The Myth Of The "Moderate Republican" -- John McCain Edition

As the Republican Senate wealthfare tax bill abomination shambles toward a vote (likely today or tomorrow), another "moderate" Republican Senator, shows his tribal colors:

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said Thursday morning that he would support his party’s tax overhaul, a huge win for Republican leaders that could help pave the way for the upper chamber to pass its bill in the next 24 hours. 

“After careful thought and consideration, I have decided to support the Senate tax reform bill,” McCain said. “I believe this legislation, though far from perfect, would enhance American competitiveness, boost the economy, and provide long-overdue tax relief for middle-class families.” 

This man who'll never have to worry about facing knuckle-dragging Republican voters again, this supposed fighter for the Senate's "regular order," this "maverick" so beloved of the credulous media, is going to vote for a bill that, in truth, does nothing that he claims it will (in fact, this man who, by virtue of his position, has insurance that pays for his cancer treatments will vote for a bill that would result in funding cuts for cancer treatments for Medicare patients!)  How's that for integrity?

BONUS:  Michael Tomasky has a good read on this shameful bill and the shameful people who are voting for it.

Half-Baked, Spurious Nationalist Responds As Half- Baked, Spurious Nationalist Would

In accepting the National Constitution Center's Liberty Medal yesterday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) made the following pointed observation:

“To fear the world where we have organized and led for three-quarters of a century, to abandon the ideals we’ve advanced around the globe, to refuse the obligations of international leadership and our duty to remain ‘the last best hope of Earth’ for the sake of-some half baked, spurious nationalism cooked up by people who had rather find scapegoats than solve problems is as unpatriotic as an attachment to any other tired dogma of the past that Americans have consigned to the trash heap of history.”

Of course, half- baked, spurious nationalist Il Douche immediately related to McCain's description of "half- baked, spurious nationalism" finding "scapegoats" for failures ("Hey, that's me!"), and responded in his trademark mature and statesmanlike manner (hahaha no):

“People have to be careful because at some point I fight back,” Trump told WMAL radio host Chris Plante. “You know, I’m being very nice. I’m being very, very nice. But at some point I fight back and it won’t be pretty.”

Yes, "nice" Rump is well known for his patient level- headedness and preternatural cool, among other "presidential" attributes (hahaha no).

Fortunately, McCain wasn't interested in being "nice" to half- baked, spurious nationalist Il Douche:

In response to Trump's threat, McCain had this blunt response: "I’ve faced far greater challenges than this" https://t.co/nFo24e0dDe

— Dan Merica (@danmericaCNN) October 17, 2017

BONUS: 

Guy who got 5 deferments to avoid a war he supported warns POW McCain that at some point he might start fighting.

— John Fugelsang (@JohnFugelsang) October 17, 2017

Now a final word from someone with class and intelligence--

I'm grateful to @SenJohnMcCain for his lifetime of service to our country. Congratulations, John, on receiving this year's Liberty Medal.

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) October 16, 2017

Why You Should Vote Straight Ticket Democrat, In One Quote

It doesn't matter if they endorse, then belatedly "un-endorse," neo- fascist existential threat Donald "Rump" Trump (like Sen. John "Walnuts" McCain),  or if they're simply too cowardly to take a stand (like Sen. Pat Toomey).  If they're a Republican, especially if they're a Republican running for the Senate, here's why it's critically important that they get voted out in November, in one quote:

"I promise you that we will be united against any Supreme Court nominee that Hillary Clinton, if she were president, would put up," McCain said. "I promise you. This is where we need the majority and Pat Toomey is probably as articulate and effective on the floor of the Senate as anyone I have encountered."

A nominee's qualifications and fitness?  Respecting the expressed will of the American people?  What quaint notions! No, it's more mindless, hyper- partisan, party- before- country gridlock that we need, because we just haven't had enough of it from Republicans.

We need to take back the Senate, and defeating these two compromised Republicans is a good start. Please help elect Kate McGinty in Pennsylvania and Ann Kirkpatrick in Arizona!

(Photo: Sen. John McCain -- "Take my seat... please!")

Sen. McCain's Latest Unhinged Slander

It's no secret that unhinged, attention- starved Sen. John "Walnuts" McCain (R- Bombbombbomb Iran) despises President Obama. (The man has never recovered from getting whipped in the 2008 election.) Back in June, he blamed President Obama for the Orlando massacre (weakly walking it back later).  A constant, nasty critic of the President's thankless mission to clean up the mess in the Middle East that he and Dumbya were so eager to make, Walnuts routinely and bombastically ignores internationalist Republican Sen. Arthur Vandenberg's long forgotten dictum that "politics stops at the water's edge."

In his latest splenetic outburst, Walnuts is babbling to foreign media, blaming the United States and its President for the resurgence of the Taliban:

McCain, apparently interviewed in his office this week ahead of a July 4 trip to Pakistan, was asked by interviewer Moeed Pirzada whether the current president of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani, is too technocratic and isolated to deal with the resurgent Taliban and other threats in his country. 

“Do you think Taliban are the only issue or is something else needed in Afghanistan?” Pirzada asked.  [snip]

“I don’t blame Ashraf Ghani. I blame the United States of America for not consolidating the gains that we made,” McCain said. “And this president has this idea for the last eight years that if we pull out of conflicts, those conflicts end.  [snip]

“We see abject failure of American policy and no strategy. I don’t blame Pakistan for that. I don’t blame Ashraf Ghani for that. I blame this president of the United States, who is a failed leader.”

Properly, Walnuts' Democratic challenger, Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick issued a statement condemning the intemperate remarks:

“Arizonans should be shocked and appalled that McCain would go to the foreign press and ‘blame the United States of America’ for Taliban gains in Afghanistan. These reckless, insulting comments have become commonplace for John McCain because he’s changed after 33 years in Washington,” Kirkpatrick said in a statement. “McCain is all out of ‘straight talk’ because he cares more about trying to shift blame and saving his political career than focusing our efforts on keeping Americans safe.”

President Obama is campaigning with Hillary Clinton today in North Carolina.  He now needs to go to Arizona and campaign with Ann Kirkpatrick and push back against this one- note Johnny, who forever forfeited the right to challenge anyone else's judgment when he tried to put Sarah "Winky" Palin a heartbeat from the Presidency.  Getting this vindictive crank out of the Senate would be one of the best, most welcome, most long- overdue outcomes of this year's elections.  (If you want to help Rep. Kirkpatrick, please go to her website)

Unhinged Rant Of The Day (UPDATED)

In a just world, this ought to be reason enough to rid the Senate of this endangered, angry crank once and for all. Speaking of the Orlando massacre, Sen. John "Walnuts" McCain today echoed the lunacy of Republican presumptive nominee, neo- fascist crackpot Donald "Rump" Trump:

“Barack Obama is directly responsible for it, because when he pulled everybody out of Iraq, al Qaeda went to Syria, became ISIS, and ISIS is what it is today thanks to Barack Obama’s failures.”

A series of absurd non sequiturs does not a lucid critique make, Walnuts, and the Stormtrumpers will still not vote for you.  But then, we never expected much better =cough= Sarah Palin =cough= bomb bomb bomb Iran =cough.

Help retire Walnuts and take a step toward a Democratic Senate by donating, if you can, to Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick for Senate.

John Fugelsang adds:

"Obama is directly responsible" John McCain (directly responsible for Palin), who supported the Iraq War (directly responsible for ISIS).

— John Fugelsang (@JohnFugelsang) June 16, 2016

UPDATE: Now Walnuts says he "misspoke." We dunno -- sounded pretty straightforward to us. Let's retire him. Sad!

UPDATE II:  Steve Benen has a good takedown of Walnuts' bitter rant and the illogic behind it.

Tweet Of The Day - "Only A Complete Idiot" Like John McCain

From the Twitter archives, then and now:

John McCain: "Only a complete idiot would have declared victory when US troops pulled out of Iraq in 2010" pic.twitter.com/wjOj3RnnHp

— The Daily Edge (@TheDailyEdge) May 24, 2015

Yet somehow this "complete idiot" shows up on tee vee with disturbing regularity.

UPDATE:  Maybe this person can rid us of this "complete idiot" in 2016.

(h/t Mock Paper Scissors and Driftglass)

Today's Cartoon (and R.I.P.)

(click to enlarge)

If only ...

(Ben Sargent, Austin (TX) American-Statesman)

We also wish to note the passing, on September 14,  of the great editorial cartoonist Tony Auth.  His integrity and insight will be missed.

Sunday Talk Show Cartoon

(click to enlarge)

(Jim Morin, Miami Herald)

Keep watching.  Walnuts and Huckleberry Closetcase will be on one or more of the Sunday talk shows on any given weekend.

Hey, Who Invited These Clowns?

Jon Stewart on the "extreme takeover" of the Republican Party by the tea baggers, and the hacks who facilitated it (after the ad):

Rethugs Abandon McConnell, Agree to Vote on Obama Nominations

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had what appears to be a major victory today in the ongoing effort to blunt Rethuglican efforts to filibuster Obama administration executive branch nominees.  In exchange for having to deploy the "nuclear option" of changing Senate rules to allow a 51-vote majority to invoke cloture, a group of Rethugs led by Arizona Sen. John "Grampypants" McCain Boehnered abandoned Senate Minority Leader and turtle impersonator Mitch "Missy" McConnell and voted to proceed with the nomination of Richard Cordray to head up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.  Six other nominations to executive branch positions were also to get cloture votes, although there's a catch (there always is, no?):

In short, Republicans would confirm nominees to all seven positions, a big concession for the GOP. But in a concession for Democrats, they would replace two recess-appointed nominees to the National Labor Relations Board - Sharon Block and Richard Griffin, pictured below - with new nominees under the following condition: Republicans pledge to confirm any two replacements by President Obama to the board by Aug. 27.  

A victory, however small and transient, is a victory when dealing with the nihilist zombies running the Rethuglican party in Congress.  But we should point out that the agreement struck today doesn't address judicial nominations or voting on pieces of legislation.  It remains to be seen whether today's  "agreement" will last, or if it's a one-time concession.  But the fact that Reid used the threat of the "nuclear option" and it made the Rethugs blink, proved perhaps that it can work again (barring true filibuster reform).

Plus, any time that lying hypocrite Missy McConnell loses, it's a good day.

BONUS:  Joan McCarter reminds us that we do have Missy McConnell and his endless filibustering to thank for something:

... we wouldn't have Senator Elizabeth Warren if Republicans hadn't been so terrified of her and raised so much hell about opposing her as head of the new [Consumer Financial Protection] agency. If they had hadn't fought her so hard, she wouldn't be in the Senate. On the Banking Committee.

Thanks, Mitch McConnell!

(Image:  Sen. Missy McConnell having a sad, via DonkeyHotey)

I'm Not a Maverick, I'm a Wanker

If there's one word in his political life that Sen. John "Walnuts" McCain has associated himself with (accurately or not), it's "maverick." Well, seems like we were all imagining it.

The man is that desperate to hold on to his Senate seat. How sad for him.

(Image: "What!? I never called myself an honest person!")

Quotes of the Day

"I congratulate President Obama on receiving this prestigious award. I join my fellow Americans in expressing pride in our president on this occasion." -- Sen. John "Walnuts" McCain (R-AZ), offering the classy Republican alternative to the general frothings of Obama Derangement Syndrome sufferers over President Obama receiving the Nobel Peace Prize.

"Stick it up your ass!" -- Rep. Ike Skelton (D-MO) addressing Rethug homophobe Rep. Todd "Head" Akin (Rethug-MO) on the House floor, purportedly over opposition from Head Akin and other Rethugs to the inclusion of a provision, in a defense policy bill, to extend federal hate crimes law to include violence based on sexual orientation. With all the closeted gays in the Rethug caucus, they should have a pretty good idea what the "it" is that goes up the ass.

"The New Ted Kennedy?" WTF??

Grizzled Villager greybeard Wolf "Man" Blitzer of Conservative News Network is trying to anoint Walnuts! as "the new Ted Kennedy." Yes, Wolfie, Sen. Walnuts McSame, whose most long-lasting (?) political gift thus far has been Sarah "Winky You Betcha" Palin... a man not afraid to stand up to lies and extremism. Perfect choice!

As Steve Benen over at Washington Monthly says, "We knew Ted Kennedy. Ted Kennedy was a friend of ours. John McCain is no Ted Kennedy."

Keeping Cool on Iran

Arizona Sen. John McNasty, proponent of the thoughtful "Bomb Bomb Bomb, Bomb Bomb Iran" policy, apparently has issues with President Obama's careful statements about the turmoil in Iran following Mahmoud Ahmadiddledoo's likely theft of the election. McNasty thinks that Obama should raise the volume and insert himself in Iranian politics. McNasty's approach, of course, would be used by Ahmadiddledoo's thugs to claim that the opposition forces were merely lapdogs for America, and would provoke an even more brutal crackdown and rationale for supression of the opposition.

It's good to see that one Repub elder statesman disagrees: long-time foreign relations expert Indiana Sen. Dick Lugar said that he thought that the President had just the right tone. One more reason that we're lucky that we didn't end up electing an angry, hair-trigger bomber for President last November.

Pimp My Rides!

Al Giordano asks the pictorial question "How many cars does one need?" In St. John McMansion's case - TEN, not counting 3 electric vehicles that look a lot like pimped-up golf carts.

(Photo: what 60% of McMansion's fleet would look like.)

Accountability

The New York Times has news on the accountability front concerning St. John McBush's campaign manager, Rick "Chinless Wonder" Davis, and his complicity in the "deregulation" of the financial markets that has led to our current state of affairs -- all while the McBushies are desperately trying to spin tall tales to distract voters from the most obvious conclusions (h/t to TPM). Let's hope this and other evidence of McBush's history of "trusting the market" (i.e., looking the other way), not to mention relying on the lobbyists who contributed to the debacle, is pounded on from now until November 4.

"Financial Meltdown"

The news over the weekend and this morning about the financial meltdown going on on Wall Street is more than disconcerting. Lehman Brothers filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and Bank of America buying (bailing out) Merrill Lynch means big trouble for many who have invested in those firms and certainly for their employees (people with brokerage accounts are protected by something called the SIPC - comparable to the FDIC).

Meanwhile, St. John McMaverick is vowing to clean up Wall Street after he's elected. [Pause for uncontrollable laughter.] Really?! Where has Sen. McMaverick been for the last 26 years? Oh, right. In Congress and the Senate. We don't recall him pushing for reforms during that quarter century. This is the man who claims not to know much about the economy (he'll have to leave those questions to his expert on all things, Gov. Who?). Remember also McMaverick's role in the Keating Five scandal of the 1970's involving the savings and loan meltdown - yeah, he's got experience with meltdowns!

(In a bit of unfortunate timing, one of McMaverick's financial advisers, Donald Luskin, had a piece in the WaPo over the weekend. Message: economically, this could be the best of times! With advisers like that, how can McMaverick go wrong?!)

Not a small reason for the current state of affairs is the deregulation so religiously pursued by the Rethuglicans since St. Ronnie the Government is the Problem was in office. E-coli conservatives. Bridge collapse conservatives. Katrina conservatives. Now financial meltdown conservatives. Quite a series of accomplishments!

Critique of the Week

"[McCain] used the word 'change' at least 10 times in his bombastic speech...but since the Republicans have controlled the White House for the past eight years, what does McCain want to change from? And to?...It's like staging a revolution against yourself -- saying that the Republicans have got to go so the Republicans can move in and clean up the mess." Tom Shales, WaPo, September 5.

Words to Remember

As the Rethugs desperately and laughably try to brand McBush-Who? as the "change" ticket, here are some words from St. John "Sidekick" McBush on "Meet the Press" from just a few short years ago:

"The fact is that I have agreed with President Bush far more than I have disagreed. And on the transcendent issues, the most important issues of our day, I've been totally in agreement and support of President Bush... My support for President Bush has been active and very impassioned on issues that are important to the American people. And I'm particularly talking about the war on terror, the war in Iraq, national security, national defense, support of men and women in the military, fiscal discipline, a number of other issues. So I strongly disagree with any assertion that I've been more at odds with the president of the United States than I have been in agreement with him."-- "Meet the Press," June 2005, when Bush's approval rating was around 50% and Sidekick was positioning himself to run for the Rethug nomination.

Rethugs Muffle Far-Right Platform

As one might expect from a collection of frauds, hypocrites and liars, the Republican platform committee is feverishly tamping down the radical right provisions some in the party wanted included in the 2008 RNC platform. Cynics with an eye toward fooling, er, attracting moderate swing voters to St. John McMaverick succeeded in eliminating proposals that would have called for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and another that would have denied citizenship to U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants. The flat-earthers still prevailed in getting language removed that linked global warming to carbon emissions (nice work, geniuses!).

(Photo: some of the fine "planks" being squeezed out of the RNC platform committee; don't forget to flush!)