Posted on 05/23/2013 3:26:50 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Via Joel Gehrke, a scene from the intramural debate over the debt ceiling between Maverick McCain and the Paul/Lee/Cruz tea-party coalition. If you read Erika’s post last night, you already know the background. The tea partiers are threatening to block the Senate’s budget from being sent to the House for a conference committee unless Reid assures them that whatever emerges won’t raise the debt ceiling. (Or, if it does, that 60 votes will be required for passage rather than the simple majority typically required for budget bills.) Reid won’t budge on that — yet. McCain, who’s been busy lately recouping lots of Strange New Respect that he lost five years ago when he momentarily became the left’s chief obstacle to power, has spent the last 24 hours effectively siding with Reid. Whether that’s because he’s a stickler for traditional Senate procedure or because he disdains the new generation of Senate conservatives for being too brash in asserting themselves (and for not being as interventionist as he’d like), I leave to you to decide. In Maverick’s defense, he’s been consistent in criticizing irregular GOP maneuvering on the debt ceiling — and in dumping on tea partiers for driving it. From 2011:
McCain said conservatives’ insistence that an increase in the debt ceiling be accompanied by a balanced budget amendment was “worse than foolish” because it couldn’t get through the Senate.
Reading from the [Wall Street Journal] editorial, McCain continued:
“The idea seems to be that if the House GOP refuses to raise the debt ceiling, a default crisis or gradual government shutdown will ensue and the public will turn en masse against Barack Obama…. Then Democrats would have no choice but to pass a balanced-budget amendment and reform entitlements, and the tea party hobbits could return to Middle-earth having defeated Mordor.
“This is the kind of crack political thinking that turned Sharron Angle and Christine O’Donnell into GOP Senate nominees,” he said, referring to the failed tea-party-backed candidates from Nevada and Delaware.
He got irritated with his foreign-policy and immigration ally Marco Rubio over this last night too, and this morning accused Mike Lee of being, well, ignorant:
“Perhaps the senator from Utah doesn’t know about that — the fact that even if they did raise the debt limit, it could not become law because it doesn’t go to the president of the United States,” McCain said. “So again, maybe the senator from Utah ought to learn a little bit more about how business has been done in the Congress of the United States.”
As is usually the case with McCain, the excessive nastiness in his criticism leaves you wondering how much of this is about policy and procedure and how much of it is driven by deeper personal dislike. Here’s Cruz reveling in Maverick’s annoyance by answering his attack on Lee with an 11-minute speech, the highlight of which comes at around 6:00 with a reference to McCain’s now-infamous (and since apologized-for) dubbing of Cruz and Rand Paul as “wacko birds.” He’s going to have endless fun tweaking Mac during their time in the Senate together, isn’t he?
Hilarious. I hope Lee, Cruz, and Paul drive Maverick absolutely crazy (which, of course, would be a short drive).
Just take his car keys from him, stick a pudding cup in his pocket and call megan to come get him over to the home....where he’ll be cared for ...
Hanoi John needs to be Baker Act. He is mentally ill
A stroke might help him.
Tea Party hobbits? Really? WOW Arizona he has really jumped the shark...he needs to run as a dim next election, if he runs as an R I hope he loses BIG time. Doesn’t Sara have a house in AZ????
Bullshit! He was not completely exonerated
Check the Congressional records.
The Senate sencured him for his actions/ dealings with Charles Keating.
He jumped in bed with a crook. You are known by the friends you keep!
“He might bait hinm into a stroke.”
“That would be a terrible shame. I’ll almost shed a tear.”
I almost fell off my chair.
Cruz is a wordsmith, a very good one at that!
johnny
McCain got off because he could claim he and his wife were social friends with the bribers. Keating and Mc were both Navy fliers and Keating had supported Mc financially in politics before the S&L scandal. That long-time preexisting relationship saved Mc, because he did indeed pressure regulators to back off Keating’s S&L.
Direct link to the youtube if you’re interested. Cruz is oh so civilly telling McCrazy to go to hell.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=WmjM9JHnktg
I saw that , had to go full screen on the vid.
>> Juan is senile. He needs to go home.
He’s not senile. He’s an asshole.
McCain had the good luck to have John Glenn also involved in the Keating scandal. There was no way the Senate was going to declare America’s astronaut hero a crook. There was also no way the George H.W. Bush Justice Department would prosecute Glenn. The Keating 5 got off with a slap on the wrist allowing McCain to dodge the bullet that should have ended his career.
After that incident McCain started courting the press aggressively. He adopted the “maverick” persona, stabbing fellow Republicans in the back in order to win the adulation of the press and befriend the Democrat power structure the press supported. He became the reasonable Republican who would compromise. He also became the Republican star of the Sunday talk show circuit because he would reliably provide sound bites undercutting conservatives.
McCain is an opportunist with no guiding principles or ethics. His inflated ego requires him to be the media star. Unfortunately for McCain his advancing years mean he will soon pass from the scene. His long time buddies in the press are retiring and their replacements are looking for newer and younger politicians to interview. As McCain sees Graham, Rubio, Cruz and others take the air time he believes is rightfully his, he seems to be making more outrageous statements in order to grab attention from the media. What he fails to understand is the act has run its course. He now looks like the old fool he is instead of the compromising statesman. The media now gives him air time so the liberal audience can laugh at the old white man who lost to Obama. McCain’s antics are now useful because they give credence to the Democrat talking points that the GOP is the party of mean old irrelevant white men.
Wacko-bird Johnny seems to think it's his, and the Senate's, duty to get bills through the Senate whether they're good or destructive. Maybe that explains all his Dim a$$-kissing through the years - give them what they want and the bills go through...
McCain should be shining Cruz’s shoes. He simply is not in the same league as Cruz when it comes to intellect, competence and character.
Cruz was a champion debater in his Princeton days. He also graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, with Alan Dershowitz saying he was one of the smartest students he ever taught there. McCain barely graduated from the Naval Academy after being admitted only because his father and grandfather were admirals. McCain arguing with Cruz is like bringing a pea shooter to a machine gun fight.
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