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This morning, in an interview with CNN's State of the Union, Sen. John McCain (RINO-Ariz.) apparently used some rather choice language to describe the fairly evident future political aspirations of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R-Ak.): "Will Sarah and I - did we always agree on everything in the past? Will we in the future? No. But let's let a thousand flowers bloom. Let's come up with a winning combination next time."—http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2360310/posts With only a cursory glance, it appears from McCain's language that he is merely asking for a second chance -- in 2012? -- with Palin. [And, at first...

Sen. John McCain, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, today urged President Obama to move with "deliberate speed" on a decision to increase troops in Afghanistan as his generals have requested, saying that to disregard their advice would be an "error of historic proportions." McCain said on CNN's State of the Union that Obama should back General Stanley McChrystal's proposal for an increase of 40,000 troops and resist a "half measure" aimed at placating political opponents of deeper U.S. involvement. " McChrystal, the top general in Afghanistan, warned last month that the conflict would likely end in...

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Former presidential candidate John McCain (R-Ariz.) acknowledged on CNN's State of the Union Sunday that tensions flared during his campaign between senior strategist Steve Schmidt and those allied with his running mate, then-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. "With a high-pressure situation, there's always tensions that develop within campaigns," McCain said in a video excerpt posted online. "And there were clearly tensions between Steve Schmidt and people in the Palin camp." Schmidt has recently become a vocal public critic of Palin, predicting that a presidential run by her in 2012 would prove "catastrophic" for the Republican Party. McCain did not criticize Palin...

(snip) "Every idea is on the table," said Foreign Relations Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.), the lead sponsor of Senate climate legislation. "We're going to work in a bona fide way with everybody to see how to bridge a gap here. We've got to get a 60-vote margin. That means you've got to legislate, which means you have to compromise." Several moderate Senate Republicans, including John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, said they are in talks with Kerry and Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) on the nuclear language, as well as other key issues."A guy like Senator Kerry...

Politics: The top and bottom of last year's Republican ticket represent the recent failed past and future potential of the party. Both are vying for party leadership, but the past should get out of the future's way. Sen. John McCain is, as Politico noted last week, "working behind-the-scenes to reshape the Republican Party in his own center-right image." The loser of last year's run for the White House is recruiting candidates, raising money and campaigning for them, and even taking sides in GOP Senate, House and gubernatorial primaries. Some people apparently need a hook to exit the stage. McCain's personal...

(snip) JOHN KING: The president of the United States, who a year ago this weekend was your campaign rival heading into the final month of the campaign, is the Nobel Peace laureate for 2009. Deserved? SEN. JOHN MCCAIN: Oh, I’m sure that the president is very honored to receive this award. And Nobel Committee, I can’t divine all their intentions, but I think part of their decision-making was expectations. And I’m sure the president understands that he now has even more to live up to. But as Americans, we’re proud when our president receives an award of that prestigious category....

Final Report is in. Judge for yourselves... So if we take McCaskill’s words ‘shall include’ and the singular use of ‘citizen’ we can conclude that Congress was aware of the Congressional history of the term ‘natural born’ and was looking for an out for McCain. But Obama, seizing his opportunity to ride the wave, rushed right over to McCaskill’s office and requested to be assigned as a co-sponsor of the legislation the very next day. Or was McCaskill the ‘fall gal’ all along? Did Obama & the Democratic elite know ahead of time of Obama’s ineligibility problem and used McCaskill...

I'm a life-long Republican, and I'm sorry to say I don't recognize the party anymore. The party of smaller government, personal freedom, and fiscal responsibility has become the party of bloated government, covert subjugation of our personal rights, porous borders, and deficits that are bankrupting our nation. Would it shock you to know that three-quarters of our total national debt was incurred under Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush? We all know Barack Obama is on a path to outdo the two of them combined. There was much hand-wringing after the last election, with no shortage of advice on what...

(CNN) — Arizona Sen. John McCain said Friday the Nobel Committee's decision to award President Obama the Peace Prize was likely based on expectations, not accomplishments. "I can't divine all their intentions, but I think part of their decision-making was expectations," McCain told CNN's John King. "And I'm sure the president understands that he now has even more to live up to." But Obama's former rival for the White House said he was happy with the decision.

The timing was impeccable. On the day after HarperCollins released the cover photo for Going Rogue — Sarah Palin’s highly anticipated autobiography — Steve Schmidt, John McCain’s former chief campaign advisor, predicted that if Palin were to win the 2012 GOP nomination, “we would have a catastrophic election result.” It was Schmidt, a veteran Republican strategist, who first advised Senator McCain to select Palin as his running mate in 2008. And it was Schmidt who first criticized Governor Palin within the McCain camp as “going rogue.” Asked how Palin’s book might describe their relationship during the election, Schmidt suggested that...

(snip) LARRY KING: Senator, we're going to begin with a quote from your Senate colleague, in fact, the co-author of one of the most famous bills ever offered in the Senate, Russ Feingold -- you of the famed McCain- Feingold bill. But here is his statement.... How would you respond to that statement by your friend? SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: Well, he is my friend and I have the highest regard for him and he's a man of integrity.(snip)

It's been just shy of a year since the 2008 elections, Barack Obama has been in office for a little over nine months, and what are those on the Left and the Right talking about? Sarah Palin.

War Strategy: When Bush and Petraeus proposed the surge in Iraq, Democrats demanded that the general testify before Congress. So why has the Senate blocked a similar invitation to our commander in Afghanistan? Those with memories longer than the 24-hour news cycle recall that in the dark days of the Iraq War, David Petraeus was summoned to Washington to explain the surge strategy that would eventually lead to victory in Iraq. Democrats hoped for a show trial. MoveOn.org took out a full-page ad in the New York Times labeling the commanding general of our efforts in Iraq "General Betray-us." Then...

U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., voted against President Barack Obama’s pick to head the U.S. Justice Department’s civil right division. U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., voted for the nomination. Twenty-two votes were cast against Thomas Sanchez, who was confirmed Tuesday. Republicans expressed concern about his links to some immigrant groups and the Department of Justice’s disposal of a voter intimidation case involving New Black Panther Party activists who stood in front of polling places on election day holding nightsticks. Hispanic groups including the National Council of La Raza welcomed Sanchez’s nomination. McCain’s office did not respond to questions regarding his...

ast Updated: Tue, 10/06/2009 - 2:55pm In an effort to avoid incarcerating illegal immigrants and assure their humane treatment, the Department Homeland Security is creating an innovative system that detains those awaiting deportation based on flight risk and danger. Illegal aliens determined to pose no true threat to the U.S. will be housed by the government in facilities like hotels and nursing homes rather than jails, according to a news report outlining the Obama Administration’s immigration detention overhaul. Other private facilities are also being considered and Homeland Security officials are asking the private sector for more ideas. Nearly 400,000 illegal...

In the Long Run, the GOP Must Be Inclusive. BY MICHAEL GERSON Mel Martinez's recent resignation from the U.S. Senate was for personal and family reasons. But the departure of the Republican Party's most visible Hispanic leader crackles with political symbolism. Martinez does not consider himself disillusioned, but he is "frustrated." "There are lots of Hispanics to the right of you and me on immigration," he told me, "but they think, 'Republicans just don't like us.' " Martinez makes clear that a number of his Senate colleagues were "conservative, but not inflammatory." Other elected Republicans, however, made "pretty divisive use...

The Dalai Lama (right) greets Senator John McCain during a ceremony at the US Capitol in Washington, DC. Top US lawmakers have presented the Dalai Lama with an award in Congress, throwing their support behind the exiled Tibetan leader who is being shunned by President Barack Obama.

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

The socially liberal but politically conservative Meghan McCain has a new friend who shows no traces of conservatism -- Tila Tequila. The MTV reality television star of "A Shot at Love With Tila Tequila," was spotted at Mr. Chow this weekend in Beverly Hills with Sen. John McCain's daughter, who Nguyen (Tequila's real last name) claims is her new "girlfriend." Will Meghan's new bodacious BFF make an entrance into the political arena? Let's hope not.

Dear Steve Schmidt, You don't know me, but I'm the one who got you your last job. Indeed, one could say that I am your current employer. I just wanted to thank you from the bottom of my heart for the wonderful job you did in the 2008 election as John McCain's strategist. To be fair, he was a spectacular candidate for our cause. Who would have ever thought that a man who had endured so much, so heroically, a man who has had a career of taking principled stands, could be so utterly self-absorbed, narcissistic, and erratic? He was...

Sen. John McCain will hold a town hall on health care from 2 to 3 p.m. Saturday at the Sahuarita school district auditorium, 350 W. Sahuarita Road. Doors open at noon. Parking is available behind the school district administration building, whose driveway is west of the varsity baseball field. Parking also is available off the driveway to the middle school and primary school, which is the first driveway east of Rancho Sahuarita Boulevard. The format and other details will be made available Tuesday, McCain’s office said.

Conservative radio commentator and former Scottsdale congressman J.D. Hayworth is consider a run against U.S. Sen. John McCain in next year’s Republican primary. A source in Arizona who asked not to be identified said Hayworth is pondering the move. The possible challenge also was reported Monday in the Washington Post.

Here is video of former Bush and McCain adviser McKinnon on MSNBC talking about Chicago's failed Olympic bid. McKinnon said "I think the Chicago incident was bad political instincts and bad political judgment but I was disappointed that it didn't come to America, and I think it is patriotic that we should have supported that move." He went on to say "I was very disappointed to see talk show hosts like Mark Levin coming out with jaw-dropping hate language about the president..and reveling in the presidents failure." (Video)

Not quite satisfied with having run one of the worst presidential campaigns ever, Senator John McCain is now seeking to reshape the Republican Party in his on image. In other words, to make it a "centrist" party, or as I prefer to call it, "a group of dithering cowards who wet themselves at the slightest sign of liberal hostility". It’s all part of an approach that is at odds with most other recent failed presidential nominees, whose immediate response to defeat was to retreat from the electoral arena. But those familiar with McCain’s thinking say he has expressed serious concern...

Calif. GOP looks to 2010 races for gov., US Senate INDIAN WELLS, Calif. (AP) -- The Republican race to challenge liberal stalwart Barbara Boxer for her U.S. Senate seat next year is shaping up as a likely contest between a socially conservative state lawmaker and a former Silicon Valley chief executive whose views are barely known to GOP voters in the state. Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard chief executive and John McCain confidante, is not yet an official candidate, but she has registered a campaign committee, "Carly for California," and her team had a strong presence at this weekend's statewide...

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

Looks like there’s at least one high-profile Republican who won’t be voting for Sarah Palin should she run in 2012. Steve Schmidt, John McCain’s top political strategist in 2008, told a forum in Washington today that nominating Palin as the party’s next presidential nominee would be “catastrophic” for Republicans. “I think that she has talents, but my honest view is that she would not be a winning candidate,” Schmidt said. “In fact, were she to be the nominee, we would have a catastrophic election result.”

Sen John McCain has taken an active role in recruiting center-right candidates to run for office in 2010. From the Politico Fresh from a humbling loss in last year’s presidential election, Sen. John McCain is working behind-the-scenes to reshape the Republican Party in his own center-right image.

Fresh from a humbling loss in last year’s presidential election, Sen. John McCain is working behind-the-scenes to reshape the Republican Party in his own center-right image. McCain is recruiting candidates, raising money for them and hitting the campaign trail on their behalf. He’s taken sides in competitive House, Senate and gubernatorial primaries and introduced his preferred candidates to his top donors. When the death of Sen. Ted Kennedy created a vacant Senate seat in Massachusetts, McCain went so far as to solicit former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling to run for the seat. It’s all part of an approach...

Sen. John McCain continued his lobby for a troop surge in Afghanistan as President Obama reconsiders his overall strategy for the region. "It's not as tough as when the surge started in Iraq," McCain said today during an interview with NBC's David Gregory at The First Draft of History, a conference in Washington, D.C., produced by The Atlantic, the Newseum and The Aspen Institute. "I am confident we can succeed if there are sufficient resources to do so. If we don't get sufficient manpower--men and women in uniform--then I think we could fail," he said. McCain said that the strategy...

  Sarah Palin's most consequential choice since leaving the Alaska governor's mansion may be her co-author - a staunch conservative, devoted evangelical Christian, and intensely partisan Republican from far, far outside the Beltway. Lynn Vincent spent the summer working with Palin on a closely-guarded 400 page memoir, "Going Rogue: An American Life." The book is due out from HarperCollins Nov. 17 - but it shot to the top of the Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble bestseller lists Wednesday as word of its publication spread. -SNIP- Palin's choice of Vincent suggests that hers will be, emphatically, a partisan tract. And it is of a...

WASHINGTON - Mitt Romney had already sent out invitations for his Phoenix fund-raiser, offering supporters the chance to meet him in a Chase Field luxury box over a $300-per-person lunch or a $3,000 VIP reception. But when former rival John McCain called with an offer to be listed as host for the event in his hometown, Romney happily went back to the printer for a new invitation with McCain’s name emblazoned on it. Yesterday, McCain’s gesture helped Romney’s political action committee raise about $80,000. It also consummated an 18-month rapprochement between two competitors who battled for the 2008 GOP presidential...

WASHINGTON - Mitt Romney had already sent out invitations for his Phoenix fund-raiser, offering supporters the chance to meet him in a Chase Field luxury box over a $300-per-person lunch or a $3,000 VIP reception. But when former rival John McCain called with an offer to be listed as host for the event in his hometown, Romney happily went back to the printer for a new invitation with McCain’s name emblazoned on it. Yesterday, McCain’s gesture helped Romney’s political action committee raise about $80,000. It also consummated an 18-month rapprochement between two competitors who battled for the 2008 GOP presidential...

WASHINGTON (AP) - While ceding some ground to President Obama on high-profile weapons cuts, lawmakers are cutting money for training and spare parts to pay for other weapons Obama doesn't want and their own pet projects. The push-and-pull is playing out within a massive, $626 billion funding bill for the Pentagon that is being debated on the Senate floor. All told, the bill denies Obama about $4 billion he sought for operations and maintenance accounts while providing $2.5 billion for C-17 cargo jets and $2.7 billion worth of pet projects sought by lawmakers.

More than 60 percent of Arizona Republicans now believe Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is out of touch with his own party, a new poll finds.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican Senator John McCain, a leading voice for reducing carbon emissions, said on Tuesday he will not support the climate change bill being introduced by Senate Democrats, illustrating the lack of bipartisan support for the bill. Democratic Senators Barbara Boxer and John Kerry are expected on Wednesday to unveil their plan for cutting smokestack emissions and building vehicles that pollute less. It calls for a 20 percent cut in U.S. carbon emissions from 2005 levels by 2020 and an 83 percent reduction by 2050, according to Senate Republican aides familiar with the Democratic bill. But the legislation...

Arizona Senator John McCain was the Republican Party’s presidential nominee in 2008, but he’s always had a challenging relationship with the GOP’s base voters. A new Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone survey finds that 61% of Arizona Republicans think McCain has lost touch with those in his own party. That’s up eleven points from 50% in May. Only 33% of the Republican faithful in the state believe McCain has done a good job representing GOP values.

(snip) "This is not easy and I would expect that the public would ask some very tough questions," Obama said last Friday. "That's exactly what I'm doing, is asking some very tough questions." Obama telephoned Senator John McCain, his Republican opponent from last year's election campaign, on Saturday to get his advice on Afghanistan. McCain supports sending more troops. "I think he has a very difficult decision," McCain told ABC's "This Week" on Sunday. "The base of his party, Americans are weary, understandably they're weary. And it's a very difficult decision for him. But I believe he'll make the right...

The teenage daughters of Spain’s prime minister were ridiculed for dressing “Goth” with the Obamas. Meghan McCain on the perils of being a politician’s kid. Over the weekend I was emailed and tweeted an image of the prime minister of Spain, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, and his family standing with President and Michelle Obama at the United Nations. The photo was uploaded onto the White House Flickr account but soon taken down because apparently the young girls are not seen or photographed in their country, so as to protect their privacy. When I first saw the picture, I didn’t understand...

Yesterday, Public Policy Polling released results of a poll showing that 42 percent of Republicans nationwide do not believe Barack Obama was born in the United States. This sort of statistic has become old news by now. Despite overwhelming evidence that the president was born in Hawaii and is a natural-born citizen, a core of Americans remain convinced he was born overseas. But with pollsters frantically trying to get in on the birther action, has anyone stopped to ask whether Sen. John McCain was born in the United States? McCain was actually born in Panama, but is considered a natural-born...

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the Republican presidential nominee in 2008, said on Sunday that President Barack Obama should have first developed a policy on the Guantanamo Bay detention center before announcing that he would close the site. Obama made his Gitmo closure announcement shortly after taking office in January, saying the hugely controversial detainee prison would be shut down in a year, but now White House officials suggest they may not make that deadline. "The mistake was ... they didn't have a policy as to how to address these very difficult and complex issues," McCain said during an interview on...

(snip) STEPHANOPOULOS: So you fully expect there will be prisoners in Guantanamo after the deadline? MCCAIN: All I know is, frankly, what I briefed on, and apparently they’re certainly not going to make that deadline. But we should continue to work towards the closure of Guantanamo Bay because of the image that it has in the world of brutality and harms our image very badly.(snip) STEPHANOPOULOS: But it’s going to take more than a decade to succeed, isn’t it? MCCAIN: I think you will see signs of success in a year to 18 months, if we implement the strategy right...

Sen. John McCain, the Republican from Arizona who ran last year against Barack Obama to become the next commander-in-chief, says he can "sympathize" with the president now over the tough choices the Obama faces in Afghanistan. U.S. commanders there have called for the insertion of tens of thousands of more American troops, but Obama is still reviewing those recommendations. "By the way, I sympathize with the president," McCain said on ABC's "This Week." "The base of his party, the left base of his party, is opposed. The American people are weary of this conflict. I do have sympathy for the...

Muscle Shoals, Alabama- The Vitamin Press has just learned that three former presidential hopefuls -John Sinister McCain, Mittens “Mad Cow Romney” and Mike Huckabee- have placed their former ambitions behind them and united together for the greater purpose of healing the world with the psychedelic burn of their sweet sweet rock and roll music. This experiment in harmonic synergistic fusion, the power of believing in the beauty of your dreams and the unstoppable uniting force of their positive rock melodies has coalesced around these three musical troubadours and forged a sum that greatly exceeds the size of their parts. Alone...

Mitt Romney, the early favorite of many for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012, is making nice with his rivals from the last race. The former Massachusetts governor, who was the source of much consternation among his opponents during the GOP presidential primaries last year, has made strides to repair those relationships in recent days. The latest example came Saturday in Romney’s speech to the Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference in Michigan, in which Romney will praise former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s (R) effort to clean up New York and suggest Detroit could use a similar program.“Detroit needs to be...

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Sen. John McCain is co-hosting a fundraiser for his former 2008 Republican primary rival Mitt Romney next Wednesday in Phoenix. . . . . . The fundraiser will benefit Romney's Free and Strong America PAC...

When FOX News host Glenn Beck said during an interview with Katie Couric this week, “John McCain would have been worse for the country than Barack Obama,” his comments made headlines. Beck explained that “McCain is this weird progressive like Theodore Roosevelt was.” Beck laid out this view in better detail on his television program earlier this month: I am becoming more and more libertarian every day, I guess the scales are falling off of my eyes, as I’m doing more and more research into history and learning real history. Back at the turn of the century in 1900, with...

Joe Perry, the legendary rock guitarist and co-founder (with Steven Tyler) of Aerosmith, was on Capitol Hill Thursday, where he met with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and performed onstage at a Rock Stars of Science conference promoting the health sciences and scientific research. Perry endorsed the Arizona Republican last fall in McCain's failed bid for the presidency, and he was very impressed with the senator when he met him Thursday. "I felt better about politics in general after meeting [McCain]," Perry told The Hill. "He's a war hero, and they're the most genuine heroes. Anyone who does what [soldiers in...

Here is video of Glenn Beck talking with Bill O'Reilly tonight about his recent comments regarding John McCain, his interview with Katie Couric, and his belief that Israel will eventually strike Iran to keep them from obtaining nuclear weapons, if others do not prevent it first. Beck said he believed McCain would be worse as President than Obama, not because he does not respect McCain's war service, but because he thinks Americans are being galvanized to oppose the leftist policies of Obama whereas they would not have been as shocked by McCain's policies that are less radical, but not really...