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Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said his home state could be "up for grabs" in the 2012 presidential election, due in large part to the growing numbers of Hispanic voters. "The demographics are clear that the Hispanic vote will play a major role in national elections," he said on CNN's "State of the Union." However, higher numbers of Hispanic voters does not guarantee Obama an edge according to McCain, who said his inability to meet some campaign promises on immigration makes that voting bloc competitive. The most recent GOP candidate went so far as to say New Mexico, Colorado, and even...

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said misspent and wasted U.S. funds to both Iraq and Afghanistan, where some taxpayer dollars have gone to the Taliban, are "disturbing." "What is disturbing was the recent inspector general's report that some 20 to 30 billion dollars both in Iraq and Afghanistan have been wasted and misspent, and in the case of Afghanistan in some cases the money has actually gone to the Taliban. Now that is not an acceptable use of the taxpayer's dollar," said McCain on Fox News's "On the Record with Greta Van Susteren" Thursday. McCain clarified that he was unsure of...

AUGUST 15, 2011 Immigration Audits Drive Illegal Workers Underground BY MIRIAM JORDAN MINNEAPOLIS—In 2009, Alba and Eugenio were making almost twice the federal minimum wage, plus benefits, cleaning a skyscraper for a national janitorial company. With two toddlers, the Mexican couple enjoyed relative prosperity in a tidy one-bedroom duplex in a working-class neighborhood here. Late that year, federal agents audited employee records of ABM Industries Inc., forcing it to shed all the illegal workers on its payrolls in the Twin Cities. Among them was the couple, undocumented immigrants who had worked at ABM for more than a decade.

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.

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 Tea Party Hobbits could return to Middle Earth,” he said, quoting a Wall Street Journal editorial. “This is the kind of crack political thinking that turned Sharron Angle and Christine O’Donnell into G.O.P. nominees,” he jeered, referring to two losing Tea Party...

LIBERTY COUNTY, Texas -- Dozens of bodies have been found in a mass grave in Liberty County, officials said Tuesday. The Liberty County Sheriff's Office said 25 to 30 bodies were buried at the intersection of County Roads 2049 and 2048 between Hardin and Daisetta. The bodies are those of children, according to preliminary reports. The FBI was called in to assist the investigation.

(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...

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...

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...

(snip) Having a better relationship with Obama allows McCain to have the president's ear on his key priorities, while Obama can gain a clearer picture of what is happening on the Republican side by talking to McCain. While there was no doubt they have differences on many policy issues, Obama and McCain discussed areas where common ground between Democrats and Republicans might be found. McCain spokeswoman Brooke Buchanan said they discussed the situation in the Egypt and the Middle East, immigration reform and border security, free trade and ways to end pet spending projects called "earmarks" that are tucked into...

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...

Michelle Malkin offers a scorecard of GOP Senators who remain uncertain as to whether they should oppose the nightmarish DREAM Act, a bill that has been kicking around for years, but now has the urgency of a liberal lame duck congress to pass what amounts to a 2.1 million future Democrat voter recruitment drive — before year’s end. Topping the list is none other than our own Arizona amnesty architect, Señor Juan McCain, now ditching the A-word for the focus group winner: “Guest worker.” Safely ensconced for another 6-year term, he is once again a-free-from-restraint, open-borders agent. His staff says...

(snip) Yet months earlier, according to Ryan Lizza’s New Yorker piece about the failure of climate-change legislation this year, McCain became "enraged" when a December 2009 article on Time's Web site passed the nickname on to Sen. Lindsay Graham, whom the headline called the NEW GOP MAVERICK IN THE SENATE. Writes Lizza: Graham told colleagues that McCain had called him and yelled at him, incensed that he was stealing the maverick mantle. “After that Graham story came out, McCain completely stopped talking to me,” Jay Newton-Small, the author of the Time piece, said. With that, McCain’s statement to NEWSWEEK in...

Link only, per FR posting rules

PHOENIX (AP) — Republican Sen. John McCain framed the porousness of America's borders as both a national security concern and a human rights issue Sunday in the only scheduled general election debate in Arizona's U.S. Senate race. McCain noted politicians in Mexico have been targeted by the cartels that are smuggling drugs into the United States and that hundreds of illegal immigrants die in the desert every year trying to sneak into the country. "The brutality and the human rights abuses are beyond horrendous," McCain said.

Video at link. McQueeg goes back to his old, nasty, open borders habits.

Arizona Senator John McCain was in New Mexico Wednesday night as the guest speaker at the border sheriff’s conference held in Sandoval County. The Southwestern Border Sheriffs’ Coalition annual conference was held at the Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort. The alliance includes law enforcement from 26 counties along the U.S.-Mexican border, from Texas to California, whose goal is to help combat violence along the border. McCain’s frustration was obvious as he addressed the law enforcement officials, saying the president isn’t making border security a high enough priority. “It’s not appropriate, in my view, for the president to tie securing the border...

PHOENIX – Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer demanded Friday that a reference to the state's controversial immigration law be removed from a State Department report to the United Nations' human rights commissioner. The U.S. included its legal challenge to the law on a list of ways the federal government is protecting human rights. In a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Brewer says it is "downright offensive" that a state law would be included in the report, which was drafted as part of a UN review of human rights in all member nations every four years.

PHOENIX -- For the first time in state history, Arizona is holding its primary elections in August. Experts predict between 20 and 25 percent of registered voters will go to the polls before they close at 7 p.m. Tuesday. They think the heat and humidity, which have put the Valley under an extreme heat warning, will keep some people home. "That certainly is going to discourage people from going to the polls," said Maricopa County Recorder Helen Purcell. News/Radio 92.3 KTAR's Jim Cross, out and about as the polls opened at 6 a.m., found illegal immigration and SB1070, the state's...

Results TBD 08/24/2010 Late PM PDT/MST.

A Senator’s journey from bipartisan maverick to right-wing ideologue—one flip-flop at a time. In theory, John McCain's right-wing madness could come to an end on Tuesday, when he is expected to prevail over former Rep. JD Hayworth in Arizona’s Senate primary. Faced with a stiff conservative challenge, McCain has spent this election cycle defying many of his long-held moderate positions. In fact, his transformation from aisle-crossing, party-bucking maverick (see this 1998 Mother Jones interview) to cookie-cutter conservative has been years in the making. During his 2008 presidential bid, he began to lurch rightward on a litany of issues in his...

The whispers in the spring were that Sen. John McCain, the Republican Party's presidential candidate in 2008, was vulnerable to an upset from the right when he sought reelection to the Senate this year. Now, in the home stretch toward Arizona’s primary election on Tuesday, such talk has largely faded.   -SNIP-   Like Hayworth, there are others who don't buy the notion that McCain has given up on enacting comprehensive immigration reform, which includes a path to citizenship for some illegal immigrants. For instance, Americans for Legal Immigration political action committee (ALIPAC) announced Thursday it’s mobilizing a network of...

Sen. John McCain was once one of the major Republican supporters of immigration reform, arguing for comprehensive legislation as recently as 2008. Faced with accusations of supporting amnesty for illegal immigrants, McCain has moved to a much tougher immigration stance during his Republican primary. But after the primary vote next Tuesday, will the old McCain come back? The winner of the GOP primary in Arizona is likely to have a straight shot to the Senate seat, NPR reported yesterday. But first McCain must beat opponent J.D. Hayworth, a former congressman who has attacked McCain for his previous support of immigration...

GREEN VALLEY, Ariz. — Times are strange for a recovering maverick. "You've been the first one who's run across the aisle," a woman seated in front of Sen. John McCain said accusingly. "Do you have a question?" he snapped. "Do you have a question, really?" "How can we believe you now if in the past you were so different?" The question could have come from any of the 150 people who filled a rec center in this retirement community 30 minutes south of Tucson. Even among loyalists, it looms. Who is the real John McCain? The 2008 Republican presidential nominee...

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) expressed concern on Tuesday for his pal Snooki Pallozzi after the "Jersey Shore" star was arrested last week for disorderly conduct on a Seaside, N.J., public beach. The senator was speaking to a radio host of KTAR Radio in Arizona, who asked McCain what his thoughts were on Snooki's arrest. The raunchy reality star was held in jail for a few hours, then released.

"Tea party" groups are planning a large rally on Sunday in Arizona, near the Mexican border, to support both the state's hard-line stance on illegal immigration and the political campaign of the local talk show host who is challenging Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). Candidate J.D. Hayworth, a former congressman turned conservative radio commentator, is one of dozens of scheduled speakers for the morning rally on a remote ranch about 100 miles south of Tucson. Others include Sharron Angle, the Republican challenging Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), and Sue Krentz, the wife of a rancher killed near the rally...

The slayings of 10 aid workers in Afghanistan by the Taliban are a stark reminder of what could happen without American involvement there, U.S. Sen. John McCain said. McCain stumped Sunday at Mesa State College for Grand Junction native Jane Norton, urging about 150 people to get out the vote in the Republican primary election. Norton faces Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck in the GOP primary for the U.S. Senate, and the winner will face the victor in the Democratic Party primary pitting Sen. Michael Bennet against former Colorado House Speaker Andrew Romanoff. (snip) McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential...

In a rare show of bipartisan cooperation, Senate Republicans on Thursday night joined their Democratic colleagues to pass legislation boosting border security funding by $600 million, including money for 1,500 new border personnel, a pair of unmanned drones and operating bases. The Senate passed the Democrat-sponsored bill by unanimous consent and forwarded it to the House, which passed a similar $700 million proposal last week and could take up the Senate measure when members return for a special session next week. The Senate bill would not add to the deficit - a concern of many Republicans - but would be...

PHOENIX (AP) — Sen. John McCain's Republican primary challenger has released a new ad using McCain's own voice admitting to lying in the past. Former congressman J.D. Hayworth's campaign released the commercial Thursday. It uses McCain's voice from the recording of his 2002 book, in which McCain recalls publicly supporting South Carolina's right to fly the Confederate flag, even though he personally opposed it. McCain says on the recording: " ... it could come down to lying or losing. I chose lying." The ad suggests McCain is again lying about his record on illegal immigration.

Sen. John McCain reaffirmed his tough position on border issues at a Town Hall event Saturday in Green Valley, saying Congress should not take up comprehensive immigration reform until the U.S.-Mexico border is secure. “I will be glad to look at that situation after we get the border secure,” McCain said.What does a secure border look like? “It’s like a lot of other things,” McCain told a reporter after the meeting. “... You know it when you see it.” McCain said the border would have to be deemed secure by local law enforcement, such as Arizona sheriffs and the governor,...

GLENDALE, Ariz. – Sen. John McCain hasn't always talked tough on immigration. That haunted his presidential ambitions, and now his political survival hinges on whether he can show that his conversion is genuine. It hasn't been easy. Boycotts, vigils and a legal fight over the state's attempted crackdown on illegal immigrants have kept voters attuned to each nuance in his run for re-election. "Since 2007, I've said we have to secure the border first. I said it in 2008 and 2009 and 2010," McCain told 120 people at a town hall meeting in suburban Phoenix. Leaning against the back wall...

Labor unions oppose the Arizona immigration law because some of them want to legalize then recruit illegals into their ranks, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Wednesday. McCain specifically mentioned the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) as one union that wants to engage in the practice since it represents many people who work in the tourism industry, which he said employs many illegal immigrants. "They want to have them declared legal to recruit them into unions,” he said in an appearance on the conservative Michael Medved radio show.

TUCSON (KGUN9-TV) - Senator John McCain's camp is apologizing to Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada for an ad running featuring Estrada's name. Sheriff Estrada has come out saying he does not support the senator. McCain's ad features several Arizona sheriff's taking his side. Towards the middle of the ad you see Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada's name scroll along the bottom. "I thought it was a mistake. They shouldn't have had that name in there and I did talk to some of the aids for senator McCain and I set the record straight on that I am not...

McCain calls Hayworth a "pig." He desperately defends his flip-flops and record of voting for the billion dollar pork TARP bailouts which included $150 billion in earmarks, co-sponsoring amnesty with Ted Kennedy and cap and trade legislation with Joe Lieberman, and voting against tax cuts twice. Hayworth easily proves that he is much more conservative than McCain on the very things McCain has been attacking him on – pork and earmarks. In their second, and likely final, Senate primary debate, JD Hayworth again easily defeated John McCain. McCain avoided discussing real issues, where he has a record of flip-flopping in...

It was apparent last night why McCain has only agreed to participate in two Senate debates with JD Hayworth, because of the awkwardness attempting to explain his flip-flopping back to the right now that it is an election year. Both debates between the two candidates are taking place well into the primary, after McCain has had months to spend $6 million in smear attack ads against JD. $5 million of that was leftover from prior campaigning, including $1.1 million from convicted Ponzi scheme criminal Scott Rothstein - the top contributor to two of his 2008 presidential campaign funds. Unlike other...

PHOENIX - In the race for U.S. Senate, J.D. Hayworth is accusing John McCain of flip-flopping on the issue of illegal immigration. Does McCain want border security or a path to citizenship for illegals -- or both? McCain once championed comprehensive immigration reform that would allow people here illegally a path to citizenship. "The present situation with broken borders and 11 million people that are in America without citizenship is unacceptable," he said on the campaign trail. Now McCain says border security must come first before tackling what to do with the 12 million illegals already living in the u.s.....

Arizona Sen. John McCain has a message for illegal residents of his state: Go back where you came from. McCain, who has been veering right to try and win his Republican Senate primary against conservative former Rep. J.D. Hayworth, said on Tuesday that he supports immigration reform that would deport those living in the country illegally. "No amnesty. Many of them need to be sent back," McCain said during an interview on KQTH-FM in Tucson, Ariz. when describing how he would deal with illegal U.S. residents. McCain said he supported reform that would create a guest worker program, but was...

In an EXCLUSIVE interview on “This Week,” Senator John McCain, R-Ariz., invited President Obama to the Arizona border. “[Sen.] Jon Kyl and I invite the President to come to the Arizona Sonora border. The violence is incredibly high,” McCain said. “The human smuggling and drug cartels are at a level of violence where 23,000 Mexican citizens have been murdered in the last few years. … There is a level of violence which has increased to a significant degree which makes the situation far different than it was in 2007,” he said. “We have to secure the borders,” McCain said. “We...

(snip) MR. GREGORY: Is immigration reform in a comprehensive way possible this year or in this term?SEN. McCAIN: Not until we get the borders secure. By the way, on that issue, why is it that Phoenix, Arizona, is the number two kidnapping capital of the world? Does that mean our border's safe? Of course not. Why is it that the police chief in Nogales reported that his police officers are being told they're going to be murdered by the drug cartels on the other side of the border? The, the rise of violence and the influence of the drug cartels...

PHOENIX (AP) -- U.S. Sen. John McCain says he disagrees with Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer's statements that most people crossing the U.S. southern border illegally are smuggling drugs, but he thinks she is doing a good job of standing up for her state. Brewer has said the motivation of "a lot" of the illegal immigrants is to enter the United States to look for work, but that drug rings press them into duty as drug "mules."

It appears the Senate campaign of J. D. Hayworth has hit a bump in the road. A big one: Republican Senate challenger J. D. Hayworth appeared in a 2007 television infomercial in which he helped convince viewers that they could rake in big bucks by attending seminars that would teach them how to apply for federal grants that they wouldn’t have to pay back. National Grants Conferences, the Florida-based company that hosted the classes and produced the informercial, has faced criticism from multiple state attorneys general and Better Business Bureaus. Hayworth, a former Arizona congressman who is running against incumbent...

LAS — More of everything. That’s what Arizona Republican U.S. Sens. John McCain and Jon Kyl said is needed to secure the U.S.-Mexican border. They spoke after touring parts of the border near Douglas with area law enforcement leaders on Saturday. “A tremendous amount of progress has been made, but as we also heard when we said, ‘What do you need?’ the answer was essentially more of everything,” Kyl said. When the senators visited the same stretch several years ago, none of the fencing had been constructed and many of the cameras and lights were not in place. Kyl pointed...

PHOENIX - The battle to get additional troops onto the U.S. border with Mexico has yielded few results despite state and national pledges to do something about it. Senator John McCain is pushing for 6,000 National Guard troops on the border, but can he pull that off in this election year? 3TV's Mike Watkiss asked him about it.

Sen. John McCain will debate GOP rival J.D. Hayworth this summer, his campaign spokesman said Wednesday. Brian Rogers, McCain’s campaign communications director, said a newspaper report indicating McCain was “busy with his job as a senator” and would not debate Hayworth was “not accurate.” “What we said all along is that Sen. McCain will obviously debate — he’s always debated,” Rogers said, adding, but “he has a day job. Folks want him doing his job during the week, so he doesn’t have, unlike Congressman Hayworth, unlimited time on his hands.” Hayworth, who served 12 years in the House before he...

Those who are familiar with this site will recall that the National Rifle Association (NRA) has been on the Seeing Red AZ blogroll since the inception of this website in June 2007. Take a good hard look, because the link will soon be coming down. Yesterday we posted the endorsements U.S. Senate candidate J. D. Hayworth received from former NRA President Bob Corbin and from theGun Owners of America. Yet the NRA, which has previously referred to John McCain as “one of the premier flag carriers for the enemies of the second amendment,” inexplicably gave McCain their endorsement. In endorsing...

TUCSON, Arizona (Reuters) – When he ran for U.S. president two years ago, Republican John McCain told town hall meetings across the United States that illegal immigrants were "all God's children." But at a church hall in Tucson last weekend, he spoke up for a tough new Arizona law that seeks to drive those undocumented busboys and landscapers from the desert state where he is battling to hold on to his U.S. Senate seat. "The polls show 60, 70, 80 percent of the American people support Arizonans saying 'secure our borders,'" McCain said to a clatter of applause. Arizona's migrant...