Posted on 04/04/2006 1:13:02 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sen. John McCain threatened on Tuesday to cut short a speech to union leaders who booed his immigration views and later challenged his statements on organized labor and the Iraq war.
"If you like, I will leave," McCain told the AFL-CIO's Building and Construction Trades Department, pivoting briefly from the lectern. He returned to the microphone after the crowd quieted.
"OK, then please give me the courtesy I would give you."
It was a contentious session that tested McCain's commitment to the straight-talking image he honed during his failed 2000 presidential bid. An underdog six years ago, the Arizona Republican is expected to seek the 2008 GOP nomination as a front-runner.
"I loved it. I love mixing it up like that," McCain said after the speech to a Democratic-leaning crowd of several hundred.
He did seem to enjoy the back and forth that began minutes into his address, when he mentioned campaigning on behalf of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a fellow Republican. The crowd booed the reference to Schwarzenegger but laughed at McCain's self-effacing joke that followed.
He said somebody came up to him at the Schwarzenegger event and said, "Do people tell you look like John McCain?"
"Yes, they do."
"Doesn't that make you madder than hell?"
Later, the senator outlined his position on the Senate immigration debate, saying tougher border enforcement must be accompanied by guest-worker provisions that give illegal immigrants a legal path toward citizenship.
Murmurs from the crowd turned to booing. "Pay a decent wage!" one audience member shouted.
"I've heard that statement before," McCain said before threatening to leave.
Afterward, the senator said he offered to cut his speech short "because I wanted to be heard."
In the speech, McCain also argued that withdrawing U.S. troops prematurely from Iraq would turn terrorists loose on the United States.
This time, there was no booing - though one audience member cursed from the back of the crowd.
McCain got another laugh when he finished the speech and asked whether anybody had "questions, comments or insults."
The first questioner seemed to challenge his commitment to organized labor. When McCain started to praise a particular labor group in Arizona, the crowd booed again.
"Stop!" he said with a smile, drawing laughter from the crowd. "I surrender."
But he took more questions, including a pointed one on his immigration plan.
McCain responded by saying immigrants were taking jobs nobody else wanted. He offered anybody in the crowd $50 an hour to pick lettuce in Arizona.
Shouts of protest rose from the crowd, with some accepting McCain's job offer.
"I'll take it!" one man shouted.
McCain insisted none of them would do such menial labor for a complete season. "You can't do it, my friends."
Some in the crowd said they didn't appreciate McCain questioning their work ethic.
"I was impressed with his comedy routine and ability to tap dance without music. But I was impressed with nothing else about him," said John Wasniewski of Milwaukee. "He's supposed to be Mr. Straight Talk?"
Others said McCain showed some moxie, if not the best political judgment.
"Most of us don't agree with him on immigration, but I give him credit for trying," said Chris D. Schoenbeck of Milwaukee.
With his profile rising, a growing number of Democrats are accusing McCain of flip-flopping on issues to court conservative GOP primary voters.
McCain denied that charge later Tuesday - after addressing the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, a GOP-leaning group that backs his immigration views. There were no boos. Just laughter, and at the end of his remarks, a standing ovation from the Hispanic leaders.
Yet McCain's mind was still on the labor activists and their prickly reception.
"I can't tell you how much fun that was," he said.
Both! He's running as a Republican and a Democrap hybrid! A Re-Crap!
Your patently false allegation that Tancredo knowingly and intentionally allowed illegal aliens to work in his home is libelous. The only point you're it serves to make is that you are a moron.
To: Diana in Wisconsin
I would Boo him too and I live in AZ, freaking RINO
4 posted on 04/04/2006 3:15:03 PM CDT by Roverman2K
To: Roverman2K
So, you're admitting you're just as boorish as these union thugs?
6 posted on 04/04/2006 3:16:08 PM CDT by My2Cents
Nothing but Rude, Childish and Argumentative behavior.
Promises, promises, Johnny Strangelove. Probably as good as the promises you made to first wife.
I'm going to campaign real hard to "Throw the Bums Out" this fall. Maybe we can put the fear of God (and the voters) back into our elected officials if they see their incumbent buddies become unemployed in one election. Right now, I think it's the only chance we have as Americans to get control of OUR government back into OUR hands.
It's amazing someone so disconnected from reality got elected to anything, let alone Senate.
McInsane bump.
So perhaps McCain would have his illegal immigrants take ONLY the jobs that "nobody else wanted." Then it would be illegal for them to work construction, cook, move up in the job, etc. Would that be OK?
This has always been the law. And where do you get the undocumented crap from?? As a vet I can tell you've just about step on may last nerve.
His "ability to tap dance without music." In fact, there is music from throughout the country; he's just deaf to it.
To bad the McManiac is too out of it to remove himself from the republican party
Good heavens! We'd all starve if it cost that much to harvest lettuce. The sky is falling! We're doomed!
$50/hr. for picking lettuce? If it weren't for child labor laws, I even know children who would take that offer. Just because McCain is too much of a wimp to put in a hard day's work doesn't mean that others can't.
Sold his soul for medical treatment while his fellow soldiers suffered.Hero my a..!
Well of course Esquire, Congressmen tancredo, didn't intetnionally or knowingly hire illegal aliens to refininsh his basement(he hired the contractor). There has been enough parsing by the tancredo fans on FR that would make hillary blush, my point is that it has been documented in the media that tom tancredo's home theater in his basement was mostly built by people with first names such as Jose, and all I am saying is if that Mr. tancredo were true to his political rhetoric he would invite the TV cameras he loves(ala mccain, hows that for irony) and with a sledgehammer destroy the work done by "illegal" labor.
How about a government job??
I recently visited the town of Sonito AZ where there is a large Border Patrol base. There was a "Help Wanted" sign on the chain link fence surrounding the place.
I bet they pay in excess of $15.00 per hour.
Dane raises his ugly anti-Americanism again. He loves the illegals and hates conservatives & Christians. He pulls out obscure facts and I can tell you sure as shootin he has obscured or somehow altered his "facts" to make a statement that is most likely untrue in the context in which he quoted it. He is a troll... make no mistake about it.
The union may not have any manners but McCain doesnt deserve the citizens respect. I think I am in good company here, I believe Jim Robinson called McCain a "traitor".
McCain should be booed everywhere he goes. If he wants cheap votes let him go to the mexican revolution protests in our cities where he can tell the crowd how he thinks Americans are lazy.
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