Free Republic

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who’s taken on tough tasks from immigration reform to climate change, faces another one as he calls for spending billions of dollars overseas on unpopular foreign aid programs that he insists are vital to U.S. national security. With Congress facing mandatory spending cuts and previously sacrosanct military programs on the chopping block, Graham is trying to protect funding for foreign aid even as most Americans oppose it – 71 percent in a recent poll – and other Republican leaders call for focusing U.S. resources at home. “It is a tough sell, but you can be...

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...

(VOV) - The fine relationship between the US and Vietnam plays an important role in maintaining peace and stability in the region, said US Republican senator, John McCain at a meeting with Vietnamese ambassador to the US, Le Cong Phung in Phoenix, Arizona. Senator McCain said that the US-Vietnam relationship has made significant progress, especially in economics, defence and education in recent years. He said he is proud of being able to contribute to accelerating normalizing the relationship between the two countries and emphasized the need to develop the relationship into a strategic partnership.

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...

John McCain is in more hot water after appearing to concede he could lose the US presidential election by telling voters they have nothing to fear with Barack Obama in the White House. The extraordinary gaffe comes just three weeks before Election Day with the Republican candidate trailing badly in the polls. Now Republican aides fear he may have further damaged his chances by accepting the possibility that he could be defeated. (snip) Mr. McCain made his remark while appealing for calm on the campaign trail amid fears that angry outbursts from supporters were raging out of control. After a...

Video at link.

(snip) MR. GREGORY: You are in a, a primary battle for re-election against former Republican Congress J.D. Hayworth of Arizona. And on the issue of health care, this is what he says on his Web site, on the issues, "Nowhere is the Obama administration's socialist agenda more evident than in their attempts to grab control over 17 percent of our nation's economy." Socialist agenda, do you think that goes too far? SEN. McCAIN: Look, you'll have to have Mr. Hayworth on to explain the things he says. MR. GREGORY: All right. SEN. McCAIN: I'm, I'm not ready to do that....

Presidential nominee in 2008 faces GOP primary fight. BY JOSEPH WEBER Former Rep. J.D. Hayworth, Arizona Republican, said in an interview Monday that his planned primary challenge to Sen. John McCain will portray the four-term incumbent as a not-so-conservative Republican who has "enabled" President Obama and his failed economic and security policies. "I'm giving Arizona Republicans a clear choice between a consistent, common-sense conservative . . . or someone who describes himself as a maverick but is a moderate," the outspoken Mr. Hayworth told The Washington Times' "America's Morning News" radio show. Mr. Hayworth, 51, quit his job Friday as...

I pretty much had to see Avatar despite major kinds of ideological misgivings... Aside from anything else, I had a funny sort of a feeling of deja-vu watching the thing. A small, innocent, naive, and spiritually oriented nation of some kind has something which some sort of a great power wants, and some ultimate high-tech military organization gets turned loose on them... Where have I heard that story before?? I mean, the only thing wrong with the analogy was that the Pandorans in the film weren't really getting ****ed over badly enough for the analogy to really work. For instance,...

(snip) VAN SUSTEREN: Would you be willing, and this is maybe a given, but let me ask you anyway. Would you be willing to sit down with the president? Are Republicans willing to? Democrats say you Republicans are obstructionists, that you won't talk you and are just trying to abort the whole process. What are you willing to do? MCCAIN: We are willing to sit down. He wanted to be in on the takeoff. If you want us in on the landing, let us in on the takeoff. The fact is this process was partisan totally throughout. I've been a...

(NECN: Washington) - The Dalai Lama today is receiving the Lantos Human Rights Prize. The award is in memory of the late Rep. Tom Lantos.Those who advocate for Tibet see the Dalai Lama's White House visits as important messages of support for Tibetans and others struggling for human rights. "We can't replace Tom's voice, but we can help and ensure it is not forgotten...liberty is the right of mankind," said Senator John McCain.

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) is taking the opposite route of most defeated presidential candidates: rather than quickly bow out of national politics, McCain is working to become a transformative force in the Republican Party, Politico reported Friday. Concerned about the GOP's direction, McCain has been recruiting and raising money for candidates who share his pragmatic center-right style. McCain has been a particularly generous advisor to Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL), who he encouraged to run for Senate and threw a $500,000 fundraiser to support.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Sen. John McCain, who faced a long, bruising campaign against President Obama, has taken on a new role in the Obama administration: "Loyal opposition." McCain defined his role as, "[To] help and work together where I can, and stand up for the principles and the party and the philosophy that I campaigned on and have stood for for many years," to Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday. McCain, who has long championed bipartisanship in Washington, said while it's important for Americans to come together, it doesn't mean "that as the loyal opposition that I or my party...

WASHINGTON (AP) – President Barack Obama is including a proposal from his Republican rival last year as part of his health care reform plan. . . . . . Amid applause from his colleagues, McCain smiled and gave Obama a thumbs-up.