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Sen. John McCain said Wednesday that there was never a chance of defunding Obamacare, blaming politicians who said it was possible for the current government shutdown. “We started this on a fool’s errand, convincing so many millions of Americans and our supporters that we could defund Obamacare,” McCain (R-Ariz.) told Wolf Blitzer on CNN. “[That] obviously wouldn’t happen until we had 67 Republican senators to override a presidential veto.”[snip] “[It was] the people that convinced so many millions of Americans, tea partiers specifically we’re talking about, that there was some way to defund Obamacare. We can’t,” McCain said.

ohn McCain (R-AZ) is a hero of the Vietnam War. From everything we’ve been told about his harrowing experiences during his time as a Prisoner of War, he acted bravely -- heroically even -- and he should be given respect for that service to his country. Any man who is willing to lay his life on the line for his fellow citizen is worthy of our respect and admiration. All of that being said… it’s time for John McCain to ride off into the sunset. John McCain is becoming ( the Democrat’s best weapon) in their war on the Republican...

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) channeled his inner-maverick Friday during an appearance on Fox News Channel, repeatedly reminding the conservative network that the government shutdown was brought about by the quixotic effort to halt the Affordable Care Act. When anchor Martha MacCallum asked him about the White House's handling of the suspension of death benefits to military families, McCain said that while the administration deserves blame it was a GOP-induced shutdown that caused the problem in the first place.

On Friday, after blaming conservatives like Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) for the Obama administration's mishandling of military death benefits, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said Cruz simply did not represent the GOP. Fox News host Martha MacCallum mentioned that Cruz would be visiting President Barack Obama along with other Republican senators like Rand Paul (R-KY), Mike Lee (R-UT), and Marco Rubio (R-FL) at the White House on Friday. She asked McCain, "How do you feel about him representing you there?" In response, McCain smirked before saying, "First of of all, Martha, please, he's not representing us there." Also in the interview,...

The Republican party is currently in the middle of a civil war of sorts, between moderate Republicans leery of tactics like defunding Obamacare and tea party conservatives sticking to their guns, crystallized by Louie Gohmert saying at the Values Voters Summit that John McCain “supported al-Qaeda.” Gohmert took a swipe at his Senate colleague, who has been highly critical of Republicans pushing for Obamacare defunding, even suggesting2 they should be held “accountable” for lying to the GOP. That didn’t sit too well with Gohmert.

The key bit comes at the very end, in response to a question about who’s responsible for the temporary suspension of death benefits to families of fallen troops. McCain’s answer: Everyone in Congress — but, implicitly, especially the “defund” caucus. You can tell how eager Maverick was to make that point by how quickly he turns a segment about the administration giving short shrift to the military — normally an easy lay-up for a Republican against a Democratic president — into a lament about Cruz et al. I’m not sure a guy who’s positioned himself as the lead Republican opponent...

I don't seem to ever recall Democrats turning on their own like several "Republicans" have recently. I wonder how things would have turned out in the fight to defund, delay, alter ObamaCare if so-called Republicans would have listened to Reagan, when he underwent so many personal attacks during his 1966 campaign for governor, which led to the Eleventh Commandment: "Thou shatlt not speak ill of any Republican. Reagan said "It's a rule that I followed in that campaign and have ever since." McCain and others seem to like to evoke Reagan, but don't appear to follow what he said. In...

Republican Senator John McCain ripped conservative Senator Ted Cruz tonight before the final senate vote to approve a budget plan. McCain was on with Greta Van Susteren. McCain has a long history of bashing his fellow Republican. [video]

Sen. McCain says Rep. Gohmert has no intelligence, so therefore not capable of malice in his comment about McCain. #NBCNightlyNews

John McCain took a swipe at Texas Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert in an interview with NBC’s Brian Williams Wednesday night. During the interview, Williams brought up a statement Gohmert made last week at the Values Voter Summit claiming that the Republican Arizona senator supports al Qaida. Speaking at an event at the conservative conference, Gohmert referred to McCain as a “guy who’s been to Syria and supported al Qaida and rebels.” McCain told Williams that it isn’t worth responding to someone who “has no intelligence.” “Sometimes… comments like that are made out of malice, but if someone has no intelligence...

I wasn’t aware that Maverick, whose pronouncements now carry roughly the same weight with tea partiers as Obama’s, is in a position to be guaranteeing anything about how House Republicans might behave. In fact, here’s what one GOP congressman said last night after the final conference huddle: As Republican lawmakers left the closed meeting Wednesday, some were already thinking of the next fight.“I’ll vote against it,” said Representative John C. Fleming, Republican of Louisiana, referring to the Senate plan. “But that will get us into Round 2. See, we’re going to start this all over again.” If by “guarantee” McCain...

The latest outline of a potential Senate deal to end the fiscal impasse and government shutdown calls for keeping the government funded until Jan. 15 and raising the debt limit through Feb. 15, congressional aides told ABC News today. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senator Minority Leader Mitch McConnell are spearheading the negotiations as the White House postponed a planned afternoon meeting with congressional leaders to give them time to do their work. It is still a moving target, but the plan is the framework for what McConnell and Reid believe could make a deal -- "and avoid repeating...

Just turned on Fox & Friends. They said that the McCain people will be on this morning with Big news and they would immediately get a response from the Obama campaign. Meanwhile, while we wait they are FURIOUS about Acorn and are hyping the Acorn story big time.....

Do you ever feel like the Universe/God/Whoever is trying to tell you something? A couple days ago I saw Miley’s new photos. Apparently she didn’t kill Hannah Montana hard enough at the VMA’s, so she let notoriously gross photographer/video artist Terry Richardson take photos of her topless and in various other compromised states. Richardson has been accused of inappropriately touching his teenage models and exploiting underage girls. He’s the brains – or some other body part – behind Miley’s disgusting “Wrecking Ball” video, in which she rides a wrecking ball like a stripper pole in a bizarre attempt to prove...

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Wednesday said he would like to see a clean funding resolution pass the House to end the government shutdown. McCain expressed hesitancy at criticizing Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) or Republicans in the House but said he is trying to convince them to sit down and negotiate. “I would like to see that myself,” McCain said on CNN when asked if he would like to see the House take up the measure. “But also again I really am hesitant to pile on members of the House of Representatives.” “I try to keep in mind that many...

Infuriated over the delay of death benefits to fallen American soldiers due to the government shutdown, Sen. John McCain railed against the “false premise” that some Republicans have proliferated: that it is possible to repeal the Affordable Care Act. “To somehow think that we were going to repeal Obamacare, which would have required 67 Republican votes [in the Senate] was a false premise, and I think we did the American people a great disservice by convincing them somehow we could,” McCain said. "We started out with a false premise on this side of the aisle." In the Senate, 67 Republican...

Senator John McCain has been one of the strongest Republican voices in Congress opposing the conservative efforts to repeal, defund, or delay Obamacare. He took to the Senate floor on Tuesday to continue pressing that point, as well as scolding Congress and saying they should all be “ashamed” for allowing the government shutdown to keep going. McCain was set off by the news that during the shutdown, military benefits are being held up. He said Congress is so unpopular that “we’re down to blood relatives and paid staffers” at this point, asking his colleagues, “Shouldn’t we be embarrassed about this?...

Arizona Sen. John McCain and other like-minded Republican senators could end up reprising roles as key deal-makers as the party seeks a final negotiated solution to the government shutdown. With a core group of House Republicans sticking together in their chamber, and Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell taking a low public profile in the fight, that leaves McCain and similar-thinking GOP senators to look for a deal. McCain has argued over and over again that this is one battle that the Republicans simply cannot win. And most Republican senators seem to agree with him, but there is little evidence that...

Four House Republicans from Virginia have broken ranks to try to end the government shutdown and blunt its expected political fallout on Virginia's tight gubernatorial race, The New York Times reported Wednesday. U.S. Reps. J. Randy Forbes, Scott Rigell, Frank Wolf and Rob Wittman have called for a government funding bill with no policy strings attached, which, if approved, would end the shutdown. The Virginia governor's race pitting Republican Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli against Democrat Terry McAuliffe may wind up focusing on which party will take the blame for the shutdown, strategists told The Times. Swing-state Virginia is being closely...

The heck with this. (please see article at link)