New York Times, By ADAM NAGOURNEY, Feb 18

DES MOINES, Feb. 17 — Senator John McCain arrived in Iowa on Saturday to begin testing one of the biggest questions so far of the presidential campaign: Can he win as an all-out supporter of the war in Iraq?

Almost from the moment he took the stage at his first event here since forming his presidential exploratory committee, Mr. McCain made clear that he was not backing down when it came to the war, and that in political terms, he might see an advantage in presenting himself to the first Republican voters in the nominating process as an unapologetic advocate for the war in Iraq.

He attacked Senate Democrats for what he called “a political stunt” in trying to join the House in passing a nonbinding resolution opposing President Bush’s plan to send more troops to Baghdad. He warned of catastrophic consequences if the United States abandoned its effort in Iraq.

He belittled the White House for falsely raising hopes by asserting early American successes in the war. And he spent nearly 60 minutes fielding questions and challenges from an audience of Republicans, many of them clearly with Mr. McCain on the issue but others anguished over the war.

“I know how tough it is for the American people, I know how frustrated Americans are, I understand your frustration,” Mr. McCain said. “I understand your frustration. But I also want to tell you that I believe if we fail, the consequences of failure are catastrophic.”

This thread has been tracking McCain since April 2006. A rich source of his bullshit. :)

McCain's an A**...... Part something or another

Feb 18, 8:23 PM (ET)

By JIM DAVENPORT

SPARTANBURG, S.C. (AP) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain, looking to improve his standing with the party's conservative voters, said Sunday the court decision that legalized abortion should be overturned.

"I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned," the Arizona senator told about 800 people in South Carolina, one of the early voting states.

McCain also vowed that if elected, he would appoint judges who "strictly interpret the Constitution of the United States and do not legislate from the bench."

(...)

( ... Link ... )

Anti-McCain vets ready salvo against Senator's presidential campaign

Michael Roston
Published: Friday March 9, 2007
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Two familiar faces will soon be dogging Senator John McCain on the campaign trail, as activist Vietnam Veterans Jerry Kiley and Ted Sampley resume a campaign they have conducted for years against the Arizona Republican and former prisoner of war.

Jerry Kiley filed papers last week to establish the nonpartisan group Vietnam Veterans Against John McCain. "When people truly get to know him, there's no possibility they'll consider him for president of the United States," says Kiley, who served in the Army and completed the Internal Revenue Service paperwork to establish the "527" group.

RAW STORY spoke last week with Kiley, as well as Ted Sampley, a North Carolina-based publisher who has been harshly criticizing McCain for more than 10 years. Sampley teamed up with Kiley in 2004 to found a similar group that targeted Senator John Kerry as he ran for president. They see McCain as an apologist for Vietnam's Communist government who sold out fellow POWs and servicemen missing in action from America's lengthy war in Southeast Asia.

"We know him best because we've dealt with him over the years, and we know how he's acted," Kiley said. "We're taking no salaries, we do this voluntarily, and every penny will go into defeating him."

Kiley is no stranger to political controversy. He was found not guilty in 2005 of intimidating a foreign official, when he threw a glass of wine at visiting Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai's chair during a dinner. In 2003, he was ejected from a women's college basketball game for confronting a player, Toni Smith of Manhattanville College, who refused to face the American flag during the Pledge of Allegiance.

Kiley will be raising money to pay for an informational website and to produce television and radio advertisements targeting McCain as he competes in the crowded field for the Republican nomination for president in 2008.

more

By Edwin Chen

April 11 (Bloomberg) -- Senator John McCain, staking his presidential campaign on the outcome in Iraq, urged U.S. political leaders to resist yielding to public sentiment against the war, saying a premature withdrawal would spell defeat for America and destabilize the Middle East.

McCain used the forum of the nation's oldest state military college to reinforce his support for putting more troops into the conflict and to criticize Democrats who oppose that strategy. He said he would hold to his stance even if it cost him his bid for the White House.

``For my part, I would rather lose a campaign than a war,'' the Arizona Republican told several hundred cadets at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia.

While he has been critical of President George W. Bush's strategy in Iraq, McCain is giving unstinting support to the president's decision earlier this year to send about 30,000 more soldiers and Marines to help quell sectarian violence. That has cost him backing among many of the independent voters who supported him during his unsuccessful 2000 bid for the Republican nomination, a contest won by Bush.

McCain, 70, who returned from his fifth trip to Iraq last week, said America is facing ``a choice as historically important as any we have faced in a long while.''

"Vanity, Vanity, all is Vanity."

The Arizona Republic, Mike Madden & Ryan Konig, April 15

Sen. John McCain has spent nearly two-thirds of the money he raised for his presidential campaign this year, leaving him with less than half the cash his major opponents have in the bank.

McCain, an Arizona Republican who raised less money than former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, also spent a bigger percentage of his campaign treasury than his rivals, according to federal reports filed electronically over the weekend.

From January through March, McCain raised about $13 million. But he spent $8.4 million, leaving him with just under $5.2 million at the end of the quarter. The campaign reported $1.8 million in debt, as well.

The figures underscore the difficult political position McCain is in as he struggles to restore some energy to his bid for the White House. Once the heavy favorite in the GOP field, McCain now trails Giuliani by double figures in some national polls. He also lags former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, who has not announced whether he will run.

In some state polls, however, McCain fares better.

Romney, who raised more money than any Republican presidential candidate, spent nearly half of it, leaving about $11.9 million in the bank at the end of March. He has loaned his campaign $2.3 million. Giuliani raised $16.6 million and spent $5.7 million. Some of Giuliani's money can be spent only if he wins the nomination, leaving him $10.8 million for the primary campaign.

"Vanity, Vanity, all is Vanity."

Chris Cillizza | Washington | July 10

The Fix - Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) presidential campaign took another serious blow Tuesday when two of his top strategists left the effort, prompting a series of rumors that McCain may be considering a withdrawal from the race.

Terry Nelson, McCain's campaign manager, and John Weaver, the senator's longtime chief political strategist, have stepped aside.

In N.H. poll, Obama inches ahead of Clinton

The Boston Globe, By Scott Helman, December 23

Senator John McCain of Arizona, whose bid for the Republican presidential nomination was all but dead this summer, has made a dramatic recovery in the Granite State 2 1/2 weeks before the 2008 vote, pulling within 3 percentage points of front-runner Mitt Romney, a new Boston Globe poll indicates.

McCain, the darling of New Hampshire voters in the 2000 primary, has the support of 25 percent of likely Republican voters, compared with 28 percent for Romney. Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani has slid into third place, with 14 percent. A Globe poll of New Hampshire voters last month had Romney at 32 percent, Giuliani at 20 percent, and McCain at 17 percent.

Among Democratic voters, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois has opened up a narrow lead over Senator Hillary Clinton of New York, 30 percent to 28 percent. That, too, represents a major shift from last month's Globe poll, which had Clinton with a 14-point advantage. Former senator John Edwards of North Carolina remained a steady third at 14 percent.

The Globe poll also found wide disparities in voter opinion on domestic issues, with Republicans and Democrats expressing starkly different views on the government's role in healthcare and on whether illegal immigration is a problem.

32 Lobbyists Aiding Industry's Longtime Foe

Washington Post, By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum & John Solomon, December 31

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) took a break from the presidential campaign trail in March to fly to a posh Utah ski resort, where he mingled with hundreds of top corporate executives assembled by J.P. Morgan Chase for its annual leadership conference.

McCain's appearance at the Deer Valley event, arranged by J.P. Morgan Vice Chairman James B. Lee Jr., a top McCain fundraiser, put him in a room with the chief executives of companies such as General Electric, Xerox and Sony. It was, Lee said, "a chance for him to let them see him for who he is and possibly decide to support him." The effort paid off: J.P. Morgan executives have donated $56,250 to McCain's campaign, two-thirds of which came after his Utah appearance. And his visit there was quickly followed up by dozens of smaller private meetings with corporate executives in New York City arranged by leading Wall Street figures.

"We tried to get him around to a lot of those kinds of things," said McCain campaign manager Rick Davis. "We were very much in the friend-making business."

It is common for politicians to court big money during a campaign. But private schmooze sessions such as the gathering in Utah pose a particular dilemma for McCain, who has spent a long career decrying "special interests" and politicians who offer special access to them in order to raise money. As a presidential candidate this year, McCain has found himself assiduously courting both lobbyists and their wealthy clients, offering them private audiences as part of his fundraising. He also counts more than 30 lobbyists among his chief fundraisers, more than any other presidential contender.

New York Times, By Michael Luo, January 9

MANCHESTER, N.H.— After Senator John McCain’s victory here on Tuesday, the Republican field is more scrambled than ever, with the battleground now shifting to a series of states where each of the leading candidates believes he holds certain advantages.

The next showdown will be on Jan. 15 in Michigan, a vast state struggling with a recession and the loss of manufacturing jobs. It is where Mr. Romney was born and reared, and many still fondly remember his late father, George, a three-term governor. Mr. Romney will be flying there Wednesday afternoon, with his aides saying the state has become his fire wall.

But Senator McCain of Arizona, who will be taking a charter flight to Michigan on Wednesday as well, is looking to potentially finish off Mr. Romney there. In 2000, Mr. McCain defeated George W. Bush in Michigan, largely on the strength of support from independents and Democrats who switched over to vote for him.

WaPo, By Jonathan Weisman &Paul Kane, January 8

John McCain had been left for dead seven months ago. In early July, the Arizona senator's campaign manager and chief political strategist resigned. His campaign was nearly broke. Most of his headquarters staff was laid off. Field offices, opened to ensure McCain could run nationally, were shuttered.

Tonight, McCain conquered the nation's first primary and catapulted himself back among the front-runners in the jumbled GOP race for the White House.

"In essence, we had to start the campaign over," said former senator Phil Gramm (R-Tex.), the man McCain asked midyear to play the fiscal Grim Reaper by reviewing the books and deciding how many aides had to be fired.

Even after his New Hampshire triumph, McCain has by no means a clear path to the nomination. McCain supporters laud the candidate for going back to the stripped-down, emotional approach that made him a darling in 2000, but as aides note, he lost to George W. Bush that year. "There's still a need for a larger, overarching strategy to win the nomination," a former McCain aide said.

Schwarzkopf endorses McCain

Posted by Foon Rhee, deputy national political editor January 23, 2008 09:55 AM

John McCain, who in ads and speeches argues that he has been right about this Iraq war, now has the support of the top commander in the first Persian Gulf War.

Retired Army General H. Norman Schwarzkopf endorsed McCain this morning, saying in a statement: "Senator John McCain has served our country with honor in war and in peace. He has demonstrated the type of courageous leadership our country sorely needs at this time. For that reason, he has my complete support."

Speaking in Polk City, Florida, U.S. Senator and 2008 presidential candidate John McCain (R-AZ) pledges expansion of access to health care for soldiers injured physically and psychologically not only in the current war, but in wars he says are sure to follow. Watch video

Johann Hari: Don't be fooled by the myth of John McCain

The Independent
Thursday, 24 January 2008

A lazy, hazy myth has arisen out of the mists of New Hampshire and South Carolina. Across the pan-Atlantic press, the grizzled 71-year-old Vietnam vet, John McCain, is being billed as the Republican liberals can live with. He is "a bipartisan progressive"", "a principled hard liberal", "a decent man" – in the words of liberal newspapers. His fragile new frontrunner status as we go into Super Tuesday is being seen as something to cautiously welcome, a kick to the rotten Republican establishment.

But the truth is that McCain is the candidate we should most fear. Not only is he to the right of Bush on a whole range of subjects, he is also the Republican candidate most likely to dispense with Hillary or Barack.

McCain is third-generation navy royalty, raised from a young age to be a senior figure in the Armed Forces, like his father and grandfather before him. He was sent to one of the most elite boarding schools in America, then to a naval academy where he ranked 894th out of 899 students in ability. He used nepotism to get ahead: when he was rejected by the National War College, he used his father's contacts with the Secretary of the Navy to make them reconsider. He then swiftly married the heiress to a multi-million dollar fortune.

Right up to his twenties, he remained a strikingly violent man, "ready to fight at the drop of a hat", according to his biographer Robert Timberg. This rage seems to be at the core of his personality: describing his own childhood, McCain has written: "At the smallest provocation I would go off into a mad frenzy, and then suddenly crash to the floor unconscious. When I got angry I held my breath until I blacked out."

But he claims he was transformed by his experiences in Vietnam – a war he still defends as "noble" and "winnable", if only it had been fought harder. (More than three million Vietnamese died; how much harder could it be?) His plane was shot down on a bombing raid over Hanoi, and he was captured and tortured for five years. To this day, he cannot lift his arms high enough to comb his own hair.

On his release, he used his wife's fortune to run to as a Republican senator. He was a standard-issue Reaganite corporate Republican – until the Keating Five corruption scandal consumed him. In 1987, it was revealed that McCain, along with four other senators, had taken huge campaign donations from a fraudster called Charles Keating. In return they pressured government regulators not to look too hard into Keating's affairs, allowing him to commit even more fraud. McCain later admitted: "I did it for no other reason than I valued [Keating's] support."

McCain took the only course that could possibly preserve his reputation: he turned the scandal into a debate about the political system, rather than his own personal corruption. He said it showed how "we need to drive the special interests out of Washington", and became a high-profile campaigner for campaign finance reform. But privately, his behaviour hasn't changed much. For example, in 2000 he lobbied federal regulators hard on behalf of a major campaign contributor, Paxson Communications, in an act the regulators spluttered was "highly unusual". He has never won an election without outspending his opponent.

But McCain has distinguished himself most as an über-hawk on foreign policy. To give a brief smorgasbord of his views: at a recent rally, he sang "Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran," to the tune of the Beach Boys' "Barbara Ann". He says North Korea should be threatened with "extinction".

McCain has mostly opposed using US power for humanitarian goals, jeering at proposals to intervene in Rwanda or Bosnia – but he is very keen to use it for great power imperialism. He learnt this philosophy from his father and his granddad Slew, who fought in the Philippine wars at the turn of the 20th century, where he was part of a mission to crush the local resistance to the US invasion. They did it by forcing the entire population from their homes at gunpoint into "protection zones", and gunning down anybody over the age of ten who was found outside them. Today, McCain dreamily describes this as "an exotic adventure" which his grandfather "generally enjoyed".

Then McCain's father, John, led the US invasion of the Dominican Republic in 1965, at a time when there was a conflict on the Caribbean island. On one side, there were forces loyal to Juan Bosch, the democratically elected left-wing President who was committed to land redistribution and helping the poor. On the other side, there were forces who had overthrown the elected government and looked nostalgically to the playboy tyranny of Rafael Trujillo. John McCain Snr intervened to ensure the supporters of the democratic government were crushed, bragging that it taught the natives "how to behave themselves". He saw this as part of a wider mission, where the US would take over Britain's role as a "world empire".

These beliefs drive McCain today. He brags he would be happy for US troops to remain in Iraq for 100 years, and declares: "I'm not at all embarrassed of my friendship with Henry Kissinger; I'm proud of it." His most thorough biographer – and recent supporter – Matt Welch concludes: "McCain's programme for fighting foreign wars would be the most openly militaristic and interventionist platform in the White House since Teddy Roosevelt... [it] is considerably more hawkish than anything George Bush has ever practised." With him as president, we could expect much more aggressive destabilisation of Venezuela and Bolivia – and more.

So why do so many nice liberals have a weak spot for McCain? Well, to his credit, he doesn't hate immigrants: he proposed a programme to legalise the 12 million undocumented workers in the US. He sincerely opposes torture, as a survivor of it himself. He has apologised for denying global warming and now advocates a cap on greenhouse gas emissions – but only if China and India can also be locked into the system. He is somewhat uncomfortable with the religious right (while supporting a ban on abortion and gay marriage). It is a sign of how far to the right the Republican Party has drifted that these are considered signs of liberalism, rather than basic humanity.

Yet these sprinklings of sanity – onto a very extreme programme – are enough for a superficial, glib press to present McCain as "bipartisan" and "centrist". Will this be enough to put white hair into the White House? At the moment, he has considerably higher positive ratings than Hillary Clinton, and beats her in some match-up polls. If we don't start warning that the Real McCain is not the Real McCoy, we might sleepwalk into four more years of Republicanism.

Winner take all; 57 delegates. Guiliani's concession speech is nearly all in the past tense.

Los Angeles Times, February 3, 2008

At a different moment in American history, we would hesitate to support a candidate for president whose social views so substantially departed from those we hold. But in this election, nothing less than America's standing in the world turns on the outcome. Given that, our choice for the Republican nominee in 2008 is sure and heartfelt. It is John McCain.

McCain opposes abortion and rejects the right of gays and lesbians to marry -- two positions we reject. He supports the war in Iraq, whereas we see this nation's interests better served by a prompt and orderly withdrawal of U.S. forces. But the Arizona senator's conservatism is, if not always to our liking, at least genuine. It reflects his fundamental individualism, spanning his distrust of big government, his support for immigration reform and his insistence on a sound American foreign policy.

Indeed, McCain's suitability for the presidency at this moment begins with how he would conduct the nation's foreign affairs. As noted, we do not support his determination to fight on in Iraq, but we welcome his insistence that America's military posture be matched by its moral purpose. Alone among the Republican candidates, he would close the detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which has become an international symbol of U.S. arrogance. He has waged a principled and persistent effort to end the Bush administration's embrace of torture as a weapon of war, a frightening concession to terrorism and an abdication of basic American values. He alone among the Republican candidates has condemned torture in all its forms; he alone among all the candidates in this race has endured it.

Those are positions that should impress voters across the political spectrum; indeed, part of the argument for McCain's candidacy, as for Barack Obama's on the Democratic ballot, is its appeal across the center. That won't help McCain next week, at least in California, where the Republican Party does not permit independents to vote in its primary. But there are other, more specifically Republican, reasons why GOP voters should support him.

McClatchy Newspapers, By Warren P. Strobel, February 8

WASHINGTON — One thing is clear about John McCain's foreign policy views: Much like his political heroes Ronald Reagan and Theodore Roosevelt, he believes that America's power is a force to make the world better.

How McCain would wield that power as president is less clear, however.

The Arizona senator, now the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, is a leading supporter of President Bush's troop "surge" in Iraq — a stance that some observers credit with reviving his political fortunes as security in Iraq has improved, at least temporarily.

Less well known are McCain's promises, if elected, to expand the Army and the Marine Corps to 900,000 soldiers and Marines from a planned strength of about 750,000; to form a U.S.-led League of Democracies to act when the United Nations can't or won't; and to form a new government unit, patterned after the World War II-era Office of Strategic Services, "to fight terrorist subversion" and "take risks that our bureaucracies today rarely consider taking."

McCain's foreign-policy advisers are a mix of traditional Republican "realists," who favor a pragmatic approach to the world, and "neoconservatives," who lobbied for the Iraq invasion, advocate tougher action to squelch Iran's and North Korea's nuclear weapons ambitions and favor using U.S. power to transform the Muslim world.

-- That's just fabulous - more "loose cannon" Uncle Sam - not to mention another CIA! - Raja

Boston Herald, By Casey Ross, February 14

Former Bay State Gov. Mitt Romney today is expected to put his endorsement and 280 pledged delegates behind John McCain’s presidential bid, a move that would bring the Ariz. Senator to the brink of locking up the Republican nomination.

If Romney’s delegates support McCain, that would bring the senator to a total count of 1,099 pledged delegates – 92 short of the 1,192 delegates needed to secure the GOP nomination. The move would further put pressure on former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to drop out of the race.

Romney, who waged a bitter fight against McCain, is expected to make the endorsement during a 3:30 p.m. press conference this afternoon at his campaign headquarters in Boston’s North End, according to a campaign official.

McCain is campaigning in Rhode Island today and is expected to join Romney for the announcement, which will be heavily geared toward healing divisions in the Republican Party as the general election campaign draws near.

AP, February 18

HOUSTON - Former President George H.W. Bush endorsed John McCain on Monday, a nod of approval from the Republican political dynasty's patriarch that sends a strong signal to a GOP establishment wary of the Arizona senator.

"No one is better prepared to lead our nation at these trying times than Sen. John McCain," Bush said, standing alongside the Republican nominee-in-waiting in an airport hanger. "His character was forged in the crucible of war. His commitment to America is beyond any doubt. But most importantly, he has the right character and values to guide our nation."

McCain, in turn, said he was deeply honored by Bush's support. "I think that our effort to continue to unite the party will be enhanced dramatically by President Bush's words," he said.

Since effectively sealing the nomination when chief rival Mitt Romney dropped out, McCain has been working to convince the fickle and influential conservative base of the Republican Party to get behind his candidacy. He's seen some progress with, several high profile Republicans from the party's establishment endorsing McCain in an effort to unite the party while Democrats continue to fight for a nominee.

Ralph Nader loves John McCain

In 2004, Nader asked McCain to help his campaign -- and the senator rushed to his side. Is the consumer advocate now returning the favor?

By Joe Conason

Feb. 29, 2008 | Irritated Democrats -- and everyone else who feels that we have heard more than enough from Ralph Nader -- cannot help wondering why he would be running for president yet again, at the risk of becoming a permanent national joke. Is he stroking his own ego, as some critics complain? Is he motivated by principle to offer voters a different choice, as he will insist? Both those explanations may still be plausible, although between 2000 and 2004 his support fell from 3 percent to 0.3 percent, which is not exactly an ego boost nor an endorsement of third-party politics. Even in 2000, when he made his strongest (and most disastrous) showing, he fell far short of his own 5 percent target.

But the evidence suggests another possible motive for Nader to run this year -- namely, that he hopes to help his longtime ally John McCain, to whom he owes at least one big favor. Nader is already focusing his fire on the Democrats, with his Web site featuring dozens of press releases attacking Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, while none voice the slightest criticism of McCain. In his latest round of television appearances, Nader trained his fire directly on Obama.

Nader's proclivity to boost Republicans and blast Democrats has been a matter of historical record ever since the Florida debacle eight years ago, when his 97,000 votes probably deprived Al Gore of victory in that crucial state. Although the consumer advocate and his supporters continue to deny any such culpability, Republicans clearly feel that his presence on the ballot works to their advantage. As Mike Huckabee noted on hearing of Nader's impending announcement last week, a Nader candidacy tends to siphon votes away from the Democratic presidential nominee. "So naturally," said Huckabee bluntly, "Republicans would welcome his entry into the race."

Actually, Republicans have learned to do more than merely "welcome" Nader. Four years ago, Republican officials and activists in certain swing states helped gather signatures to gain ballot access for Nader, while several major Republican donors sent generous checks to his campaign. And no Republican spoke out more forthrightly on his behalf than McCain, who in 2004 urged the authorities in Florida to put Nader on the ballot there despite his failure to qualify -- and who sent his own lawyer down to the Sunshine State to fight for Nader in court.

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there is an ad to watch to read`SALON

Concerns on taxes, drinking age raised

Boston Globe, By Michael Kranish, March 9

PHOENIX - The Anheuser-Busch distribution plant stretches for acres, capped by a giant Budweiser sign gleaming in the desert sun. It is here that much of the fortune of Senator John McCain's family is made. His wife, Cindy, is chairwoman of the board. His son from his first marriage, Andrew, is chief financial officer. McCain himself once served as the company's chief publicist.

McCain, acknowledging the appearance of a conflict of interest, has recused himself from voting in Congress on alcohol-related matters ranging from the drinking age to the beer tax.

But if McCain were to become president, he would be obliged to either sign or veto bills related to the alcohol industry. And while some public-interest groups have applauded McCain for trying to avoid a conflict in Congress, some industry watchdogs are concerned that if McCain is elected president, he may have to pass judgment on a new series of alcohol-related measures.

[...]

"It would not be helpful to have a president from Anheuser-Busch," said George Hacker, director of the alcohol policies project at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nonprofit advocacy group. Hacker said he fears federal regulators might become aware of McCain's industry ties and therefore go easy on beer distributors.

San Francisco Chronicle, By Bob Egelko, March 9

SAN FRANCISCO -- When President Bush vetoed legislation today that would have prohibited the CIA from using physical force in interrogations, he had the support of Sen. John McCain - the most outspoken of any presidential candidate in his opposition to torture.

The Arizona Republican has described his own torture by the North Vietnamese who captured him in 1967 after his plane was shot down on a bombing run. He spoke out against the near-drowning technique called waterboarding when it was being defended by other Republican candidates and by Vice President Dick Cheney.

And McCain won the signature of a reluctant Bush on 2005 legislation that prohibited military interrogators from using waterboarding and other "cruel, inhumane or degrading" methods.

Today, however, McCain backed Bush's veto of a bill that would have barred the CIA from employing those same techniques - or any others not authorized by the Army Field Manual - when questioning prisoners.

[...]

Campaign aides said today that McCain believes waterboarding violates both U.S. and international law and is forbidden to all federal agencies. Randy Scheunemann, foreign policy director for McCain's campaign, denied any inconsistency between the senator's record and his position on the bill.

"It's not about waterboarding and it's not about torture," Scheunemann said.

He said McCain opposed the bill for the same reason he exempted the CIA from his 2005 legislation: his belief that the agency should not be limited to methods spelled out in a public Army manual.

Not John McCain, say some military leaders: "I think his knee-jerk response factor is a little scary."

Mark Benjamin | Washington | March 6

Salon - In interviews with Salon this week, several experienced military officers said McCain draws mixed reviews among military leaders, and they expressed serious doubts about whether McCain has the right temperament to be the next president and commander in chief. Some expressed more confidence in Obama, citing his temperament as an asset.

It is not difficult in Washington to find high-level military officials who have had close encounters with John McCain's temper, and who find it worrisome. Politicians sometimes scream for effect, but the concern is that McCain has, at times, come across as out of control. It is difficult to find current or former officers willing to describe those encounters in detail on the record. That's because, by and large, those officers admire McCain. But that doesn't mean they want his finger on the proverbial button, and they are supporting Clinton or Obama instead.

I like McCain. I respect McCain. But I am a little worried by his knee-jerk response factor," said retired Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, who was in charge of training the Iraqi military from 2003 to 2004 and is now campaigning for Clinton. "I think it is a little scary. I think this guy's first reactions are not necessarily the best reactions. I believe that he acts on impulse."

more at the link

Ali Eteraz

“Allah was a demon spirit”
Posted in Uncategorized by eteraz on March 12th, 2008

Said McCain’s spiritual advisor.

David Corn of Mother Jones takes a look at this spiritual adviser, excerpting from Parsley’s 2005 book, Silent No More:
.
“In fact, I will tell you this: I do not believe our country can truly fulfill its divine purpose until we understand our historical conflict with Islam. I know that this statement sounds extreme, but I do not shrink from its implications. The fact is that America was founded, in part, with the intention of seeing this false religion destroyed, and I believe September 11, 2001, was a generational call to arms that we can no longer ignore.”
.
Parsley has also called Allah a “demon spirit” and said that explorer Christopher Columbus’s dream was to “defeat Islam.”

Did you get that? America was founded to destroy Islam, and not, you know, to kick out the King of England. It wasn’t Taxation Without Representation, it was Taxation Without Islamization. They didn’t have a Boston Tea Party. They had a Boston Roasted Lamb.

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Glenn Greenwald | March 13

Salon - The Politico today published one of the most blatantly one-sided, journalistically flawed "news" articles on the Iraq War in quite some time and promoted it as its featured story, filled with dramatic proclamations certain to attract (by design) significant attention. The central theme is one which the political establishment is most desperate to believe -- that Americans are now supporting the Iraq War again and this will drastically re-shape the presidential race in favor of the pro-war McCain. Here is the first paragraph:

American public support for the military effort in Iraq has reached a high point unseen since the summer of 2006, a development that promises to reshape the political landscape.

It repeats this pro-GOP assertion over and over. "The repercussions will be most acutely felt in the presidential contest." And: "Democrats' resolute support for the withdrawal of U.S. combat forces may soon position them at odds with independent voters, in particular, a constituency they need to retake the White House." And: "The uptick in public support is a promising sign for Republican candidates who have been bludgeoned over the Bush administration's war policies. But no candidate stands to gain more than McCain."

The whole article cites only one on-the-record source: the media's favorite all-purpose war cheerleader Michael O'Hanlon, who warns -- yet again -- that the public will soon come to see McCain's pro-war views as the "correct narrative." O'Hanlon: "How could Democrats possibly hand McCain a better issue than to let him run on his record of advocating a robust U.S. presence in Iraq with all the positive battlefield news that is filtering out of that country?" So according to the Politico/O'Hanlon, Iraq isn't just a good issue for the Republicans; it's the best issue Democrats could possibly hand them.

With very bad timing for The Politico, a new USA Today/Gallup poll was released today and here are the results for the key question:

Which would be better for the United States?

- Keep a significant number of troops in Iraq until the situation there gets better: 35%

- Set a timetable for removing troops and stick to it regardless of what is going on in Iraq: 60%

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Think Progress, March 14

In a rare Senate appearance yesterday, McCain failed to attract support for a halt to pork-barrel spending, losing on a 71-29 vote. An angry McCain told voters today that he was only “doing the Lord’s work” but unfortunately was doing it “in the city of Satan”:

Later in Springfield, Penn., McCain told voters: “We were voting on major issues of profound consequences with no discussion, no debate and 10 minutes to vote.

“Anyone who had the misfortune of watching it will know how hard it is to do the Lord’s work in the city of Satan,” said McCain, who has served four-terms in the Senate.

McCain has been part of the “city of Satan” for over 20 years.

AP, March 16

BAGHDAD -- Sen. John McCain, the likely Republican presidential nominee who has linked his political future to U.S. success in Iraq, was in Baghdad on Sunday for meetings with Iraqi and U.S. diplomatic and military officials, a U.S. government official said.

Details of McCain's visit, which had been anticipated, were not being released for security reasons, the U.S. Embassy said. It was unclear who he met with; no media opportunities or news conferences were planned.

McCain, a strong supporter of the U.S. military mission in Iraq, is believed to be staying in the country for about 24 hours.

''Senator McCain is in Iraq and will be meeting with Iraqi and U.S. officials,'' said Mirembe Nantongo, spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

===

See Also: McCain in Iraq

WaPo

March 17, 2008
Iraqis See a Candidate’s Agenda in McCain’s Visit
By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr. and MICHAEL LUO

BAGHDAD — Senator John McCain arrived in Iraq on Sunday morning on a trip that was described as a visit by an official Congressional delegation, but that also served to showcase his foreign policy credentials as he campaigns for the White House.

Mr. McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, was scheduled to meet with officials including the American ambassador to Iraq, Ryan C. Crocker, and the senior American military commander in the country, Gen. David H. Petraeus. He was also scheduled to meet with the Iraqi prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, said Yaseen Majid, a media adviser to Mr. Maliki.

Many Iraqi politicians are closely monitoring the American presidential race, and some said the visit bolstered their belief that if Mr. McCain, of Arizona, succeeded President Bush in the November election, the American military would have a large presence in Iraq for a very long time.

“This visit confirms that the Republicans believe that the Iraqi war is very important in the fight against terrorism in the Middle East,” said Wael Abdul Latif, an independent Shiite member of the Iraqi Parliament. “It’s a message to Iran that the United States will never leave, even after Bush is gone.”

Jalaladeen Sagheer, a senior member of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, a leading Shiite party, described the visit as “an advertisement for the American elections” and said it showed Mr. McCain’s commitment to staying in Iraq, a policy Mr. Sagheer said he favored. “It suggests that American officials will make good on their promises,” he said.

Some Sunni Arabs were not pleased by the visit. “If the Republicans win the election, then nothing will really change in Iraq, and we need a big change to kick the occupiers out of the country,” said Abu Mohammed, a 30-year-old barbershop owner in Samarra, north of Baghdad. “I would like to show him the schools and hospitals and how the children and women suffer.”

Another Samarra shop owner, 52-year-old Hamid Saleh, said he wanted the Republicans to lose the election. “All I want is someone who works to fix my country, and not destroy it,” he said.

American officials in Iraq said Mr. McCain’s precise schedule was not being released for security reasons. He was joined on the trip by two close political allies, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, and Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina.

The three senators are also visiting Israel, London and Paris. Mr. McCain has said the trip is not primarily political. He told reporters last Friday: “I do want to emphasize again that the three of us are going as members of the Armed Services Committee.”

On Thursday, however, Mr. McCain will attend a $1,000-a-plate fund-raising lunch at a home in London. His campaign has said Congress will be reimbursed for the political parts of the trip, including the fund-raiser.

more

lmc.jpg In a Friday interview with the Stamford Advocate, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) — one of Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) foreign policy advisers — said he would attend the Republican National Convention this summer:

Friday, Lieberman said he will attend the Republican National Convention this summer, “if Senator McCain thinks it will be helpful to be there in some capacity.” […]

“I am not going to attend the Democratic Convention for obvious reasons,” Lieberman said.

Lieberman, whose Democratic superdelegate status was stripped earlier this year, also added that he’d likely support Rep. Chris Shays (R-CT) against his Democratic challenger. “I am going to wait and see, but let me just say Chris Shays is a great congressman,” Lieberman said.

links at Think Progress

M. Duss | March 17

The Wonk Room - John McCain’s foreign policy offers a future of numerous U.S. military interventions in the name of “promoting American values.” He has assembled a team of foreign policy advisers who believe strongly, as he does, that American security requires the robust and relentless exercise of American military power. Here’s a look at those key advisers:

Just go read it. And then explain, again, how you'll be voting for McCain should Your Candidate not win the Democratic nomination.

_{Turn back to the Constitution - and READ it.}

PressTV (MD\AA), March 31

Democrat-turned-independent Senator Joe Lieberman says Republican John McCain is the only candidate close to 'the Kennedy legacy'.

"I'm a Democrat who came to the party in the era of President John F. Kennedy," Lieberman noted Sunday during an appearance on ABC's This Week.

"It's a strange turn of the road when I find among the candidates running this year that the one, in my opinion, closest to the Kennedy legacy, the John F. Kennedy legacy, is John S. McCain," explained the Connecticut senator, who was Al Gore's running mate in 2000.

Senator Lieberman added that although his views have remained consistent over the years, the Democratic Party no longer conforms to the high ideals he was once proud of.

Lieberman, who endorsed Republican John McCain in early February, believes the 71-year-old Arizona senator is the only candidate who 'will bear any burden, pay any price to assure the survival and sustenance of liberty'.

By endorsing McCain, Lieberman is seen as the first Jewish politician to hold a strong position on a US administration.

The metamorphosis is almost complete! - Raja

===

CNN's Political Ticker also has the story.

McCain gets ousted from board for lack of straight talk

Sen. John McCain, a long-time board member of Project Vote Smart, was kicked off yesterday for failing to provide information about where he stands on key issues.

Project Vote Smart, which aims to try to get past the sound bites to find out where candidates stand on issues, administers the Political Courage Test to pin folks down on exactly where they stand.

McCain, who's been a member of the organization's board for years, had always been good about filling out the survey — until this year, when his presidential campaign has failed to respond to repeated overtures over nearly a year.

Richard Kimball, the president of PVS who considers himself a friend of McCain's, and, incidentally, was the man who McCain defeated in his first run for the U.S. Senate in 1986, said the board voted weeks ago to give McCain one last chance to respond and, if he didn't, he would automatically be kicked off.

That deadline passed yesterday, with no response from McCain.

Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama have also refused to submit their responses, but Kimball told us today it was a bit "embarrassing" for PVS that McCain, one of their own board members, refused.

As Mother Jones reports, board members have been ousted before for their lack of political courage, including Sen. Bill Bradley, who served on the board until refusing to submit to the test during his 2000 presidential bid.

The four-page test this year for presidential candidates asks about guns, health care, immigration, national security, education, abortion and many others. Here's the question on "social issues":

— Stephen Dinan, political and national reporter, The Washington Times

New York Times, By Michael Cooper, April 11

Senator John McCain, who drew criticism last month after he warned against broad government intervention to solve the deepening mortgage crisis, pivoted Thursday and called for the federal government to aid some homeowners in danger of losing their homes, by helping them to refinance and get federally guaranteed 30-year mortgages.

“There is nothing more important than keeping alive the American dream to own your home, and priority No. 1 is to keep well-meaning, deserving homeowners who are facing foreclosure in their homes,” Mr. McCain said in a speech on economic themes that he gave at a window company in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn.

Mr. McCain, an Arizona Republican, had been painted as uncaring by Democrats, and drew murmurs of concern from some Republicans, after a speech in California last month in which he cautioned that “it is not the duty of government to bail out and reward those who act irresponsibly, whether they are big banks or small borrowers,” and noted that the crisis had been brought on by both lenders and borrowers.

Since then, he has gone out of his way to try to signal that he understands that times are tough and that people are hurting. His speech in Brooklyn — which is to be followed by what aides are billing as a major economic address next week — was a shift in tone, and part of a new effort to communicate that as president he would act to help Americans in financial distress.

“Let me make it clear,” Mr. McCain said, “that in these challenging times, I am committed to using all the resources of this government and great nation to create opportunity and make sure that every deserving American has a good job and can achieve their American dream.”

In an examination of the “list of 106 elite fund-raisers who have brought in more than $100,000 each” for McCain’s campaign, the New York Times “found that about a sixth of them were lobbyists.” “The sizable number of lobbyists” raising money for McCain “are outnumbered on the list only by those working in the financial services industry.”

"...cunning, baffling, powerful."

McClatchy Newspapers, By Matt Stearns, April 25

GEE'S BEND, AL — For John McCain, it was either the perfect political photo op that reflected an image he's worked years to polish or a moment of striking, and potentially damaging, political dissonance.

It was a breezy, sunny day this week in lush southwest Alabama. McCain was surrounded by friendly African-American ladies serenading him with spirituals as they rode a ferry across the muddy Alabama River.

McCain, sporting his Navy cap and sunglasses, even scampered to the bridge to take a turn at the wheel, news cameras clicking away to record his moment as helmsman.

Perfect image — the maverick Republican wooing a voter group that few in his party bother to court.

Except that McCain, the longtime scourge of congressional "earmark" spending who's promised to veto every bill with earmarks if he's elected president, was aboard a ferry that's financed by a $2 million earmark in a 2005 spending bill.

By Daoud at Seeds of Doubt

"...cunning, baffling, powerful."

McClatchy Newspapers, By Matt Stearns and Warren P. Strobel, May 1

WASHINGTON — John McCain dropped a little-noticed bombshell into his March foreign-policy address: Boot Russia from the G-8, the elite club of leading industrial democracies whose leaders try to coordinate economic policies.

One major problem: He can't do it because the other G-8 nations won't let him.

But the fact that he's proposing to try, risking a return to Cold War tensions with the world's second-largest nuclear power after 20 years of prickly partnership, raises questions about McCain's judgment. It also underscores that many of his top foreign-policy advisers are of the same neo-conservative school that promoted the war in Iraq, argue for a tougher stance toward Iran and are skeptical of negotiating with North Korea over its nuclear program.

The Group of Eight, or G-8, as it's popularly known, makes decisions by consensus, so no single nation can kick out another. Most experts say the six other countries — Great Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Japan and Canada — would never agree to toss Russia, given their close economic ties to their neighbor. A senior U.S. official who deals with Russia policy said that even Moscow would have to approve of its own ouster, given how the G-8 works.

"It's not even a theoretical discussion. It's an impossible discussion," said the senior official, who requested anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly. "It's just a dumb thing."

Raps Obama for rejecting Roberts

AP, May 7

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Republican John McCain yesterday criticized Democratic rival Barack Obama for voting against John Roberts as US Supreme Court chief justice, reaching out to the Christian right on one of its chief concerns: the proper role of judges in government.

"My nominees will understand that there are clear limits to the scope of judicial power, and clear limits to the scope of federal power," McCain said in a speech at Wake Forest University.

McCain, the presumptive GOP nominee, promised to appoint judges in the mold of Roberts and Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, saying they would interpret the law strictly to curb the scope of their rulings. While McCain didn't mention abortion, Christian conservatives understand that such nominees would be likely to limit or perhaps overturn the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion.

Obama voted against Roberts and Alito. Hillary Clinton did as well, but McCain focused on Obama.

[...]

Clinton campaign policy director Neera Tanden said in a statement: "We won't take lectures on the right way to approach the Constitution from Senator McCain, who voted for extreme conservative judges like Justice [Clarence] Thomas. In an effort to pander to conservative voters, Senator McCain has signaled his intention to appoint right-wing judges who are committed to rolling back women's rights and civil rights, elevating the interests of big business over the rights of workers and consumers, affirming executive branch power grabs, and undermining our common core freedoms."

Hillarious.

Washington Post, By Matthew Mosk, May 9

PRESCOTT, Ariz. -- Sen. John McCain championed legislation that will let an Arizona rancher trade remote grassland and ponderosa pine forest here for acres of valuable federally owned property that is ready for development, a land swap that now stands to directly benefit one of his top presidential campaign fundraisers.

Initially reluctant to support the swap, the Arizona Republican became a key figure in pushing the deal through Congress after the rancher and his partners hired lobbyists that included McCain's 1992 Senate campaign manager, two of his former Senate staff members (one of whom has returned as his chief of staff), and an Arizona insider who was a major McCain donor and is now bundling campaign checks.

When McCain's legislation passed in November 2005, the ranch owner gave the job of building as many as 12,000 homes to SunCor Development, a firm in Tempe, Ariz., run by Steven A. Betts, a longtime McCain supporter who has raised more than $100,000 for the presumptive Republican nominee. Betts said he and McCain never discussed the deal.

The Audubon Society described the exchange as the largest in Arizona history. The swap involved more than 55,000 acres of land in all, including rare expanses of desert woodland and pronghorn antelope habitat. The deal had support from many local officials and the Arizona Republic newspaper for its expansion of the Prescott National Forest. But it brought an outcry from some Arizona environmentalists when it was proposed in 2002, partly because it went through Congress rather than a process that allowed more citizen input.

New York Times, By Michael Cooper, May 11

The public relations executive whom Senator John McCain’s campaign had chosen to run the Republican National Convention this summer resigned his post on Saturday after a magazine reported that his firm had lobbied for the military junta that runs Myanmar.

The executive, Doug Goodyear, said in a statement that he was stepping down as the coordinator of the convention, which will be held Sept. 1-4 in Minneapolis-St. Paul, “so as not to become a distraction in this campaign.”

“I continue to strongly support John McCain for president and wish him the best of luck in this campaign,” the two-sentence statement concluded.

Mr. Goodyear is the chief executive and a founding partner of the DCI Group, which has offices in Washington and Phoenix. He offered his resignation after Newsweek reported that his firm had been paid $348,000 in 2002 to represent the junta.