Free Republic

WASHINGTON — Senator John McCain’s office is pushing back against reports that while visiting Syria this week he posed in a photo with rebels who kidnapped 11 Lebanese Shi’ite pilgrims. The photo, released by McCain’s office, shows McCain with a group of rebels. Among them are two men identified in the Lebanese press as Mohamed Nour and Abu Ibrahim, two of the kidnappers of the group from Lebanon.

Syrian Rebel Alliance Openly Threatens Ethnic Cleansing Written by Alex Newman A spokesman for the primary rebel alliance in Syria, known as the “Free Syrian Army,” threatened that opposition forces could start implementing a broad ethnic-cleansing program aimed at Shia Muslims and especially the Islamic Alawite sect to which dictator Bashar al-Assad belongs. As Obama administration-led Western powers and a coalition of Sunni Arab dictators continue to fuel the increasingly ruthless conflict, the rebel FSA spokesperson said in a TV interview that minority communities would be “wiped off the map” if the regime’s forces managed to capture the city of...

Sen. John McCain Monday became the highest-ranking U.S. official to enter Syria since the bloody civil war there began over two years ago, The Daily Beast has learned. McCain, one of the fiercest critics of the Obama administration’s Syria policy, made the unannounced visit across the Turkey-Syria border with Gen. Salem Idris, the leader of the Supreme Military Council of the Free Syrian Army. He stayed in the country for several hours before returning to Turkey. Both in Syria and Turkey, McCain and Idris met with assembled leaders of Free Syrian Army units that traveled from around the country to...

A long-simmering feud between establishment Republicans and tea partyers is in full view again with Sen. John McCain accusing younger colleagues of using tactics that might tempt Democrats to change Senate rules that now protect the minority party. How to deal with the government’s debt and spending became the latest quarrel between the GOP’s 2008 presidential candidate and tea party champions such as Senators Ted Cruz of Texas, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Mike Lee of Utah. …

McCain warns Obama-Nixon comparisons are ‘overreaching’ Monday, May 20, 2013 PrintEmail Comments (37) By: Hillary Chabot U.S. Sen. John McCain bucked the party line coming from many of his fellow conservatives this morning, saying suggestions that compare the trio of scandals gripping the White House to Watergate are “overreaching.” “I think it’s overreaching. We need a full and complete investigation and then we will decide the dimensions of it,” said McCain while campaigning for Republican Senate candidate Gabriel Gomez in Dorchester. “It is terrible but we have to have a full investigation before we leap to conclusions.”

Several Republican lawmakers are calling for the surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings to be tried as an enemy combatant, rather than as an ordinary criminal. “It is clear the events we have seen over the past few days in Boston were an attempt to kill American citizens and terrorize a major American city,” read a Saturday statement from Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), John McCain (R-Ariz.), Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) and Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.). “The accused perpetrators of these acts were not common criminals attempting to profit from a criminal enterprise, but terrorists trying to injure, maim, and kill...

March 9, 2013 McCain: Are You a "Wacko Bird" Like Rand Paul, Justin Amash, and Ted Cruz? Nick Gillespie courtesy Benjamin Lee's Twitter Feed"Wacko Birds" is the new "Jerk Store."That is, it's the sort of comedic comeback that reflects far worse - and oh-so-sadly - on its creator than its intended target.During a recent tirade, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) denounced Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) as "wacko birds." Reports the Wash Post: “They were elected, nobody believes that there was a corrupt election, anything else,”McCain said. “But I also think that when,...

aving suffered not one but several humiliating defeats on Tuesday, Republicans are in danger of embracing “comprehensive” immigration reform — which is to say, amnesty — out of panic. The GOP does need to do better among Hispanics and other voters, but this is not the way to achieve that — and, more important, it is bad policy. A formal policy of refusing to enforce the law is not obviously the best substitute for an informal policy of refusing to enforce the law. But first, credit should be given where it is due: The Obama administration, by keeping economic growth...

WASHINGTON — Two hundred and seven years after their deaths, 13 of the Navy’s first fallen heroes this week came closer than ever to returning home from the shores of Tripoli — thanks in part to the efforts of two veterans’ advocates from Western New York. But then Sen. John McCain got in the way.

WASHINGTON, Libya (AFP) — Senator John McCain called Sunday for urgent US medical aid to help thousands wounded in Libya, amid a growing humanitarian crisis as revolutionary forces battle the final vestiges of the Moamer Kadhafi regime. "They've got thousands and thousands of wounded. They say that they've lost 25,000 people killed, 3,000 have been maimed, 60,000 injured. That's their government figures," McCain told CBS television's "Face the Nation" program. "We should be helping them," said the influential US lawmaker, a Vietnam War aviator and prominent voice on US military matters who also was the Republican Party's losing 2008 presidential...

(snip) MCCAIN: ... just wants to spend money. Hello? He just wants to spend more money. You and I are -- remember when Ronald Reagan said the worst deal he ever made was when he sat down with the Democrats and said they would cut spending $3 and raise taxes for every $1. Guess what? They raised taxes and they didn’t cut spending. That’s why the Tea Partiers and others would – I’m not a Tea Partier -- but the fact is, we need a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. We couldn’t get it through the Senate as the...

Former GOP presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, who this week referred to Tea Party lawmakers as "hobbits," publicly criticized Pennsylvania's Pat Toomey Sunday during an unusual unscripted debate on the Senate floor. McCain, who appeared to be having a great 'ol time during a back and forth with Democrat Majority Whip Sen. Dick Durbin, referred to Toomey and those who share his views as "terrible." (snip) "...the terrible obstructionists on this side of the aisle, the terrible people, their flawed philosophical views about the future of America..."

Veteran Sen. John McCain has had enough with tea-party-aligned lawmakers who have vowed not to vote to raise the debt ceiling before passage of a constitutional balanced budget amendment. The Arizona Republican, the GOP’s 2008 presidential nominee, described their position as “foolish,” “deceiving, even bizarro,” given Americans’ anxiety about the sliding stock market, a halt on hiring and the possibility of higher interest rates related to the looming default.

WASHINGTON — US Senator John McCain on Sunday expressed concern about growing isolationism in the Republican party, particularly among those vying for the 2012 presidential nomination. McCain, the 2008 Republican nominee, said he was alarmed to hear various candidates at a campaign forum last Monday express opposition to US military involvement in the NATO military assault on Libya's Moamer Kadhafi. "There's always been an isolation strain in the Republican party, that Pat Buchanan (a former Republican presidential contender) wing of our party. But now it seems to have moved more center stage, so to speak," he said. There is no...

(snip) During the comments, talk turned briefly to whether McCain would support former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin - his running mate during the 2008 presidential election - in a bid for the White House in 2012. McCain said it is all hypothetical at this point, as Palin has not officially announced her intention to seek the Republican nomination. "I'm proud of Sarah Palin. I'm proud of the campaign that she ran and she invigorated our campaign," McCain said. "I think she will be a very formidable candidate if she decides to seek the nomination of the Republican Party." The New...

Washington (CNSNews.com) - Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), when talking to Capitol reporters, said that Fox News makes it difficult for him to garner support for his stance on immigration reform, which includes a “pathway to citizenship” for illegal aliens already living in the country. The senator, a member of the Judiciary Committee, said that Fox News using the word “amnesty” during the 24-hour news cycle has hindered support for his position on reforming the U.S. immigration system, which lawmakers on both sides say is broken. “In today’s world, it’s very hard for bi-partisan agreements to be formed,” said Graham, “because...

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Wednesday he does not believe Congress will act before the May 20 deadline to authorize military engagement in Libya and he does not “recognize” the constitutionality of the War Powers Act that sets the timeline, in any case. “No president has ever recognized the constitutionality of the War Powers Act and neither do I,” McCain said. “So I don’t feel bound by any deadline. It’s pretty obvious there’s no consensus in the Senate or in the Congress now to move forward with a resolution. I respect that.”McCain, the top Republican on the Armed Services Committee,...

John McCain has the second-lowest approval rating among U.S. senators, according to a new poll. About one-third of Arizona's registered voters approve of McCain's job performance - 34 percent compared with 53 percent who disapprove of the job he's doing - according to a new poll by Public Policy Polling. That's a drop from 40 percent approval in January. Only Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) scored lower among sitting senators, 29 percent to 58 percent.

U.S. Sen. John McCain said Wednesday that he’s “seen this movie before” when it comes to federal claims of a secure border between the U.S. and Mexico. In a Senate hearing, McCain criticized the Department of Homeland Security for not keeping up with escalating drug and smuggling cartel violence that has resulted in mass graves and executions of Mexican officials. McCain, R-AZ, told Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano he remembered the U.S. giving amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants in 1986, “when we said we’d secure the borders.” Today, millions of illegal immigrants enter the U.S. at Tucson. McCain said:...

Former staffers for defeated California candidates Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina have an urgent message for fellow Republicans: Their political future depends on Latino voters, and the Obama administration may be providing an opening. (snip) Mr. Wilson, managing partner at Wilson-Miller Communications Inc. in Sacramento, said that if the topic of immigration arises, Republicans should avoid anti-immigration rhetoric meant to stir up the conservative base. "We're on safe ground when we say, 'We have to secure our borders and get a guest-worker program, then work on a pathway for citizenship for people who are already here'—and then quickly pivot off...

(snip) On the US political front, McCain said he was relieved that the “birther” issue -- a reference to doubts raised by the right wing about whether US President Barack Obama was born in the United States as required of US presidents under the Constitution -- had been buried with the release on Wednesday of the president's long-form birth certificate. “We have unemployment to deal with, and we have wars in Afghanistan and Iraq,” McCain said, calling the birther issue “a silly distraction”.(snip)

(snip) "I reminded them that Kuwait and Saudi Arabia reimbursed us after Operation Desert Storm," McCain says. "They said they'd be glad to discuss that.(snip) "They're very good people," he says. "Mainly well-educated, a number of women in the [Transitional National Council] -- very normal, dedicated people." (snip) McCain dismissed concerns that rebel forces include some veterans of al Qaeda. "I'm sure that there may be some element there, but I guarantee you that they didn't rise up because they wanted to be al Qaeda fighters," McCain says. "They rose up because they wanted to throw off the yoke of...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sen. John McCain, one of the strongest proponents in Congress of the U.S. military intervention in Libya, is heading to the rebel stronghold of Benghazi for a meeting with forces fighting to overthrow Moammar Gadhafi, an aide told The Associated Press. McCain was scheduled to arrive in Benghazi on Friday, said Brooke Buchanan, a spokeswoman for the senator.

Washington - Sen. John McCain, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, calls Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton an “international star” but sharply criticizes the Obama administration’s policy on Libya. At a Monitor-sponsored breakfast for reporters on Wednesday, Senator McCain, the 2008 Republican candidate for president, was asked to rate President Obama’s national security team. “I think the international star is Secretary Clinton,” McCain said. “She has done a really tremendous job.”

Arizona's stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border is still not secure despite improvements, and ending the National Guard mission there is ill-advised, Sen. John McCain said Thursday. (snip) McCain spoke to reporters after a border tour he took alongside four fellow Republican lawmakers from Arizona: Rep. Jeff Flake, Rep. Paul Gosar, Rep. Ben Quayle and Rep. David Schweikert. The group toured the border near Nogales and Douglas and met in Tucson with officials from the Arizona High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, or HIDTA. While in Douglas, they met with the widow of rancher Robert Krentz who was killed a year ago...

TUCSON - Senator John McCain joined four Republican state representatives in Tucson today to tour the U.S.-Mexico border and discuss security and the federal government's role in securing the U.S. borders. McCain says there is still a lot of work to be done to ensure Arizona's borders are secure. He is upset that the federal government plans to withdraw National Guard troops from the border on June 30, he thinks this is too early and there is work that still needs to be done. "Every place we go, and we've talked to the people on the border, and here...the work...

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., reiterated his call for a U.S.-backed no-fly zone over Libya this morning and called Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi "insane."

Senators Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and John McCain, R-Ariz., both expressed disappointment Sunday that President Obama has not responded more forcefully against the violence spreading in Libya and called for the arming of rebel forces in that country. (snip) Lieberman stopped short of calling for direct American military involvement, but McCain did not rule it out. "I think there possibly could be," the Arizona Republican said of using military force, though he hastily added that Libyan pilots are sure to obey a no-fly zone.

The politician who once best exemplified the idea of a "maverick" independent has shifted so far to the right that he is now tied for the title of the Senate's most conservative member, according to National Journal's 2010 vote ratings. According to a comprehensive examination of 96 Senate votes taken in 2010, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., along with seven of his colleagues, voted most often on the conservative side. His 89.7 composite conservative score ties him with stalwarts like Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., and gives him a more conservative score than Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Jeff Sessions, R-Ala. (snip)...

Meghan McCain, daughter of U.S. Senator John McCain spoke at Indiana State University tonight. McCain shared her experience on the campaign trail with her father as well as where she sees the country going politically. One big goal of hers is to redefine republicanism."I have two theories. The first is in the next election Republicans will nominate a very extreme conservative. If that happens I think that the idea of a third party rising up could happen for the first time in history," McCain said.

Arizona Sen. John McCain and his Republican colleagues have long said they will only join Democrats on a comprehensive immigration reform deal if and when the southwest border is secured. Now McCain says he wants to develop a mutually-agreeable set of benchmarks with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano for what level of security is sufficient and how to determine when that goal has been met. “We have to agree on certain criteria on what is successful securing of our border,” McCain said today during a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing. “I think it would be very helpful to all of...

Arizona senator and 2008 GOP presidential nominee John McCain is warning that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s decision not to step down could touch off “a much more dangerous situation,” and he called for the Obama administration to tell Mubarak he must resign immediately. “The volatility of the situation was already very high,” McCain said on Fox News, “and I think it’s been ratcheted up dramatically. “I think the United States had better be more clear in our message to President Mubarak, that we are very clear in our message that he needs to step down,” McCain said. Asked by host...

US Senator John McCain has condemned Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's "deeply unfortunate and troubling" refusal to step down immediately and urged him to heed his people's calls to quit power.

Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) have rekindled their alliance on immigration reform, taking some early steps to test the political will for addressing the contentious issue this year. (snip) “It’s in the infant stage,” Graham told POLITICO. “I don’t know what the political appetite is to do something.” (snip) And in one closely watched comment, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) let it slip recently that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) “seems to think that there’s a shot at this.” It led to a round of speculation that the McCain of the past, the senator who ushered a comprehensive bill...

(snip) "The president, I think, has learned a lot in the last two years as any president does. He is a very intelligent man. I think he's doing a lot of right things," he said. (snip)

Speaking on CBS' "Face the Nation," the Arizona senator had some praise for the man who defeated him in the 2008 presidential election. "The president, I think, has learned a lot in the last two years as any president does. He is a very intelligent man. I think he's doing a lot of right things," he said.

<p>Republican Senator John McCain has traveled the world as part of a “three amigos” group with Senate colleagues Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham, and he is sad that Lieberman plans to retire when his term expires in 2012.</p> <p>McCain told us in a telephone interview that Lieberman told him that after 40 years in politics, “every once in a while you just get a little tired.”</p>

Could the long-icy relationship between President Obama and his 2008 presidential opponent, Sen. John McCain, be thawing? McCain (R-Ariz.) took a significant step toward reconciling with the president in a graceful op-ed in Sunday's Washington Post. If that article marks a genuine fresh beginning, it would be one positive thing to come out of the horrific shooting spree in Tucson eight days ago. McCain and Obama will never be comrades in arms. They have too much history, too much mutual ill will and too many philosophical differences for that. In the two years since McCain went down in defeat against...

(snip) I disagree with many of the president's policies, but I believe he is a patriot sincerely intent on using his time in office to advance our country's cause. I reject accusations that his policies and beliefs make him unworthy to lead America or opposed to its founding ideals.(snip)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. John McCain says he would support congressional work toward an overhaul of the immigration system once "the borders have been secured."

Congress should take up work on comprehensive immigration reform once the U.S. borders are secure, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Wednesday. McCain, a longtime proponent of comprehensive reform who had tacked right in his race for reelection last year, said that an immigration deal could be an area of compromise between Republicans and Democrats. "Once we get the border secured — and we can get the border secured — I would look forward to working on comprehensive immigration reform," the 2008 Republican presidential nominee said on NBC's "Today" show. The Arizona senator had in the past favored legislation that would...

What does he want? Revenge. For what? Being born. This is the way famous gunslinger Doc Holliday answers equally famous lawman and good friend Wyatt Earp’s inquiry - in their depiction in the movie Tombstone - into why their sworn enemy, Johnny Ringo, is such a misanthrope. Sadly, this description would be equally accurate in explaining the actions of another Arizona transplant filled with endless rage: Senator John McCain. I first encountered the seething side of McCain when I was writing my 2008 book, The Real McCain, which was critical of him while pointing out a then-controversial fact, one no...

(snip) Woods said McCain would be more helpful if the White House reached out to him, but "they haven't talked to him at all."McCain also voted no Saturday on the Dream Act, which would have granted citizenship to thousands of foreign-born college students. He initially sponsored the legislation. Gullett said McCain constantly faced voters on the campaign trail last year asking about border security and that affected his stance. His communications director, Brooke Buchanan, explained that on immigration, McCain believes the border needs to be secured above all else, citing the increasing border violence over the last four years. "His...

...my nutshell case for why McCain was functionally a Democrat: As a war hero who's hawkish on foreign policy, he more than matches Bush on the military front. As a reform-minded foe of corporate welfare, Big Tobacco, and the Republican right, he is peerless. McCain is Bush's most vociferous critic, voted against the president's tax cut, forced his hand on campaign finance reform, and federalized airport security in the face of White House opposition. He has co-sponsored numerous bills with Democrats--many of them in the presidential-aspirant class--requiring background checks at gun shows (Lieberman), a patients' bill of rights (Edwards), better...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said that the Tea Party needs to commit to being problem-solvers in the new Congress. On "Face the Nation," Graham was asked about the prospects for bipartisanship come January. "The House is in revolt," he said of the difficulty of extending the Bush-era tax cuts. "People are pissed off in the House at the estate tax. That's going to carry over a bit." Graham said that big government and spending is on the "run and retreat," but that the coming months will test the grass-roots movement that helped turn the tide in the midterm election. "The...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Saturday that the failed Democratic effort to pass the DREAM Act in the lame duck session dealt a blow to future talks on a wider immigration bill. “It was an exercise to try and taint Republicans with Hispanic voters, knowing that the DREAM Act under these circumstances could never pass,” Graham told reporters in the Capitol after the bill sputtered on the floor. “What they have done on the DREAM Act is hurt overall comprehensive immigration reform,” he said. The DREAM Act, which would give legal status to illegal immigrants who came to the country...

Republicans could relinquish a significant portion of the gains they made in the midterm elections if they "allow" the omnibus spending bill to pass, Sen. John McCain said Wednesday. The Arizona Republican said that Tea Party activists who helped the GOP make large inroads on Democrats are "enraged" about the $1.1 trillion measure to fund the government that contains nearly $8 billion in earmarks. "They gave us a second chance last November ... And if we Republicans allow this thing to go through, then I'm not sure they're going to give us another chance," McCain said during an interview with...

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator John McCain made the following statement regarding Brian A. Terry, a Border Patrol Agent who was killed in the line of duty last night in Rio Rico, Arizona: “My thoughts and prayers are with the friends and family of Agent Brian Terry after yesterday’s tragic shooting near Rio Rico, Arizona. This event is yet another reminder of the dangers the men and women of the Border Patrol face every day as they put their lives on the line to protect the American people. The increased violence in the border region demands that Congress provide the...

Link only, per FR posting rules

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Thursday that he no longer favors closing the terrorist detention center maintained by the U.S. at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Graham, who'd previously sought to work with the Obama administration to close the prison, said there's "no way" to close the facility at this point. "There's no way to close Gitmo now," Graham said Thursday on Laura Ingraham's radio show when asked if he still favors closing Guantánamo. "I'm being honest. Quite frankly, it doesn't matter to me where you house these people; it matters what you do with them," he added. That's a shift for...