Posted on 04/03/2009 6:38:57 AM PDT by rabscuttle385
The Senator from Arizona Tells Hispanics to Look to President Obama for Leadership on Immigration.
BY KIRK VICTOR
John McCain sounds angry and frustrated that, despite the risks he took in pushing immigration reform, Hispanic voters flocked to Democrat Barack Obama in last year's presidential contest. McCain's raw emotions burst forth recently as he heatedly told Hispanic business leaders that they should now look to Obama, not him, to take the lead on immigration.
The meeting in the Capitol's Strom Thurmond Room on March 11 was a Republican effort led by Sens. McCain of Arizona, John Thune of South Dakota, and Mel Martinez of Florida to reach out to Hispanics. But two people who attended the session say they were taken aback by McCain's anger.
What began as a collegial airing of views abruptly changed when McCain spoke about immigration, according to these sources, who asked not to be identified for fear of retribution. Anonymity was also requested by a third source, who was not at the meeting but was told, independently of the other two, that McCain had displayed his notorious temper.
"He was angry," one source said. "He was over the top. In some cases, he rolled his eyes a lot. There were portions of the meeting where he was just staring at the ceiling, and he wasn't even listening to us. We came out of the meeting really upset."
McCain's message was obvious, the source continued: After bucking his party on immigration, he had no sympathy for Hispanics who are dissatisfied with President Obama's pace on the issue. "He threw out [the words] 'You people -- you people made your choice. You made your choice during the election,' " the source said. "It was almost as if [he was saying] 'You're cut off!' We felt very uncomfortable when we walked away from the meeting because of that."
In 2006 and 2007, McCain was a leader on immigration, but his efforts ran aground largely because his legislation included what many Republicans derisively characterized as "amnesty," a pathway to citizenship for the nation's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants if they took a series of steps to earn legal status.
Having stuck his neck out in the past, McCain apparently is in no mood to do so again for an ethnic group he seems to view as ungrateful. On NBC's Meet the Press on March 29, McCain repeated his message that the ball is in the Democratic president's court. So far, the senator said, he has not seen much on immigration from the Obama White House, although the president recently met with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and set the goal of launching the debate in the fall, a senior administration official said.
Asked on the show whether he would work with Obama on the issue, McCain said, "At any time, I stand ready. But the president has to lead."
McCain, who declined through his spokeswoman to be interviewed about his meeting with the Hispanic leaders, has been dogged throughout his career by stories highlighting his sometimes fierce temper. Both Martinez and Thune take issue with those who said that McCain raged at the group.
"What I saw ... was John McCain saying, 'Look, I didn't get a lot of support from the Hispanic community,' which he deserved to have had," Martinez said. "It frustrated me. It frustrated him. [McCain said,] 'You guys thought this guy [Obama] was going to be your savior. Where is his leadership?' I sort of echo that. It's not like [the meeting] went badly, I don't think."
How did people attending the session react to McCain? Martinez said, "I think they thought he's still smarting a little bit. But I don't think they felt threatened or attacked or anything like that. I don't think so. My sense is the meeting was not ruined by John in any way, shape, or form."
Martinez, who is Hispanic, continued, "John is John. Sometimes when he talks, he talks forcefully. He wasn't ranting or raving or anything. I have seen John rant and rave. I don't think this was one of those moments."
Thune agreed: "It was a spirited discussion, but this sort of incendiary-type way that some people are characterizing it just doesn't fit at all the tone of the meeting." In fact, he added, "after it was over, [the guests] were taking photos [with the senators]. They were handing out business cards."
Carlos Loumiet, chairman of the board of the New America Alliance, a nonpartisan organization of American Latino business leaders, attended and said he has "nothing negative to say." McCain, he added, was "forceful on the need to bring forth comprehensive immigration and for the president to lead on it.... He was just very direct and very forceful."
McCain's communications director, Brooke Buchanan, also disputed the notion that her boss's temper had flared at the meeting. She did not attend, but said she had been briefed at length about it.
Buchanan noted McCain's history of pushing immigration reform in the face of staunch opposition from many in his party, his work across the aisle with Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and his popularity among Hispanics in Arizona.
She insisted that the 72-year-old senator's use of the words "you people" was in response to a question about people in general who had voted for Obama and was not meant to refer to Hispanics. To imply otherwise, she said, is "character assassination."
Buchanan said McCain was not angry and was simply offering "a little bit of 'straight talk,' " the senator's pet phrase for his candor. "He gets impassioned about some of these issues, and that is one of them.... Whenever anyone wants to hurt McCain, they say he is angry."
But one person's straight talk is another person's vitriol. "My hands were shaking," one source said. "I was nervous as no-end." The senator's comments went on for several minutes at least. And by the end of the meeting, another participant, who had supported McCain in last year's presidential election, was so shaken by the display of temper that he decided it is good that McCain isn't in the White House.
McCain has become irate over immigration legislation before. During negotiations over a bill two years ago, he was so enraged by the comments of Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, that he got in Cornyn's face and said, "F-- you!"
"The F.U. story, which was, like, how long ago?" Buchanan asked. "Yes, it happened, but can anyone give me any other circumstance on any subject where that happened [since then]? And, frankly, [Cornyn and McCain] work together; they campaigned for each other.... As you know, he is an impassioned guy, but he has never lost his temper in the last couple of years."
Going forward, some of McCain's allies question whether Obama will be willing to lead on immigration, especially given what they saw as his failure to take risks to advance immigration reform when he was a senator. "He was AWOL most of the time," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said of Obama in an interview in July. "I learned a lot about Obama on immigration, and it wasn't good. I learned that to talk about bipartisan change and to stick by a bipartisan deal are two different things. He came by several times, more [for] the photo ops. The only time he came by, he wanted to re-litigate something that had already been decided."
Asked recently whether he would be surprised that McCain's feelings about Hispanic voters and immigration legislation sound very raw, Graham, who also took risks in backing the legislation, which was very unpopular in South Carolina, said: "John understands politics. But he is a human being, like all of us, and it is disappointing because he really was the driving force on the Republican side ... to produce a bill that would solve this problem. And the groups that were cheering him on were gone when he needed them."
Hispanics gave Obama a whopping 67 percent of their votes, more than double the 31 percent they gave to McCain. A former colleague of McCain's, Rick Santorum, R-Pa., who opposed immigration reform, told National Journal, "John risked a lot to go out there and do what he did. They basically turned their back on him, a guy who had done a lot more for them than Barack Obama ever would. So I can understand his anger, but I also know that John doesn't get over things easily."
But Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., said in an interview that Hispanics' support for Obama was not a repudiation of McCain, who is highly regarded in the Latino community, but a repudiation of the Republican Party. "His party was his worst enemy in trying to reach out to the Latino community," Becerra said. "Left to his own devices, I think Senator McCain could have done very, very well -- and still could do well -- in the Latino community."
Martinez, upon learning -- in his words -- that National Journal was "getting a story that people were upset" about McCain's behavior at last month's meeting, called to elaborate on his earlier comments. "He did not offend people in that room," Martinez declared. "It was a cordial meeting. And, I think as I told you, John made his point about 'Obama needs to deliver, just like he promised that he would,' and that kind of thing. But, I mean, to suggest that somehow or another that this ended up as a blown-up meeting and people were upset and that McCain was ranting or anything like that, I just don't think that is accurate or the truth.
"I just don't want you to get misled by someone who is trying to screw McCain here, frankly, because he doesn't deserve it," Martinez added.
From another thread by MNSlim
“Whether you choose to recognize it or not the GOP IS the real world Party of conservatism. All this RINO stuff is self-destructive.”
There are in fact people in the republican party that are NOT conservatives but are in fact left wing socialists who call them selves republicans.
It is not self-destructive to call them what they are so we can rid the party of moroons like them. They do more damage to conservatism by being in the party. Just look at Bush, Arnold, Arleen Spector and McCain, Mccain is conservative on what, Abortion and that’s it, oh yea gay marriage.
Poor Juan. A jilted lover...
He's also very conservative on giving a rat's patootie about anyone but himself.
I voted for Sarah in November. McCain was an unremovable plantar wart on the ticket. Mark Levin convinced me last year when he said that he was voting Republican as a way to give Palin experience that she could carry to the next election.
Ordinarily I don’t jump on newbie trolls. But your swill is vintage Rino.
We all voted for McCain, though he’s a contemptible toad. He’s a first class Judas. He throws himself in front of cameras to fight with us more than his “dear friends” on the other side.
He’s getting ready to vote with the Dems on cap and tax and open borders legislation. He’s a real winner. His pandering wasn’t enough to turn the hispanic vote. What a shame.
The biggest barrier to his election as president was his own sorry self. In football axioms, he continually ran into the line on all four downs. He called penalties on his own side. His only pass during the entire game was Sarah Palin. McCain is a goober.
Yet you want to call people stupid and defend the Rinoism that gets us clobbered every election and makes the Democrats smile. Go away.
I had to take all the stuff off my home page because hateful Rino’s even wanted to blast me for the state I was born in. The more personal stuff you put there, the more the Rino’s will try to get nasty and personal. They have watched their liberal brothers shoot the hate guns and want to fire a few shells themselves.
The republican party is what is in SERIOUS disarray. The reason why Republicans were able to win big in 1994 is they cleaned house (cleaned out dead establishment republicans) in 1993 after loss to Clinton. But in this case the same losers that destroyed the party and capitalism have hung on to do more damage. You cant oppose Obama if you agree with his policies but just dont like his party name, like you apparently do.
I am flabbergasted why you don’t understand the treat of false conservative RINOs.
They support democrat polices and make it easier for democrats to win elections.
I haven’t abandoned the Republican party but do you have any idea how many conservatives have or are on the brink? Look at all the freepers who no longer consider themselves “Republicans”.
Oh... way to go! That certainly elevates the political discourse. /s
Did it ever cross your mind that people here are sick of liberals masquerading as conservatives or RINOs like McCain who take every opportunity to join with Democrats in advancing the liberal agenda?
I thought not.
Everyone should check out the subject of this thread and learn a lesson. McCain and his supporters think that pandering to Hispanics by offering up Amnesty was the way to get votes. Well -- it FAILED. Miserably. So why on earth are people here suggesting that we continue on that same path to failure?
Adopting the AlGorian global warming agenda is another sure loser. The sooner that we quit acknowledging McCain as a "Republican" the sooner the chance we have of taking our country back.
People are not attacking Republicans.
They are attacking LIBERALS.
If you don't like that, one can only wonder what you are doing on a Conservative forum.
You are not alone with regard to Rabscuttle385, but you folks baffle me. Here he is railing on McCain for saying he agrees with the newest round of military cuts.
Do you agree that F22 production should be shut down?
Do you agree that we should suspend production of our missile defense measures? Do you agree our future presidents don’t need a new Air Force 1 helicopter fleet to replace the current one?
McCain, by saying he agreed with these cuts, is giving Obama cover to do so. He is enabling Obama. He is helping to destroy our military preparedness.
So what you and others do, is shoot the messenger. Rabscuttle is merely pointing out what McCain is up to. Why do you focus on him, and not McCain?
McCain is a vile turncoat traitor to our cause. He has chummed up with George Soros when it suited him. He has nothing but kind things to say about Hillary Clinton, Ted Kennedy, John Kerry...
McCain is what he is. And getting angry with folks who have determined to take him down by any means possible, is simply an example of self destruction. Do you believe in Conservatism, Patriotism or not?
I do. And I can’t wait to see McCain jettisoned to Arizona, to live out his days where he can only screw up his own life and not ours.
I salute anyone who keeps a bastard like McCain front and center 24/7/365.
Nah... John and George were the guys that hung out with Paul and Ringo.
They made some great music but also promoted liberal politics.
;-)
Is that liberal troll still here ?
You missed McCain’s endorsement of the Obama plan to “reform” the Pentagon. He’s been mucking with it for the past decade and helped bring about many of the problems they are experiencing today. I have NO faith that he and Obambi will bring any improvement.
That time of the month I see?
How about cutting missile defense after NK thumbs it’s nose at US and Obama with missile launch? Obama gives hawkish speech so idiots back here think he is doing something, but his real response it to cut our defenses. Where is McCain? Where is Palin? (who is in striking distance)
“ Gasoline was $2.09 in the Twin Cities today. The MSM can relentlessly spam the “worst economy since the Depression” propaganda, but most folks pay their mortgages, have jobs and can’t internalize macroeconomic stuff like the Fannie Mae meltdown or a 3/10 of one percent decline in the quarterly GNP.The do know that they are saving $50 a week on gas compared to July. Banks still have money and neighbors are not being perp walked out of their homes by evicting Sheriffs. The Home Depot and Target parking lots are still full.That hits home. At some point, Joe Citizen is going to enter the privacy of their polling place and concluding ... “we’re not in crisis mode necessitating a rash change”. I think that will benefit McCain.I really think the gas prices will win the day.Take away the “Economy in Crisis” panic and Hussein Obama has no emotional hook to reel in suburbanites. ”
187 posted on Saturday, November 01, 2008 12:07:08 AM by MNSlim
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2121197/posts?page=187#187
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