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WASHINGTON, Nov 18 (Reuters) - U.S. Republican Senator John McCain on Wednesday strongly defended the top advisers from his 2008 presidential campaign in the face of sharp criticism from his vice presidential running mate, Sarah Palin. McCain, in a telephone interview with Reuters, singled out campaign manager Steve Schmidt and senior adviser Nicolle Wallace for praise after Palin blasted the pair in her memoir, "Going Rogue: An American Life." "There's been a lot of dust flying around in the last few days and I just wanted to mention that I have the highest regard for Steve Schmidt and Nicolle Wallace...

The rumors are true, according to Sarah Palin: The McCain-Palin campaign was not a happy family. And she says that most of her legal bills were generated defending what she called frivolous ethics complaints, but she reveals that about $500,000 was a bill she received to pay for the McCain campaign vetting her for the VP nod. She said when she asked the McCain campaign if it would help her financially, she was told McCain's camp would have paid all the bills if he'd won; since he lost, the vetting legal bills were her responsibility.

<p>In her new book, according to the Associated Press, Sarah Palin alleges that the McCain campaign gave her a $500,000 bill to pay for the campaign vetting her for the VP nod. She also makes the charge that the McCain camp said they would have paid all the bills had they won, but since they lost, the bills were her responsibility.</p>

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a Republican, will be in New Hampshire next month, raising speculation that he is preparing for a presidential run. Pawlenty will be the keynote speaker at a fundraiser for the Republican Senate Majority Committee, which will be held Dec. 16 at the Grappone Conference Center in Concord. . . . . . Mike Dennehy, a former adviser to McCain's 2008 campaign and a political consultant for Senate Republicans, is helping to organize the event, which will cost $50 a ticket."We set the price to attract as many people who would like to come," Dennehy said.

Senator Lieberman’s threat to filibuster the health-care bill isn’t a betrayal of the Democratic Party, says Meghan McCain—it’s a sign of courage. And we need more of it. BY MEGHAN MCCAIN A few weeks ago, I gave a speech at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and one of the questions I was asked was: Aside from your father, who are your favorite senators and politicians? Without hesitation, I said that I admire South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham and Connecticut’s Joe Lieberman. Now before my fellow Republicans start panicking at my fondness for two independent, moderate, and dare I say maverick...

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...

(snip) Appearing on CNN's "State of the Union," the Arizona Republican said: "When we selected, or asked, Sarah Palin to be my running mate, it energized our party. We were ahead in the polls, until the stock market crashed. And she still is a formidable force in the Republican Party. And I have great affection for her. 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." (snip)

McCain's push to remake the party is all about locking the conservative party out, ensuring that a Rino is chosen during the primary's long before a conservative state gets a chance to vote. Sarah's book is selling through the roof unlike anything they've ever seen, she is threat the liberal gravy train (and I'm talking about the Republicans here not democrats). They will do everything the keep her out. McCain and others are already laying plans and taking actions to derail her campaign. Sarah, if you are reading this you cannot save the Republican party, they are way too far...

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.

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...

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...

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.”

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...

. . . Mark McKinnon, a former adviser to Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) and other Republicans, said there is an "opportunity for Republicans" to tap into legitimate fears about an overreaching federal government. But he said that "right-wing nutballs are aligning themselves with these movements" and are dominating media coverage. "It's bad for Republicans because in the absence of any real leadership, the freaks fill the void and define the party," McKinnon said. . . .

'Taxpayer March' in D.C. Attracts Party Leaders, but Some Are Wary. BY DAN EGGEN & PERRY BACON JR. With tens of thousands of conservative protesters expected to gather in Washington on Saturday for a "Taxpayer March on D.C.," Republican officials are attempting to capitalize on a movement that lately has galvanized anti-Obama activists more effectively than the party's elected leaders in Washington. Searching for ways to compete with Democrats after two consecutive electoral drubbings, Republicans have moved past earlier uncertainty about the protesters, who organized nationwide rallies this summer that have threatened Democratic health-care plans and eroded President Obama's standing...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: I have been asked if we got sound bites of McCain this morning on the Today Show. Let me quickly look here at it sound bite roster. I don't believe so. Let's see. We don't have any McCain. What did McCain say on the Today Show? What did he say? Hmm? Hmm? Hm-hm. Hm-hm. He threw Palin under the bus? Well, that's because Obama gave him a big compliment last night. McCain was out there giving a thumbs up. Marty in Virginia Beach, you're next on the EIB Network. Hi. CALLER: Hi. One of the things that...

Nearly a year after the presidential race came to an end, it's a subject Arizona Sen. John McCain still can't avoid: Sarah Palin. Appearing on the Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien Wednesday, the former presidential candidate was asked, as he has been several times before, whether he was shocked Palin chose to resign her post as governor of Alaska two months ago. "Yeah I was because she didn't call me ahead of time," McCain said to laughter in the audience. "We all have families, we all have challenges, we all have issues in our lives. She did have huge legal...

Martin says McCain’s Sunday endorsement of Mark Kirk is an act of infamy that will lead to McCain’s defeat by Arizonans in 2010. “McCain is not all there,” Martin says. “Or if he is all there, there is no ‘there,’ there.’ McCain is an embarrassment to the future of the Republican Party. Perhaps it is not surprising he is in bed with Mark Kirk.” . . . . . August 29, 2009 Senator John McCain United States Senate Washington, DC 20510 via fax (202) 228-2862 Re: Endorsement of Mark Kirk Last than a year ago, I remained a loyal Republican...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Sen. John McCain says the absence of ailing Ted Kennedy in pushing health-care reform has made a "huge, huge difference" in whether legislation gets passed. McCain praised Kennedy, a Democratic senator from Massachusetts, as a master negotiator who could bring together parties with different points of view and make the right concessions to reach agreement. McCain said health-care reform might be in a very different place today if Kennedy had been able to participate in the discussions.

Ex-presidential candidate is siding more closely with GOP these days. BY GREG GIROUX WASHINGTON - He ran for president last year as a “maverick” Republican and had a high-profile meeting with Barack Obama after the election, but Arizona Sen. John McCain has been a staunch Republican vote since failing to win the White House. In fact, McCain is siding with his party this year on closely divided votes with greater frequency than at any other period in his 23-year Senate career, according to a CQ analysis of Senate votes. On votes that pitted most Democrats against most Republicans, McCain has...

Can this political marriage be saved? BY GARY BAUER Psychologists have discovered that the most important factor in predicting whether a marriage will succeed or fail is the existence of contempt. When one or both partners display contempt -- the intense feeling or attitude of regarding someone or something as inferior -- the union, ultimately and almost inevitably, will fail. Psychologist John Gottman has even developed a methodology that enables him to predict divorce with an astonishingly high degree of accuracy, up to 90 percent. While watching a couple interact, Mr. Gottman looks for the subtle signs -- microexpressions such...

There are, of course, a whole lot of truly baffling things about the Birther movement and its theories. But perhaps one of the most puzzling is this unanswered question: If President Obama really were born in Kenya, why didn't the McCain or Clinton campaigns dig up the evidence and publicize it? Why has that task fallen to the ragtag crew that is the Birthers, led now by Orly Taitz, a dentist/lawyer/real estate agent who got her law degree online and is regularly admonished for having little, if any, idea how to properly file her court papers? Turns out there's an...

I wonder how much there is to this. Filtering out Newsweek's spin (for example, they claim Palin is "fuming" with no source to back up the claim), one thing is obvious -- Coale is willing to go on the record, while the response comes from the standard-issue "anonymous senior McCain aides" that we see in every Palin hit piece.

(snip) Arizona: John McCain's presidential campaign ended in defeat, but it had enough leftover cash to help McCain boost his campaign coffers as he seeks a fifth term in 2010. McCain raised $1.6 million in the second quarter, of which $900,000 came from his 2008 presidential campaign account. McCain also took in $166,000 from McCain Leadership Fund, a joint fundraising committee that shares its proceeds between McCain's campaign committee and his leadership PAC, Country First PAC. (snip)

I am 58 years old and a lifelong Republican. I am writing this letter on behalf of myself and countless other Republicans who feel the same way I do. I am that good person who is tired of sitting back and doing nothing to change our government for the better. I am calling on Sen. John McCain not to run again for the Senate from Arizona. He has served that state as a progressive Republican for a very long time and for the most part, I believe, honorably. There are two problems with that statement — one, that he is...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican Senator John McCain issued a statement of support for resigning Alaska Governor Sarah Palin on Saturday, saying she will play a leadership role in the Republican Party and in America. McCain made the comment a day after Palin stunned the political world by announcing she is stepping down. Palin was McCain's vice presidential running mate in last year's U.S. presidential campaign won by Democrat Barack Obama. "I have the greatest respect and affection for Sarah, Todd, and their family. I was deeply honored to have her as my running mate and believe she will continue to...

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.

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?

(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...

Meghan McCain hasn't even released her first book, but she's already planning the movie version. "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," Sen. John McCain's daughter confided to us at the Trevor Project's summer gala on Monday night at Capitale. But the young Republican isn't dead set on Duff. "Really, I'd take anyone who's blond," she joked, adding that one actor in particular would certainly be welcome to join the cast. "Bradley Cooper is so hot," McCain swooned. "If he can be...

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.

WASHINGTON — Remember back to September, when Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was a newly minted vice-presidential candidate and she was asked by ABC's Charlie Gibson about drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and her split with her running mate, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. At the time, she told Gibson: "We'll agree to disagree, but I'm gonna keep pushing that, and I think, eventually, we're all gonna come together on that one." Apparently Palin wasn't persuasive enough. Tuesday, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee shot down Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski's effort to open up ANWR to directional drilling. The...

No often means yes in Washington, but we hear from Sen. John McCain's posse that he is not considering a 2012 rerun of his failed 2008 presidential campaign. (W beat him in the 2000 primary, remember.) Word came this week that he is mulling over another try, but a key insider says, "Ridiculous."

(snip) We asked Sen. McCain if he saw Whitman as the future face of the Republican Party and he said "yes." He also mentioned three current governors as the next generation of leaders. Noticeably absent from that list was his former running mate, Sarah Palin.(snip)

New York Times blogger Judith Warner dug into Meghan McCain with gusto, posting a concern-trolling piece about Meg's appearance on the Colbert Report. She writes that she "feels sorry" for Meg: I really have no business feeling sympathy for a wealthy, pretty, well-connected recent Columbia grad who's already been given a political blog by Tina Brown, who's already been paid a reported high six figures to write on the future of the Republican party, and who, despite it all, was foolish enough to go on "The Colbert Report" on Monday night and call herself "a 24-year-old pro-sex woman." I suppose...