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Senator McCain has had a busy day making a variety of confused statements 1. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is “euphoric” about President Obama’s surprise announcement Saturday that he will seek congressional authorization for a limited strike in the war-torn country, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said Sunday on “Face the Nation.” 2. Senator John McCain, R-Ariz., criticized President Barack Obama’s plans for limited air strikes on Syria as “cosmetic” Friday, saying the failure of the United States to intervene in the country’s civil war was “shameful.” 3. “We’re in a bit of a dilemma here, because I think Senator Lindsey Graham...

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Sunday expressed opposition to possible GOP efforts to filibuster a Senate gun-control measure, saying he did not “understand” the move to block debate. “I don’t understand it,” said McCain on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “The purpose of the United States Senate is to debate and to vote and to let the people know where we stand.” “What are we afraid of? Why would we not want… if this issue is as important as all of us think it is, why not take it to one of the world’s greatest deliberative bodies… A number of GOP...

President Barack Obama should dispatch National Guard troops to the border if he doesn’t like Arizona’s new immigration law, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Friday. McCain, who endorsed the tough new Arizona law earlier this week, defended it as necessary because of the federal government’s inability to secure the border. “If the president doesn’t like what the Arizona Legislature and governor may be doing, then I call on the president to immediately call for the dispatch of 3,000 National Guard troops to our border and mandate that 3,000 additional Border Patrol [officers] be sent to our border as well,” McCain...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Two Republican senators proposed Monday sending 3,000 more US National Guard soldiers to quell violence spilling over the border between their home state of Arizona and Mexico. In a 10-point plan for beefing up security in the area, Senators John McCain and John Kyl also called for permanently adding 3,000 US Custom and Border Protection Agents to the Arizona/Mexico border by 2015. They also called for completing construction of 700 miles of fencing along the border and beefing up unmanned aerial vehicle patrols so that they could be run 24 hours a day. "Violence has dramatically increased...

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said he wasn't picking sides between "maverick" and "partisan" in response to his primary fight against former Rep. J.D. Hayworth. When asked on "Fox News Sunday" whether he'd gone from his maverick stance toward a position further on the right, McCain said, "Now that I'm fighting against this administration... then I'm a partisan. But I'm a fighter and that's what I am." "...I prefer 'great American' myself," the 2008 presidential candidate quipped. McCain said he passed the "litmus test" of being a true conservative over Hayworth because of his opposition to earmarks and pork-barrel spending. "I...

On the same day the anti-illegal immigration group Americans for Legal Immigration endorsed former Congressman J.D. Hayworth in his bid to unseat Senator John McCain as the GOP candidate for Senate, the McCain campaign is calling on Hayworth to disavow the endorsement. "J.D. Hayworth's lavish praise for the social theories of noted anti-Semite and xenophobe Henry Ford sparked a major controversy during his losing 2006 campaign, causing many Arizonans to question Mr. Hayworth's judgment. It is astounding that Mr. Hayworth would today accept the endorsement of a group that the Anti-Defamation League reports is backed by white supremacists, neo-Nazis and...

A U.S. Border Patrol agent was held at gunpoint Sunday night by members of the Mexican military who had crossed the border into Arizona, but the soldiers returned to Mexico without incident when backup agents responded to assist. Agents assigned to the Border Patrol station at Ajo, Ariz., said the Mexican soldiers crossed the international border in an isolated area about 100 miles southwest of Tucson and pointed rifles at the agent, who was not identified.

Two Hollywood actors who dined with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in early 2001 at actress Candice Bergen's home confirmed reports that he told the assembled group he did not vote for George W. Bush in the 2000 election, but McCain denied the claim at a news conference. In separate phone interviews, Bradley Whitford and Richard Schiff -- both of whom starred in television's "The West Wing" -- said late Thursday night that the senator made the remarks after he spoke at length about his reservations about Bush becoming president. Liberal blogger Arianna Huffington first wrote about the incident Monday, asserting...