Free Republic

Sen. John McCain is talking with Democrats about a joint effort to require outside groups that have spent millions of dollars on this year’s elections to disclose their donors. McCain (R-Ariz.), once Congress’s leading champion of campaign finance reform, has kept a low profile on the issue in recent years. He raised the ire of many Republicans a decade ago for pushing comprehensive reform, and many Republicans still held it against him during his 2008 presidential campaign.

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...

GILBERT - Arizona Sen. John McCain held a town hall in Gilbert this morning and the economy took center stage. The town hall was focused on the nations' economic troubles and McCain said the on-going financial problems would be much greater had Congress not passed a bill to keep the country from defaulting on its debt. McCain said he is very concerned with the recent S&P downgrade of the United States' credit rating and views it as a wake-up call to the nation. "It will cost more to borrow money and it is a very serious situation," McCain said. McCain...

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..."

Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) slams Sen. John McCain's attack on Tea Party freshmen for "foolish" demands in the debt debate.

As rain splatters the windows of Sen. John McCain’s second-floor office on Capitol Hill, the 74-year-old Arizona Republican leans back, clasps his hands, and recalls the Nineties. Brinksmanship, he says, cost the party then, and it could cripple Republicans this summer — especially if Rep. Michele Bachmann gets her way. Over in the House, “I am told that it is very difficult,” McCain says. “There are Republicans who are committed, like Michele Bachmann, to vote against raising the debt limit under any circumstances.” Bachmann, he warns, is acting “sort of like Senator Obama did.”(snip) Yet as poorly as Obama has...

Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) are working together to expand the U.S.' role in the Arab Spring, according to The Washington Post. Kerry and McCain traveled to Egypt last weekend with eight Fortune 500 executives to explore how the U.S. can expand economic investment in that country after the fall of Hosni Mubarak. They envision similar plans across the Middle East in the aftermath of the Middle East revolts that would be similar to the U.S.' “Marshall Plan,” in which the U.S. invested billions of dollars in war-torn European nations after World War II.

NEW YORK - Sen. John McCain said the American people's message from the last message was clear: Cut government spending. (snip) "I had to campaign for re-election in the last election, and the message is clear: They want to stop the spending, it's out of control, that it mortgaged our children's futures - $14 trillion debt, it's unimaginable. And the consequences of our failure to get spending under control will be a bankrupt America."The size of government has doubled since 1999," he said. "The debt has gone up ... some $5 trillion." McCain said significant cuts are required - and...

Three Republican Party district officials step down, citing increasing venom from conservative 'tea party' rivals. ....At a campaign meeting in Kingman, a man formed his fingers into the shape of a gun and pointed at Anthony. Then in Lake Havasu, somebody spoke up as Miller walked into the room. "This old guy says, 'There's Anthony. Get a rope.' I turned around and said, 'If you get a rope, get one for you and get one for me too,' " Miller recalled. But the heat really turned up during an election for the 20th Legislative District's leadership board, when Miller and...

(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)

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) — one of President Obama's most strident critics — praised the president's speech in Arizona at a memorial service for the victims of the Tucson shooting spree. The Arizona senator and Obama's 2008 opponent penned an op-ed in the Washington Post, saying Obama "comforted and inspired the country" by calling for greater civility in the nation's political discourse. "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," McCain wrote. "I reject accusations that his policies and beliefs make...

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Thursday he would work to help implement the repeal of the military's "Don't ask, don't tell" policy, despite his opposition to that legislation. McCain signaled he had made peace with the lame-duck bill to do away with the military's ban on openly gay and lesbian service members, which he had sharply criticized. "I think I have to do everything I can to make sure that the impact on the morale, retention, recruitment and battle effectiveness of the military is minimized as much as possible," McCain said on Fox Business. "It is a law and I...

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...

(snip) ALAN MURRAY: Sen. McCain, I wonder if you could tell us, from where you sit, what the message of this election in the United States is. JOHN MCCAIN: It was a revolt. It was not a revolution. Revolutions take a long time. It was revolt on the part of the American people who believe that their government has lost touch with them and they have lost touch with their government. And any Republican who thinks that it was a vote in favor of Republicans should look at our approval ratings. Last time I checked, it's around 17%. When you...

WASHINGTON (AFP) — US Senator John McCain said Monday that he worried about eroding Republican support for the war in Afghanistan and "the rise of protectionism and isolationism" in his party. "I worry a lot about the rise of protectionism and isolationism in the Republican Party," McCain, President Barack Obama's Republican rival for the White House in 2008, told a foreign policy forum. (snip) The Arizona lawmaker cited incoming Republican senator Rand Paul, stressing "already he has talked about withdrawals from, or cuts in defense, et cetera, And a number of others are." "There's no doubt that this new group...

Cindy McCain announced that she is against the repeal of "Don't ask, don't tell" one day after she appeared in a video where she lends her support to end the ban on gays openly serving in the military. Earlier this week, the former Presidential candidate's wife appeared in a video campaign for the group NOH8 railing on the United States' controversial military policy – a policy that her husband supports. "Our political and religious leaders tell LGBT youth that they have no future ... They can't serve our country openly," she said on the video. (snip) But on Friday night,...

Long-simmering tensions within the Republican Party spilled into public view Wednesday as the pragmatic and conservative wings of the GOP blamed each other in blunt terms for the party’s failure to capture the Senate. With tea party-backed candidates going down in Delaware, Colorado and Nevada, depriving Republicans of what would have been a 50-50 Senate, a bloc of prominent senators and operatives said party purists like Sarah Palin and Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) had foolishly pushed nominees too conservative to win in politically competitive states. (snip) Former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott put it plainly: “We did not nominate our...

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 29 (UPI) -- Cindy McCain, wife of Republican U.S. Senator John McCain, says she doesn't know if Sarah Palin is capable of running the country should she run for president.

"One thing I think we ought to do, other than blocking his agenda and controlling spending, is trying to solve a hard problem like Social Security, and if we show our willingness to work with him on that, I think that would be well-received by the American people," Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told WVOC-AM.

Republican political strategist Mark McKinnon – veteran of McCain and Bush presidential campaigns – acknowledged in an interview with David Frum that a third-party presidential effort for 2012 was not far off, and hinted at his involvement in one. In the podcast interview, McKinnon, who was discussing his recent Daily Beast column “A Centrist Manifesto”, lamented that “there’s nobody that gets rewarded for bipartisan behavior, [and] in fact they get punished.” To that end, he said, “there is a very real possibility for a legitimate third party effort for 2012 … American voters are so hungry for more voice, and...