have been busy for weeks now, laboring strenuously to give the 2012 nomination to Mitt Romney. And he keeps trying to give it back. The former Massachusetts governor could walk to next year's GOP convention without touching the ground, treading exclusively on the bodies of rivals who have fallen on their faces. He's the equivalent of the Alabama Crimson Tide, playing a schedule heavy on Southeastern Louisiana and Middle Tennessee State. He should be running up the score every week. Instead, he keeps finding ways to keep his opponents in the game. Look at the opposition....

In March, Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) was urging President Barack Obama to better define the U.S. military’s role in Libya and seek Congress’s approval to use force in the north African nation. But after a day touring the streets of Tripoli and meeting rebel leaders who overthrew the regime of Col. Moammar Qadhafi, Kirk praised Obama’s handling of the Libyan conflict as a undeniable “success.” “This is a victory for the United States military, for our British and French allies, for NATO, for the president of the United States, but most importantly for the Libyan people. …” Kirk said in...

The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) stole a march on the Obama Administration this morning by filing a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court appealing the 11th Circuit’s Obamacare decision. The Department of Justice (DOJ) had announced on Monday that it was not going to ask all 11 judges of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to review en banc the August 12 decision of a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit that found the individual mandate unconstitutional. This opened up a path to an appeal by DOJ to the Supremes. However, with this petition, the NFIB jumped ahead...

Gary Shilling: The Economy Is Slowing, Yields Will Plunge, Deflation Is Coming And Stocks Are Headed Lower Joe Weisenthal Sep. 28, 2011, 3:21 PM Stiff drink alert. Here are highlights of Gary Shilling appearing on Bloomberg TV. (Click here to watch the full video.) -------------- Schilling on how much further the 30-year Treasury bond yield could fall: "I think [the 3-year Treasury bond yield] might go back to 2.5%. That's where it was at the end of 2008 in the aftermath of the Lehman Brothers meltdown. That's my target for now. I think we are looking at deflation. As I...

An Islamic cultural centre close to the site where New York's World Trade Center once stood has opened quietly in spite of scenes last year of vehement protests from those who said the area should not house a mosque. The opening ceremony for the Park51 centre on Wednesday featured a photo exhibit called "NYChildren", displaying over 160 portraits of immigrant children living in New York. Sharif El-Gamal, the center's developer, said the biggest error on the project was not involving the families of 9/11 victims from the start. "We made incredible mistakes," El-Gamal told The Associated Press in an earlier...

It's Raining McCain. Hallelujia!

Four of the Senate’s top voices on foreign policy voiced their support Friday for the Obama administration’s move to formally recognize rebel leaders as the legitimate governing authority of Libya. “We welcome the Administration’s decision to recognize the Transitional National Council (TNC) as the legitimate governing authority of Libya,” said Republican Sens. John McCain (Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (S.C.) and Marco Rubio (Fla.) and Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman (Conn.) in a statement.

The Tea Party came under fire from all sides Friday after House conservatives nearly brought down Speaker John Boehner’s debt-limit bill. John McCain went to the Senate floor to mock Tea Partyers as “hobbits,” and Democratic Rep. Chris Van Hollen said Tea Party Republicans “are unfit for governing.” What a difference a weekend makes. The reported debt-limit deal appears to be a victory for the Tea Party. It includes around $1 trillion in spending cuts and creates a special committee of Congress to recommend cuts of $1.2 trillion more. If Congress does not approve those additional cuts by year’s end,...

John McCain & the Wall Street Journal attacked the tea party and Christine O'Donnell as HOBBITS, who think they are going to vanquish "Mordor" (the evil kingdom) and return to the Shire. McCain (quoting from the Wall Street Journal) went out of his way to target Christine O'Donnell and Sharron Angle as the examples of the tea party movement that veteran Senator John McCain was criticizing. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/07/28/angle-odonnell-slam-mccain-over-tea-party-hobbits-speech/?test=latestnewsBut apparently this national political uproar of insiders viewing tea party political activists as "the little people" who are like "Hobbits" was no accident. Christine O'Donnell's academic interest in Tolkien's use of imagery from...

The fiery, independent version of the Republican senator from Arizona took to the floor of the Senate Wednesday morning. Demanding “straight talk,� Mr. McCain accused conservatives of abandoning reason by opposing the House Republican leader’s plan to resolve the debt crisis. Mr. McCain mocked Tea Party-allied Republicans in the House for believing — wrongly, he said — that President Obama and Democrats will get the blame for a default if Republicans refuse to increase the nation’s debt ceiling. By that flawed logic, “Democrats would have no choice but to pass a balanced budget amendment and reform entitlements and the...

For McCain, the only viable Plan B, at this point, is the McConnell plan, a legislative maneuver that would enable President Obama to raise the debt ceiling via a presidential veto. Noting that the GOP leader’s proposal is “too complicated,” McCain emphasizes that it should be supported, however reluctantly........

Well, John McCain and Lindsey Graham are at it again. Every neoconservatives favorite pair of Senators have subjected opponents of action in Libya and the future of Afghanistan as "isolationist". I'll address the ignorance of the neo conservatives regarding over extension of force in a future post, but right now they need to be called out for their pathetic defense of our current interventions. Let me say that like most or all conservatives I supported invading Afghanistan because as we all know they were harboring Bin Laden. No brainer. I supported the invasion of Iraq on the basis he had...

It seems as if that is the case, given that John McCain has chastised those GOP presidential candidates who wonder how Libya posed a threat to the U.S., how Obama has grounds for claiming that the U.S. isn't even at war with Libya or how he can claim - through Harold Koh and Jay Carney - that "the limited nature of this particular mission is not the kind of hostilities envisioned by the War Powers Resolution." Obama is claiming that since U.S. troops are supposedly at little risk in this particular mission and that we have no boots on the...

Poor John McCain: he must really be feeling irrelevant in his advanced age, what with real conservatives and Tea Party folks commanding more respect from more Americans than the senior Senator from Arizona. Not to disrespect Mr. McCain's service to the United States as a Naval officer, nor to diminish his time as a prisoner of war, but isn't it a bit ironic that a man who suffered physical harm at a time when traitors such as Hanoi Jane were openly and actively criticizing his service to America now seems to be slinging the same kind of propaganda just two...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Top Senate Democrats and Republicans agreed Monday on a resolution backing limited U.S. involvement in the NATO-led military campaign against Libya, days after the expiration of the legal deadline for President Barack Obama to seek full-blown congressional authorization. Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., and Sen. John McCain, the top Republican on the Armed Services Committee, introduced the non-binding resolution along with five other Republicans and Democrats. (SNIP) Also backing the resolution were Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich.; Joe Lieberman, I-Conn.; Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga.; Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.; and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

McCain urges U.S. to think about F-35 alternatives May 19 (Reuters) - U.S. Senator John McCain suggested Thursday that the Defense Department mull possible alternatives to Lockheed Martin Corp's (LMT.N) F-35 fighter program if its rising costs could not be contained. McCain, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, referred to the program as "incredibly troubled" and a "train wreck." He said Lockheed has done an "abysmal job" at containing cost overruns and urged that the

Shortly after Osama bin Laden met his demise at the hands of U.S. special forces, Michael Mukasey opined in the pages of the Wall Street Journal that harsh interrogation tactics had been key to identifying a courier, which, in turn, led to locating bin Laden’s compound. Such an assessment, from a highly respected former attorney general, was bound to be influential. Indeed, the CIA’s enhanced-interrogation program, used on a select few high-level al-Qaeda detainees following the 9/11 attacks, had figured prominently in Mukasey’s confirmation hearings. He had, at the behest of Congress, thoroughly reviewed the program upon taking the reins...

The decision by Mike Huckabee to forgo another presidential bid means that the former governor of Arkansas won’t be seeking back-to-back victories in the the Iowa caucuses... But even as the wide-open nature of Iowa would seem to heighten the importance of the state in the nomination battle, some in the party have openly questioned whether the state’s Republican voters are so conservative that the outcome of its caucuses is irrelevant. “Iowa Republicans have marginalized themselves to the point where competing in Iowa has become optional,” Fergus Cullen, a former chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Party, wrote over the...

This is getting really good. As noted below, John McCain in an Op ed this morning skewered the claim that the killing of Bin Laden vindicates torture. But just now, on the Senate floor, he uncorked a new broadside that is quite remarkable, taking direct aim at Bush apologists who are reviving this debate in order to claim Bin Laden’s death as part of the Bush legacy. McCain amplified his case, and called on former Bush attorney general Michael Mukasey — whose recent op ed claiming torture led to Bin Laden has been widely cited by the right — to...

Controversial Fox News personality (for now, anyway) Glenn Beck found out all about the wrath of scorned women this week. Beck managed to infuriate both John McCain's daughter, Meghan McCain, and her mother, Cindy McCain, after making light of a skin-cancer ad that the younger McCain appeared in. During the Wednesday broadcast of his radio show, Beck watched the Style Network PSA -- which features seemingly naked McCain, singer Brandy, Tatyana Ali and Tempest Bledsoe -- while making retching sounds and issuing snide comments. "Put some extra clothes on," Beck said during one particularly scathing segment. "Like, lots of extra...

John McCain says cost overruns on Texas-built fighter jet “an absolute disgrace” Posted on 04/06/2011 by Richard Dunham, Bureau Chief Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is an angry guy these days. Last year, the 2008 Republican presidential candidate told Arizona voters that it was time to “finish the dang fence” on the Mexican border. Today, he used even more colorful language to describe a Texas-made military product. “The F-35, the next generation fighter (jet), I mean it is a disgrace,” he said of the Army’s Joint Strike Fighter being built by Lockheed Martin in Fort Worth. “It is an absolute disgrace,...

MEGHAN MCCAIN: I Expect My Family And Sarah Palin To Be Nothing Short Of Crucified By HBO's 'GAME CHANGE' HBO is adapting a miniseries based on Game Change, the book about the 2008 election. But as Hollywood casts liberal actors to play all the parts, Meghan McCain doubts that it will be an accurate portrayal of what actually happened. Game Change, the infamous bestseller written by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, has plagued anyone directly associated with the 2008 election cycle. The first time I heard about the book was within weeks after Obama was elected—my former press person...

John McCain, Joseph Lieberman, and Lindsey Graham are the Senate’s most energetic proponents of sinking the nation ever deeper into the Libyan morass. In a joint interview on Fox last weekend, Senators McCain (R., Ariz.) and Lieberman (I., Conn.) were breathless in their rendering of the “freedom fighters” and the “Arab Spring” of spontaneous “democracy.” Friday they upped the ante with a Wall Street Journal op-ed, rehearsing yet again what an incorrigible thug Qaddafi is and how “we cannot allow [him] to consolidate his grip” on parts of Libya that he still controls. For his part, Senator Graham (R., S.C.)...

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin suggested Republicans would have fared better in 2008 had she, not John McCain, been the messenger of change for the GOP. “I wasn’t at the top of the ticket, remember?” Speaking at the India Today Conclave in New Delhi, Palin was asked why Republicans were unable to defeat Barack Obama in 2008. Palin told Aroon Purie, editor of India Today that Obama was able to cast himself as the change candidate, and that things might have gone differently had she been the GOP’s presidential candidate. Palin did not suggest that she should have been the...

This past week, I've seen or read plenty of news analyses suggesting that the Republicans have a weak field of presidential hopefuls for 2012. Not so. I believe that many of the potential candidates who might seek the GOP nomination have strategically strong paths to the White House, assuming that President Obama is still vulnerable next year. Last week in this column, I put forth an explanation as to why Newt Gingrich is a stronger political force than many imagine. This week, let's consider the Republicans' other potential major candidates for the White House. For starters, there's Mitt Romney. Some...