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SAN DIEGO -- President Obama recently reignited the immigration debate when he told reporters that congressional leaders of both parties were ready to "actively get something done and not put it off until a year, two years, three years, five years from now, but to start working on this thing right now." In the months ahead, keep an eye on two things: the calendar and the issue of guest workers. The calendar: "Right now" might not be soon enough. The conventional wisdom is that the longer Obama waits, the harder it will be to pass any immigration reform legislation. One...

Just spoke to a consultant plugged in with a non-McCain Republican presidential candidate from 2008. His first words: “Steve Schmidt wins.” “I don’t think she’s toast (for future office). But this makes it more difficult. I’m trying to think of a candidate who launched a serious national bid after one term or less*… I guess the last one would be Romney, and he had done one full term.” On the theory that the scrutiny of her children was the straw that broke the camel's back, the consultant said, “From the interaction I’ve had with her, that would make some sense.”...

Pair Try to Force Naming of More Commissioners. BY DAN EGGEN Seven years after their landmark campaign finance legislation became law, Sens. John McCain and Russell Feingold are reuniting under the banner of spending reform at a time when restrictions have come under fire both in the courts and at the embattled Federal Election Commission. McCain (R-Ariz.) and Feingold (D-Wis.) announced this week that they were blocking the appointment of Democratic union lawyer John Sullivan to the FEC until President Obama agrees to fill two other open panel seats. The two senators, who co-sponsored legislation in 2002 that banned "soft...

John McCain and Sarah Palin both personally approved an intensive internal search of the emails of top campaign staffers in order to determine who had been leaking damaging information about Palin to reporters, McCain campaign manager Steve Schmidt just told me in an interview. “John McCain and Sarah Palin were both informed that we were doing this in an attempt to catch the person,” Schmidt told me, referring to his decision to undertake the email search, which has been the topic of fierce controversy since it was revealed yesterday. Schmidt’s revelation sheds new light on the campaign’s internal discord and...

To summarize baseball legend Reggie Jackson: nobody boos a nobody. That is definitely true in the case of Governor Sarah Palin. I don’t think I am going out on a limb here when I speculate that individuals who repeatedly attack her anonymously view her as a threat. And that includes members of the media hell-bent tearing down young Republican up-and-comers as well as some in Governor Palin’s own party — a party desperately in need of redefining — who are motivated, for whatever reason, to try and crush their rivals. The most recent and grossly unfair attack came from Vanity...

PHOENIX - The debate over health care reform promises an interesting five weeks in Congress before the August recess, according to Sen. John McCain. The Arizona Republican spoke out against Democrats' plans for reform during a speech Wednesday at Phoenix Children's Hospital. "Look at other countries that have government-run health care systems and there is health rationing," McCain said. "That is just a fact. I don't think the United States of America is ready to go down that slippery slope that will end up in rationing of health care." McCain said the proposals would be too expensive and would give...

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Link only, per FR copyright rules

People like John McCain and others who have been part of the self-absorbed, navel-gazing and corrupt Washington environment for a quarter century no doubt resent someone not "of them." But it is indeed odd when Sarah Palin, a bright, shining light for conservatives remains the prime target of the existing machine, while Mark Sanford and other hypocritical liars are serenaded as getting a raw deal by the very public daughter of a defacto leader of the party.

New York, July 1 (ANI): Senator John McCain's daughter Meghan wants Hillary Duff to play her in a movie version of her first book - still to be released. The blonde blogger, who began to receive media attention in 2007 for her blog, McCain Blogette, has already drawn her top choices for the role. "I want Hilary Duff to play me. I think she's really hot - hotter than me - but I'd still want her to play me," the New York Daily News quoted her as saying at the recent Trevor Project's summer gala at Capitale. But the 24-year-old...

People like John McCain and others who have been part of the self-absorbed, navel-gazing and corrupt Washington environment for a quarter century no doubt resent someone not "of them." But it is indeed odd when Sarah Palin, a bright, shining light for conservatives remains the prime target of the existing machine, while Mark Sanford and other hypocritical liars are serenaded as getting a raw deal by the very public daughter of a defacto leader of the party. For some reason, Meghan McCain, writing in The Daily Beast, seems to think adulterous politicians, like South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, should be...

Meghan McCain—whom some have called the new face of the GOP—likes to call herself a “progressive Republican.” Her Twitter page is full of updates about her devotion to gay marriage: “Marriage equality will not fall to the wayside! I have faith one day there will be equality for everyone living in this country!” That’s fine, I don’t care whether or not she supports “marriage equality.” But as someone her age, I know that gay marriage is one of the causes that young people must embrace in order to gain admission to the liberal in-crowd—and I suspect that’s why she’s doing...

The publication of a Vanity Fair profile of Sarah Palin appears to have opened old wounds in the McCain campaign. At issue is a question that was never resolved following McCain’s loss in November: Who in the McCain campaign was secretly trashing Sarah Palin to the press?

Blue-collar workers who voted for Barack Obama may want to reconsider their support in light of current unemployment trends. The president is re-opening a campaign for "comprehensive immigration reform" (some call it amnesty) even as jobless rates keep rising. Legal and illegal immigrants have swelled America's labor force in the recent years. In fiscal 2008, 1.45 million new migrants were granted work permits. Combined with the influx of millions of undocumented workers, this excess supply became the equivalent of the housing bubble -- it was bound to burst. Since 2007, jobless rates have doubled. In the first quarter of this...

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(snip) But I asked one of the senior McCain campaign officials who worked closest with Palin what he thought of the article, by e-mail last night and then this morning over the phone. He e-mailed back immediately, calling the article "absolutely fascinating" and "completely riveting." "While the Palin camp is surely marshaling the torches and pitchforks and baying for blood by now, my hope is that somehow — against the odds -- Palin is able to draw some sort of lesson out of all of this that helps her find a way to exist peacefully in the public space. It...

The campaign finance dream team of Sens. Russ Feingold and John McCain is reuniting to block President Barack Obama’s first appointment to the Federal Election Commission and to push him to shake up the embattled agency. In a surprising move that invokes memories of a bitter skirmish during Obama’s annihilation of McCain in last year’s presidential election, Feingold (D-Wis.) and McCain (R-Ariz.) have placed a hold on the FEC nomination of Democratic labor lawyer John Sullivan, POLITICO confirmed Tuesday. Their hold could reverberate in Congress, the White House, the 2010 midterm elections and beyond. In a statement issued in response...

A hard-hitting piece on Sarah Palin in the new Vanity Fair has touched off a blistering exchange of insults among high-profile Republicans over last year’s GOP ticket – tearing open fresh wounds about leaks surrounding Palin and revealing for the first time some of the internal wars that paralyzed the campaign in its final days. Rival factions close to the McCain campaign have been feuding since last fall over Palin , usually waging the battle in the shadows with anonymous quotes. Now, however, some of the most well-known names in Republican politics are going on-the-record with personal attacks and blame-casting....

Yesterday, Andrew Sullivan blasted the MSM for failing to get the details on Trig Palin's birth. He concluded his post with "I believed then and I believe now that the MSM is too concerened with their own reputations and too deferent to power to even ask the questions. Which is another betrayal of their core purpose. And why they are dying. And deserve to." "Too concerned with their own reputations"? Really!? Wow. I haven't noticed the MSM displaying a lot of concern with their reputation as they fawn and slobber over every move Obama makes. That doesn't do much, in...

My Friend, As I travel around Arizona, I am always humbled by the dedicated men and women I meet in my home state. I am so honored to serve as one of Arizona's Senators and I want you to know that together, we have accomplished a great deal. We are taking positive steps toward economic reform and we are preparing for a vigorous debate on healthcare in the Senate. But there is still more to accomplish on issues like healthcare reform, national security and earmark reform and that is why I want to continue my service to our country as...

HOUSTON - The man who lost last year’s presidential election is once again battling his political rival. Senator john McCain of Arizona brought the fight for health care reform to Houston's M.D. Anderson Cancer Center on Tuesday. Along with republican senators john Cornyn of Texas and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, McCain told a group of doctors and nurses, government run health care is not the answer. He predicted the month of July will be "a great debate" between democrats and republicans in Washington. Congress goes back into session next week and McCain expects the Obama administration to start a hard...

Alaskan Governor and GOP 2008 vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin may be nice looking, but she sure wasn’t a very good candidate is the bottom line of Vanity Fair’s 9,920-word profile about her released Tuesday. The comments about her beauty weren't entirely complimentary, either. Vanity Fair writer Todd S. Purdum said her looks probably hurt her as much it helped win voters during the campaign. The brunt of his article, the notion that she was never suited to run nationally, relied heavily on unattributed quotes from McCain campaign staffers who felt she wasn’t up to snuff and refused properly study...

[...] The brunt of his article, the notion that she was never suited to run nationally, relied heavily on unattributed quotes from McCain campaign staffers who felt she wasn’t up to snuff and refused properly study up on policy issues. [...] Two McCain staffers, however, were immediately willing to go on the record with the Washington Times in their support for Mrs. Palin after the Vanity Fair piece was published online. Jason Recher, who worked closely with Mrs. Palin as a vice presidential candidate, said “The mean tone of this article is completely false, this is not the Sarah Palin...

If Republicans were wondering how their 2012 presidential candidate is going to compete against President Obama's $600 million fundraising juggernaut, the Supreme Court seems poised to provide an answer: unlimited corporate spending supporting the Republican candidate, or attacking Obama. In a Supreme Court term that has had its share of surprises, the court saved one of the biggest for last. Rather than publish an opinion at the end of the term as expected in an obscure campaign finance case, Citizens United v. FEC, the court issued a rare order for reargument of the case in September (before the usual start...

Sarah Palin trashed by members of John McCain's campaign team in Vanity Fair BY Michael Saul DAILY NEWS POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT Monday, June 29th 2009, 12:01 PM Grillo/AP Alaska's lipstick-wearing pit-bull is a "Little Shop of Horrors." That's how one longtime friend and campaign trail companion of John McCain, the vanquished 2008 GOP presidential nominee, described veep nominee Sarah Palin. In an expansive story in the August edition of Vanity Fair, a slew of senior members of McCain's campaign team told reporter Todd S. Purdum that they suffer a kind of survivor's guilt following the 2008 presidential election. "They can't quite...

The Club for Growth, a conservative anti-tax group, is considering running ads in the Republican Party's Senate primary race against Florida Gov. Charlie Crist for supporting higher state taxes and President Obama's $787 billion economic stimulus spending package. Mr. Crist's opponent for the Republican Party's nomination next year is former state Speaker of the House Marco Rubio, a young conservative running on cutting government spending and taxes who recently met here with the Club for Growth, which has a strong reputation for defeating liberal and moderate Republicans in party primaries with its aggressive ad campaigns. "We recently interviewed Marco Rubio...

The Court has held that Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (08-205) will be reargued on Wednesday, September 9 at 10 a.m. The Court has issued the following written order: “The parties should address the following question: ‘For the disposition of this case, should the Court overrule either or both Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce and the part of McConnell v. FEC which addresses the facial validity of Section 203 of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002?’

Sex scandals like Governor Sanford’s and John Ensign’s are private matters that don’t affect public policy and shoot down rising political stars. It’s time to end hypocrisy in America.When I first heard about Governor Sanford’s sex scandal, I was flooded with disappointment for many reasons. Particularly since his admission of an extramarital affair came so closely after Nevada Senator Ensign made a similar confession. I don’t know if it’s the fact that I am younger, or that just have a more open-minded view of politicians and sex, but it’s of very little concern to me who elected officials sleep with....

Alaska's lipstick-wearing pit-bull is a "Little Shop of Horrors." That's how one longtime friend and campaign trail companion of John McCain, the vanquished 2008 GOP presidential nominee, described veep nominee Sarah Palin. In an expansive story in the August edition of Vanity Fair, a slew of senior members of McCain's campaign team told reporter Todd S. Purdum that they suffer a kind of survivor's guilt following the 2008 presidential election.

Organized labor is dictating a large portion of the Obama administration's work, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) alleged Monday. "The unions are running a lot of this administration," McCain said during an appearance on the Mike Broomhead show on local radio station KFYI. "Look what just happened with Chrysler and General Motors," McCain added.

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court ordered new hearings in a case challenging McCain-Feingold, the law that aims to restrict political spending at election time, signaling the possibility it is considering a more sweeping approach to the question. The court had been expected to rule Monday on a narrow question on whether McCain-Feingold applied to electioneering materials delivered through video-on-demand services. The case before the court involves a critical documentary about Hillary Clinton released during the presidential primary. The question before the court was whether it should be considered a campaign ad and regulated as such. Instead, the court asked the...

Preliminary results of a study on presidential campaign donations shows that President Obama had more than 3.7 million donors compared with 827,000 who donated to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) And while Obama had a substantial lead over McCain in small donors -- $200 or less -- Obama also led in the number of individuals who gave at or near the legal limit of $4,600, researchers at Brigham Young University said. Donors gave Obama $700 million to Obama (sic) and $316 million to McCain. Donations from individuals giving $200 or less represented nearly a quarter ($178 million) of Obama's fund-raising total...

John McCain is back — and he's in a fighting mood! The Arizona senator looked even younger and fitter than during his recent presidential campaign when I caught him last week on C-SPAN. I admire people who show character in defeat. A prominent 19th-Century pundit once said "the greatest test of courage on earth is to bear defeat without losing heart." For sure, John McCain has not lost heart at all. Though McCain was defeated last November, I believe he did a good job with his campaign under extremely difficult circumstances. In September, the McCain-Palin ticket was narrowly ahead in...

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S Car.) and Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) say they are proud of the way President Obama has handled the situation in Iran so far.

In a wide-ranging midday press conference, President Obama took on Republican critics of his stance on Iran, directly targeting former rival Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and saying, "I am the president of the United States." Obama, who has been accused by McCain and other Republicans of being too timid throughout the unrest following Iran's presidential elections, has gradually taken a firmer stance in the days following the election. . . . . . "The Iranian people can speak for themselves," Obama said in the James S. Brady Briefing Room. "That is precisely what has happened these last few days. In...

WASHINGTON — President Obama told congressional lawmakers Thursday that he would push for an overhaul of the nation's immigration system by early next year. But during the White House meeting, a new political obstacle came into view: how to regulate the influx of foreign workers. The issue was raised by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a principal architect of past attempts to rewrite immigration laws. McCain challenged Obama and other Democrats to stand up to labor unions that are pushing a plan business groups fear could be overly restrictive in admitting future immigrant workers. "I would expect the president of the...

GOP candidate promotes working with Europe on climate change, but only wants to 'encourage' involvement of 'rest of the world.' BY DAN GAINOR Presumptive GOP presidential nominee John McCain is using the idea of global togetherness to promote “a cap-and-trade system” to battle climate change. He said “Americans and Europeans need to get serious about substantially reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the coming years or we will hand over a much-diminished world to our grandchildren.” According to the Arizona senator, whose opinion column appeared in the March 19 Financial Times, the United States needs to work with Europe to create...

Reportedly, Senator John McCain wants Predators to provide with uncensored Wi-Fi coverage to the people of Iran. I don't know if this is even technically possible, but its so preposterous and fantastically cool that I love the idea: "During the Cold War, we provided the Polish people and dissidents with printing presses. Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube are the modern-day printing presses. They are the way to spread information and keep the hope of freedom alive amongst the Iranian people." Of course, the Predators—or whatever other method—could be taken down with missiles or fighter planes, but the basic idea is spot...

See video here.

President Obama made a vigorous effort after the election to court Sen. John McCain, hoping his campaign rival would become a Senate advocate for his ambitious agenda. Instead, McCain (R-Ariz.) has emerged as one of the chief gadflies leading Republican opposition to Obama’s biggest legislative initiatives. Nevertheless, Obama and other Democrats still cling to the hope that McCain can be persuaded to help advance their priorities.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 25, 2009 Contact: Francisco Lopez, Executive Director: (503) 269-5694 Erik Sorensen, Communications Director: (503) 488-0263 Historic White House Meeting on Immigration a Complete Success Roadmap to Immigration Reform makes a strong and positive beginning Salem, Ore--Today members of Congress from both houses and from both sides of the aisle met at the White House for an historic working session on Immigration Reform. The White House meeting, which was postponed from last week, was rescheduled for today after immigration reform proponents generated over 200,000 faxes, 30,000 phone calls, and 3,300 personal notes calling on the President to...

The final legislation on healthcare reform will be bipartisan, though it may not look that way, White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel said Thursday. “The test of bipartisanship is not just how many Republican votes you have,” Mr. Emanuel told reporters at a Monitor breakfast. He laid out three tests of bipartisanship. -SNIP-Emanuel bemoaned the end of an era in which members of the opposition were willing to work with the party in power to pass major legislation. Specifically, looking back to the last big effort on health reform, in 1993 and ‘94, when Emanuel was a top adviser...

President Obama moved the goalposts on getting immigration reform accomplished, saying Thursday that he wants a bill he can sign either this year or early next year. Shortly after the president adjourned a meeting with a bipartisan group of members from both chambers, a number of senators and congressmen from both sides of the aisle demonstrated why next year might be aiming too high. The White House has said that the president would like to see something this year, but a number of skeptics have questioned whether Congress can or will take any floor action in 2009. Obama said he...

(snip) I want to especially commend John McCain, who's with me today, because along with folks like Lindsey Graham, he has already paid a significant political cost for doing the right thing. I stand with him, I stand with Nydia Velázquez and others who have taken leadership on this issue. (snip)

(snip) And as the White House holds a bipartisan summit on immigration Thursday, Republicans are warning that Obama needs to offer a specific plan or risk seeing the issue die this Congress. “He needs to really lead on that,” said Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.), who was a member of a bipartisan group that unsuccessfully pushed an immigration bill in 2007. “I think it’s very, very important that he give a clear signal on where he is on an issue with that level of specificity.” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), another supporter of the 2007 bill, said President George W. Bush ran...

The hawkish trio of Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Joe Lieberman (ID-Conn.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) praised President Barack Obama on Thursday for condemning the corruption and violence surrounding the recent election in Iran. “I’m very proud of my president for what he said Tuesday,” Graham declared during a press conference. “It was the right thing to say.” “I appreciate it,” McCain added.

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama will meet Thursday with a bipartisan, politically diverse group of lawmakers to begin discussing a rewrite of U.S. immigration laws. But the effort faces stiff headwinds: a Washington agenda already packed with other priorities; a recession making Americans nervous about the job market; and the sidelining of the most vocal champions of an immigration overhaul. "Greater presidential leadership is going to be needed," said Clarissa Martinez, director of immigration policy at the National Council of La Raza, the largest Latino advocacy group. "It's an absolute necessity." The White House meeting will bring together lawmakers who...

Early clubhouse leader for worst political advice of the year . . . Jonathan Capehart has suggested that Republicans would be well-advised to skip a generation and wait for the Meghan McCains of the world to assume the GOP’s mantle of leadership. The WaPo editorial writer made his smirk-worthy suggestion on MSNBC this afternoon while chewing over Mark Sanford’s stunning announcement. The panel had literally and figuratively run down the list of Republican presidential hopefuls and found virtually all of them wanting. Capehart’s brainstorm came in response to a leading question from host Tamron Hall, who touted the younger McCain’s...

With unusual ubiquity for a losing presidential candidate, Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain has been popping up all over the media these days. So it was probably inevitable that he'd get the same question asked of virtually every breathing Republican in these, the Grand Old Party's Days of Disarray: Will you be running for president in 2012? First of all, McCain's got to win Senate reelection next year. Second, the party's conservatives still don't like him, although as long as he lost in November, they've pretty much shut up about it for now. Arizona Republican Senator John McCain Third, he'd...