Posted on 03/08/2014 2:14:28 PM PST by VitacoreVision
John McCain Says Ted Cruz "Crossed a Line," Should Apologize to Bob Dole
08 March 2014
Senator John McCain (shown) yesterday accused Senator Ted Cruz of having "crossed a line" when the Texas Republican claimed that the GOP's most recent losing presidential candidates — Bob Dole, McCain, and Mitt Romney — "don't stand for principle." McCain, the five-term Republican senator from Arizona and the party's 2008 nominee, said Cruz owed Dole an apology.
Cruz, in a speech Thursday at the Conservative Political Action Conference, told the crowd the three losing presidential candidates should have stood up for their views. "All of us remember President Dole, President McCain, and President Romney," Cruz said facetiously. "All of those are good men, those are decent men — but when you don't stand and draw a clear distinction, when you don't stand for principle, Democrats celebrate," he said.
"He can say what he wants to about me and he can say anything he wants to about Mitt," the senator from Arizona said on MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell Reports. "But when he throws Bob Dole in there, I wonder if he thinks that Bob Dole stood for principle on that hilltop in Italy, when he was so gravely wounded and left part of his body there fighting for our country?"
...
John McCain got INTO the Naval Academy in the first place, because he was a “heritage” applicant. His father and grandfather were both flag rank officers, and if John had not been such a squirrel, BEFORE he was captured by the VC, he probably stood in line to become a flag rank officer himself.
But John Sidney McCain III (the full name of the GOP Presidential campaign of 2008) was something of a misfit, with few distinguishing characteristics as an officer, and had he not been the son and grandson of admiral officers held in high regard by the Navy, he would have been drummed out long before he was captured by the VC following what had been a record of poor regard for the equipment for which he was given responsibility, being involved in several crashes and a near-death experience on the USS Forrestal. To be honest, McCain was only there in the line of a very serious fire involving another plane first, but which resulted in the deaths and injury of a large number of sailors and serious disabling of the aircraft carrier, subsequent to which time he was transferred to another carrier, the USS Oriskany.
There is an old saying about there being old pilots, and there are bold pilots, but there are no old, bold pilots.
McCain’s judgment was high-risk at best, as he had a tendency to ignore training manuals and schedules, and would push the envelope more than a little on occasion, including the day he was shot down over North Viet Nam on October 26, 1967. On a raid where he was coming in a little closer and hotter, a SAM missile took off the wing of his
craft, and his problems only got worse from then on. Suffering two broken arms and a broken leg after ejecting, he came down in a lake, where he was fished out of the water by civilian Vietnamese, who proceeded to brutalize him and kick him about. And this was even before the Viet Cong got to him.
McCain, to his everlasting credit, probably suffered an uncommon degree of abuse and privation that would have killed anybody with a lesser will to live, and equaled or exceeded what most other prisoners of the Viet Cong endured. That he finally gave up some information beyond name, rank, serial number and date of birth, none of it was to prove to be of any real use to the Viet Cong.
What I find troublesome here is Ted Cruz even mentioning these men’s conduct as a benchmark to boost his own perceived political saleability, through his own implicit praise of himself. None of these past candidates were my favorites, but it was not the best forum to condemn them with faint praise. That’s what marks Ted as a little too brash, and probably due for some correctional experiences yet.
Ted Cruz has had a meteoric rise during his short time as a Senator, thanks in part to John McCain’s foolish attacks on him.
Being called a ‘’wacko-bird’’ and other epithets by a Senator who can’t control his compulsion to speak into any microphone within a ten-block radius of his mouth has greatly enhanced Ted Cruz’s name recognition throughout the country.
In addition, being criticized by Senator McCain, who has the lowest approval rating among his own constituents of any U.S. Senator, enhances Ted Cruz’s stature as the antidote to John McCainism — i.e., a young principled Republican being attacked by a curmudgeonly old windbag who should have retired years ago.
Who cares what this a-hole says. He’s a jerk-face and needs to evaporate.
Ted Cruz was making a very valid point about the Republicans running as democrat lites and always losing. That was the point, that Republican candidates need to firmly say what they believe and not be afraid of it. That is what gets them to the White House. How anyone could be even remotely offended by what he said is just ridiculous and are just trying to change the subject away from the truth.
Are you a troll? Seriously. You need not look back more that 4 years to see what McCrazy has done for the cause. He attacks someone for doing What they said they would do when running for office, along with his RINO voting record.
John McCain is addicted to power, Cruz threatens his place. John isn’t happy about.
McLame didn’t have the guts to say he was offended by what Cruz said about him, not what he said about Dole. Typical whining from a grumpy old loser who went senile a couple of decades ago.
No, I don't care for McCain's or Romney's politics or behavior, but one's candidacy should not be merely based on rejecting past candidates. I feel it should be that of creating one's own legacy, and running on it, as Reagan did.
Cruz may be an acceptable candidate, but we have yet to see what compromises he will have to make to run on the national ticket. It's a little too early to tell.
We already have someone for 9+ years who ran on the premise of "change," without making the public look very closely at both his almost nonexistent record and his pronounced communistic philosophy.
Hey John McInsane...Cruz wasn’t talking about WWII, ya clown. He was talking about the political fights. And you know it.
So cram it, ya kook.
frankly.... these two gents do not get a life-time free pass to do and say whatever they want...
Exactly!
Will someone please wipe mccain’s mouth and tuck him in bed?!?
Ted Cruz is right about Dole — and McCain and Romney too. John McCain should apologize to Ted Cruz — and to America.
John McCain - still reaching across the aisle to do the democrats dirty work for them.
” Maybe in another 20 years of faithful service —”
Faithful service? To what?
Good point. Sounds like we need more than one Ted Cruz, maybe a few million, born and raised in America with Christian principles.
I'm not "war weary", the excuse they give for diminishing support from the American People for the war on terror. What I'm tired of is getting into these wars with no plan for victory. They create these endless no win wars.
Win it or get out. Why waste American lives and treasure in no win wars?
McCain bringing up the service record of Bob Dole and subtly implying Cruz insulted McCain, also, was a smokescreen to deflect the truth of what Cruz stated.
If stating what millions of fed-up Republicans already know is being 'brash' and, in your opinion, requires 'correctional experiences' then the GOP is in serious trouble with conservatives. We've sat by and watched the alleged wise men of the party hierarchy effectively cede winnable elections to the Democrat while the Republican candidate 'took the high road' - to defeat. We're done with that and if the GOP insists on trying the same tactic and getting the same defeats, we're done with the Republican party and it's aversion to 'brash' senators who state the truth.
“or raised a family of decent children”
Whoa there pard, he’s just tired like a lot of folks of dirty crooks that cook the books!
I was referring to Romney, the third of Cruz's unholy trimvirate. Is that toward whom your comment is addressed?
Though I dislike his religion and his politics, seems like he has raised children who have not yet become an embarrassment. Or was I wrong?
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