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(snip) "I reminded them that Kuwait and Saudi Arabia reimbursed us after Operation Desert Storm," McCain says. "They said they'd be glad to discuss that.(snip) "They're very good people," he says. "Mainly well-educated, a number of women in the [Transitional National Council] -- very normal, dedicated people." (snip) McCain dismissed concerns that rebel forces include some veterans of al Qaeda. "I'm sure that there may be some element there, but I guarantee you that they didn't rise up because they wanted to be al Qaeda fighters," McCain says. "They rose up because they wanted to throw off the yoke of...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sen. John McCain, one of the strongest proponents in Congress of the U.S. military intervention in Libya, is heading to the rebel stronghold of Benghazi for a meeting with forces fighting to overthrow Moammar Gadhafi, an aide told The Associated Press. McCain was scheduled to arrive in Benghazi on Friday, said Brooke Buchanan, a spokeswoman for the senator.

Washington - Sen. John McCain, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, calls Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton an “international star” but sharply criticizes the Obama administration’s policy on Libya. At a Monitor-sponsored breakfast for reporters on Wednesday, Senator McCain, the 2008 Republican candidate for president, was asked to rate President Obama’s national security team. “I think the international star is Secretary Clinton,” McCain said. “She has done a really tremendous job.”

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...

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...

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., reiterated his call for a U.S.-backed no-fly zone over Libya this morning and called Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi "insane."

Senators Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and John McCain, R-Ariz., both expressed disappointment Sunday that President Obama has not responded more forcefully against the violence spreading in Libya and called for the arming of rebel forces in that country. (snip) Lieberman stopped short of calling for direct American military involvement, but McCain did not rule it out. "I think there possibly could be," the Arizona Republican said of using military force, though he hastily added that Libyan pilots are sure to obey a no-fly zone.

The politician who once best exemplified the idea of a "maverick" independent has shifted so far to the right that he is now tied for the title of the Senate's most conservative member, according to National Journal's 2010 vote ratings. According to a comprehensive examination of 96 Senate votes taken in 2010, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., along with seven of his colleagues, voted most often on the conservative side. His 89.7 composite conservative score ties him with stalwarts like Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., and gives him a more conservative score than Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Jeff Sessions, R-Ala. (snip)...

Meghan McCain, daughter of U.S. Senator John McCain spoke at Indiana State University tonight. McCain shared her experience on the campaign trail with her father as well as where she sees the country going politically. One big goal of hers is to redefine republicanism."I have two theories. The first is in the next election Republicans will nominate a very extreme conservative. If that happens I think that the idea of a third party rising up could happen for the first time in history," McCain said.

Arizona Sen. John McCain and his Republican colleagues have long said they will only join Democrats on a comprehensive immigration reform deal if and when the southwest border is secured. Now McCain says he wants to develop a mutually-agreeable set of benchmarks with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano for what level of security is sufficient and how to determine when that goal has been met. “We have to agree on certain criteria on what is successful securing of our border,” McCain said today during a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing. “I think it would be very helpful to all of...

Arizona senator and 2008 GOP presidential nominee John McCain is warning that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s decision not to step down could touch off “a much more dangerous situation,” and he called for the Obama administration to tell Mubarak he must resign immediately. “The volatility of the situation was already very high,” McCain said on Fox News, “and I think it’s been ratcheted up dramatically. “I think the United States had better be more clear in our message to President Mubarak, that we are very clear in our message that he needs to step down,” McCain said. Asked by host...

US Senator John McCain has condemned Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's "deeply unfortunate and troubling" refusal to step down immediately and urged him to heed his people's calls to quit power.

Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) have rekindled their alliance on immigration reform, taking some early steps to test the political will for addressing the contentious issue this year. (snip) “It’s in the infant stage,” Graham told POLITICO. “I don’t know what the political appetite is to do something.” (snip) And in one closely watched comment, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) let it slip recently that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) “seems to think that there’s a shot at this.” It led to a round of speculation that the McCain of the past, the senator who ushered a comprehensive bill...

(snip) "The president, I think, has learned a lot in the last two years as any president does. He is a very intelligent man. I think he's doing a lot of right things," he said. (snip)

Speaking on CBS' "Face the Nation," the Arizona senator had some praise for the man who defeated him in the 2008 presidential election. "The president, I think, has learned a lot in the last two years as any president does. He is a very intelligent man. I think he's doing a lot of right things," he said.

<p>Republican Senator John McCain has traveled the world as part of a “three amigos” group with Senate colleagues Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham, and he is sad that Lieberman plans to retire when his term expires in 2012.</p> <p>McCain told us in a telephone interview that Lieberman told him that after 40 years in politics, “every once in a while you just get a little tired.”</p>

Could the long-icy relationship between President Obama and his 2008 presidential opponent, Sen. John McCain, be thawing? McCain (R-Ariz.) took a significant step toward reconciling with the president in a graceful op-ed in Sunday's Washington Post. If that article marks a genuine fresh beginning, it would be one positive thing to come out of the horrific shooting spree in Tucson eight days ago. McCain and Obama will never be comrades in arms. They have too much history, too much mutual ill will and too many philosophical differences for that. In the two years since McCain went down in defeat against...

(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)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. John McCain says he would support congressional work toward an overhaul of the immigration system once "the borders have been secured."

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...