McCain Rides to Kerry's Rescue: "John Kerry is Not Weak on Defense" (Today Show alert)

The Today Show

[Longbow1969]

I believe McCain would indeed seriously consider being Kerry's running mate. Kerry would only ask if his campaign were in a death spiral though - and right now it is not. A Kerry/McCain ticket would be fun for our RINO Arizona Senator for awhile, but a huge headache for Kerry in the long run. McCain would be constantly contradicting, undercutting, overshadowing, backstabbing and generally being as disloyal to Kerry as he is to the Republican Party.

If McCain signs on with Kerry, I think Bush could respond with our own unity ticket - George Bush/Zell Miller. Cheney could step aside for now, and come back as chief of staff in the next Bush Administration.

Longbow

[OldFriend]

I just called McCain's office and asked the girl who answered the phone if she could point to any comments by the Senator when ten democrats were out there attacking the president every day for months.

She said McCain had made NO comments regarding those attacks.....that she knew of.

Told her that it was strange that he would now be complaining about negative campaigning on BOTH sides.

[lawdude]

"Now I am convinced that McCain was shot down over Vietnam by someone in his own squadron."

This correlates with my suspicion that Kerry was fragged! THREE TIMES.

[unsycophant]

November 14, 2003
McCain Applauds Inclusion Of Arizona Programs In Defense Bill

Today the President signed the Fiscal Year 2004 National Defense Authorization Act, which funds important military programs located in Arizona.

The bill authorizes nearly $113 million for military construction at Arizona's bases. These funds will replace 220 military family housing units at Fort Huachuca; build a warehouse for aircraft parts, fund runway improvements, replace 93 military family housing units, and construct a helicopter squadron operations building at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. The bill will provide funds to enhance safety around protective ammunition areas and an aircraft maintenance hangar at Yuma Marine Corps Air Station; and fund construction of the Tucson Air National Guard operations and administration building. In addition, the bill adds funds for land acquisition at Luke Air Force Base to help prevent encroachment and to increase the margin of safety in the southern departure corridor where jets must takeoff when they are carrying ordnance. Last year, the defense bills provided $13 million for land acquisition for Luke AFB, raising the total to $27.3 million.

Arizona has a wide range of defense industries, ranging from small subcontractors to some of the nation s leading prime contractors. The defense industry is critical to Arizona's economy and jobs, and is particularly important in creating high technology jobs that are essential to economic growth in the state.

Senator McCain remarked, "This measure will ensure that Arizona will continue to supply our service men and women with critical tools to protect our great nation."

Some of the key Arizona programs that were funded include:

http://www.mccain2000.com/cgi-data/news/files/139.shtml

[sport]

I just sent a email to VolPac requesting that mc cain be expelled from the Republican Party because he is a pathological liar and has zero credibility.

The statements he made on the Tody show convict him by his own mouth.

There was not a shred of truth in either statement.

Will the email get results? No

[Godfollow]

Isn't he the spittin' image of the definition of the word "scumbag"?

[unsycophant]

Thank you for doing that. I am going to email and call too.

[I still care]

Everyone is always talking about McCain. I thought it would be helpful to publish his recent voting record.

He has an 84 lifetime rating from the ACU, not bad, but not as good as his fellow Senator Kyl with a 97. And last year his rating was only 75, down from 78 the year before - so he is steadily moving in the wrong direction.

Here are his votes last year:

1. for Estrada
2. against Roe vs. Wade
3. for the "Death tax"
4. against stopping Bush's taz cuts but see number 8!
5. against Bush's budget
6. against the marriage tax penalty
7. for taxing people's dividend income
8. against Bush's tax cuts
9. keep researching nuclear weapons (even Kerry voted for this)
10.against closing military bases
11. against cost saving drugs means tests for medicare
12. for malpractice reform
13.against the US funding international abortion
14.against requiring higher mileage requirements for cars
15.for restructuring overtimes rules
16.against broadcasting controls
17.against federalizing local elections
18.FOR Kyoto!
19.for the prescription drug benefit.


It's an interesting mishmash, he votes for Kyoto, which would wreck our economy, but against cars getting higher mileage? And is solidly prolife, but loves to pick peoples pocketbooks.

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Excellent analysis, IMHO, particularly the notion that McCain on the Kerry ticket would soon prove to be as much of a disloyal egomaniac to the Dems as he is to the Republicans, particularly if it began to look like the ticket was going down to defeat.

[mabelkitty]

Is this a battle between Dean and McCain for Kerry's nod of approval?

Whose support damages Kerry the most - Dean's or McCain's?

[sr4402]

McCain gaffe. But do compare that with the latest Kerry gaffe - I voted for the 87 Million before I voted against it.

[Area51]

I personally hope the SOB does accept.

Gazing into the crystal ball, Johnny See your future.
It is the same as your past.

http://www.azcentral.com/specials/special39/articles/1003mccainbook5.html

...The meeting went on. McCain was quiet, while DeConcini carried the ball. The regulators told the senators that Lincoln was in trouble. The thrift, Cirona said, was a ''ticking time bomb.''

Then Patriarca made a stunning comment, according to transcripts released later.

''We're sending a criminal referral to the Department of Justice,'' he said. ''Not maybe, we're sending one. This is an extraordinarily serious matter. It involves a whole range of imprudent actions. I can't tell you strongly enough how serious this is. This is not a profitable institution.''

The statement made DeConcini back off a little.

''The criminality surprises me,'' he said. ''We're not interested in discussing those issues. Our premise was that we had a viable institution concerned that it was being overregulated.''

''What can we say to Lincoln?'' Glenn asked.

''Nothing,'' Black responded, ''with regard to the criminal referral. They haven't, and won't be told by us that we're making one.''

''You haven't told them?'' Glenn asked.

''No,'' said Black. ''Justice would skin us alive if we did. Those referrals are very confidential. We can't prosecute anyone ourselves. All we can do is refer it to Justice.''

After the meeting, McCain was done with Keating.

''Again, I was troubled by the appearance of the meeting,'' McCain said later. ''I stated I didn't want any special favors from them. I only wanted them (Lincoln Savings) to be fairly treated.''

Black doesn't completely buy that argument. If McCain was concerned about Keating asking him to do things that were improper, why go to either meeting at all?

Black said McCain probably went because Keating was close to being the political godfather of Arizona and McCain still had plenty of ambition.

''Keating was incredibly powerful,'' Black said. ''And incredibly useful.''

McCain's reservations aside, Keating accomplished his goal. He had bought some time, though the price was very high.
SHORT-LIVED REPRIEVE
A month later, the San Francisco regulators finished a yearlong audit and recommended that Lincoln be seized. But the report was virtually ignored because of politics on the bank board.

Gray was being replaced as chairman by Danny Wall, who was more sympathetic to Keating.

The audit, which described Lincoln as a thrift reeling out of control, sat on a shelf.

In September 1987, the investigation was taken away from the San Francisco office, away from Black and Patriarca. In May 1988, it was transferred to Washington, where Lincoln would get a new audit.

It was a win for Keating. A battle, not the war.

In Phoenix, the move sparked a triumphant party at the posh headquarters of American Continental.

Someone hurled a computer from the second floor, shattering a window. Keating, all 6-feet-5 of him, struck a Superman pose and ripped open his shirt to display a hand-drawn skull and crossbones over the letters FHLBB - the Federal Home Loan Bank Board.

A secretary climbed onto a desk to take photos, and American Continental executive Robert Kielty joined her. Keating grabbed a roll of tape and lashed their legs together.

Potted plants were knocked over. Beer and champagne were spilled on the carved wood desks. Kielty took a bottle of champagne and poured it down another secretary's blouse.

''Get this champagne colder,'' Keating yelled.

Back in San Francisco, Black was fuming.

''Clearly, we were shot in the back,'' he would say later.

Despite the reprieve, Keating's businesses continued to spiral downward, taking the five senators with him. News of the meeting leaked out, and now all five men were answering some very embarrassing questions.

''Did you lean on regulators for Charlie Keating?''

''Did you get campaign contributions in exchange for your cooperation?''

''Why did you protect Keating?''

Together, the five senators had accepted more than $300,000 in contributions from Keating, and their critics added a new term to the American lexicon:

Keating Five.

As the S&L failure deepened, the sheer magnitude of the losses hit the press. Billions of dollars had been squandered. The Keating Five became shorthand for the kind of political influence that money can buy. The five senators were linked as the gang who went to bat for an S&L bandit.

S&L ''trading cards'' came out. The Keating Five card showed Charles Keating holding up his hand, with a senator's head adorning each finger. McCain was on Keating's pinkie.

As the Keating investigation dragged through 1988, McCain dodged the body blows. Most landed on DeConcini, who had arranged the meetings and had other close ties to Keating, including $50 million in loans from Keating to DeConcini's aides.

But McCain made a critical error.

In spinning his side of the Keating story, McCain adopted the blanket defense that Keating was a constituent and that he had every right to ask his senators for help. In attending the meetings, McCain said, he simply wanted to make sure that Keating was treated like any other constituent.

Keating was far more than a constituent to McCain, however.

On Oct. 8, 1989, The Republic revealed that McCain's wife and her father had invested $359,100 in a Keating shopping center in April 1986, a year before McCain met with the regulators.

The paper also reported that the McCains, sometimes accompanied by their daughter and baby-sitter, had made at least nine trips at Keating's expense, sometimes aboard the American Continental jet. Three of trips were made during vacations to Keating's opulent Bahamas retreat at Cat Cay.

McCain also did not pay Keating for the trips until years after they were taken, when he learned that Keating was in trouble over Lincoln. Total cost: $13,433.

When the story broke, McCain did nothing to help himself. When reporters first called him, he was furious. Caught out in the open, the former fighter pilot let go with a barrage of cover fire. Sen. Hothead came out in all his glory.

''You're a liar,''' McCain snapped Sept. 29 when a Republic reporter asked him about business ties between his wife and Keating.

''That's the spouse's involvement, you idiot,'' McCain said later in the same conversation. ''You do understand English, don't you?''

He also belittled the reporters when they asked about his wife's ties to Keating.

''It's up to you to find that out, kids.''

And then he played the POW card.

''Even the Vietnamese didn't question my ethics,'' McCain said.

The paper ran the story a few days later. At a news conference, McCain was a changed man. He stood calmly for 90 minutes and answered every question.

On the shopping center, his defense was simple. The deal did not involve him. The shares in the shopping center had been purchased by a partnership set up between McCain's wife and her father.

But McCain also had to explain his trips with Keating and why he didn't pay Keating back right away.

On that score, McCain admitted he had fouled up. He said he should have reimbursed Keating immediately, not waited several years. His staff said it was an oversight, but it looked bad, McCain jetting around with Keating, then going to bat for him with the federal regulators...

[Consort]

No I will not do that.

Then you are part of the porblem.

If the race is between an backstabing RINO who is doing the GOP plenty of harm versus a Dem, I vote for a 3rd party and hope the GOP gets rids of the other RINOs.

...and you are misguided, as well.

They've done plenty of harm to the party and should NOT be rewarded with conservative votes.

...and you are also a necro (death-wish) conservative.

Your philosophy is why nutcase McCain is able to quack with impunity.

McCain's "R", just like a Conservative's "R" has equal weight if it means the difference as to which party controls the Senate. Right now, McCain's "R" (like Snowe's or Chafee's, etc.) allow conservatives to be Senate Committee chairman (instead of only ranking members) and set the Senate agenda, etc. Yes? No?

[Walkingfeather]

FRIST yank this guys office support staff funds, move his office to the basement, isolate this idiot and make HATCH help move the furniture to get the message to him. THis guy should have NO support from the GOP, and it needs to be violently swift.

[OldFriend]

Toll free number for the US Capitol. Connects to anyone's office and you can start out by saying you are a consituent. They have no way to know.

1-877-762-8762

[KantianBurke]

Eh. You go ahead and make excuses for the McCain's of the party. Just don't be surprised or bitch when they become turncoats like Jeffords. The rest of us will use what's called "critical thinking" when it comes to our votes. Principles, not blind loyalty.

[SquirrelKing]

why do you watch this tripe...

Rather him than me.

[Area51]

On Oct. 8, 1989, The Republic revealed that McCain's wife and her father had invested $359,100 in a Keating shopping center in April 1986, a year before McCain met with the regulators.

The paper also reported that the McCains, sometimes accompanied by their daughter and baby-sitter, had made at least nine trips at Keating's expense, sometimes aboard the American Continental jet. Three of trips were made during vacations to Keating's opulent Bahamas retreat at Cat Cay.

McCain also did not pay Keating for the trips until years after they were taken, when he learned that Keating was in trouble over Lincoln. Total cost: $13,433.

When the story broke, McCain did nothing to help himself. When reporters first called him, he was furious. Caught out in the open, the former fighter pilot let go with a barrage of cover fire. Sen. Hothead came out in all his glory.

''You're a liar,''' McCain snapped Sept. 29 when a Republic reporter asked him about business ties between his wife and Keating.

''That's the spouse's involvement, you idiot,'' McCain said later in the same conversation. ''You do understand English, don't you?''

He also belittled the reporters when they asked about his wife's ties to Keating.

''It's up to you to find that out, kids.''

And then he played the POW card.

''Even the Vietnamese didn't question my ethics,'' McCain said. The paper ran the story a few days later. At a news conference, McCain was a changed man. He stood calmly for 90 minutes and answered every question.

On the shopping center, his defense was simple. The deal did not involve him. The shares in the shopping center had been purchased by a partnership set up between McCain's wife and her father.

But McCain also had to explain his trips with Keating and why he didn't pay Keating back right away.

Who ate the STRAWBERRIES?

[kittymyrib]

Actually, the promise was that it would never exceed 3%, and that on only the wealthiest tax payers...but you know how much a politician's promise is worth once he has his grasping fingers in your bank account!

[jwalsh07]

McCain should be truned out of office. If I lived In Arizona there is no way I could vote for him. He is an enemy of the first amendment, an enemy of Bush and an embittered man who places his own bitterness above his party and country.