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Arizona Sen. John McCain will hold a town hall meeting at 10 a.m. May 26 at the Marana Municipal Complex, 11555 W. Civic Center Drive. It’s likely to be a general information session for the public, said Marana Mayor Ed Honea. The event is free. He said the meeting would be similar to the town hall gathering conducted by former Gov. Janet Napolitano in October 2006. At that time, she fielded questions about growth and development.

From the Washington Post today: McCain had been left for dead politically this summer, and now his decision to return to a state he skipped altogether in his 2000 bid for the White House is one of the many signs that the GOP contest for president is still in search of a front-runner. McCain has surged back into a strong second place in New Hampshire, where former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, the GOP front-runner there, returned Wednesday in the hope of shoring up his eroding poll numbers. The two men traded angry, long-distance insults that signaled an abrupt end to...

The Republican Party certainly does require a "Big Tent" -- the kind of tent we sometimes see covering a house infested with termites. Unless conservatives can rid the GOP of Democrats hiding out in their midst, the Republican Party can never recover. Liberals are sapping the GOP's strength from within. It now seems that a looming divorce within the GOP has grown inevitable. Unless the Republican Party returns to its conservative principles, a number of conservatives will go on strike. They feel it is no longer acceptable for conservatives to do most of the hard work of winning elections, while...

PHOENIX (AP) - Sen. John McCain says the United States needs to do more to crack down on gun smuggling into Mexico, but that such assistance in Mexico's war against drug cartels doesn't require restrictions on the gun rights of law-abiding Americans. McCain told several thousand people at the National Rifle Association's convention in Phoenix on Friday that limiting guns sales in the United States won't prevent the cartels from buying weapons from other countries. . . . . . McCain says the U.S. government has overstated the prevalence of guns being smuggled from the United States into Mexico for...

PHOENIX (AP) - Sixty thousand people are expected to attend the National Rifle Association's annual convention that starts Friday in Phoenix. Organizers say the 3-day event is a celebration of America's Second Amendment rights and a gathering point for opponents of efforts to limit those rights. Friday's speakers include Sen. John McCain, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour and Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer.

Sen. John McCain continues to enjoy high approval ratings from Arizona’s voters, according to a new poll, but responses from his own party are potentially worrisome. Rasmussen Reports shows half of the Republicans surveyed believe McCain has lost touch with the GOP base. Conservatives are even more critical of the four-term incumbent. Still, three-fourths of Republican voters believe McCain is likely to win the primary for his seat next year. That total includes 46 percent who say it is very likely McCain’s name will be on the November 2010 ballot. Among all voters in Arizona, 45 percent say McCain has...

This week’s endorsement of Florida Gov. Charlie Crist by senior Senate Republicans is being cheered by GOP senators as a move toward the middle. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn (Texas) endorsed Crist over former state House Speaker Marco Rubio, a protégé of former Gov. Jeb Bush and a more conservative candidate. The decision by McConnell and Cornyn was the first such choice since last month’s defection of Arlen Specter to the Senate’s Democratic conference. Moderate GOP senators like Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine used that opportunity to publicly warn the...

(snip) The latest matchup: Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele vs. Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and a likely frontrunner for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. Steele cast doubt on Romney's conservative credentials Friday and said the Republican base rejected Romney because "it had issues with Mormonism" and was unsure of Romney's commitment to opposing to abortion rights. Romney's camp took issue with the suggestions that the most reliable Republican voters are intolerant and fired back Tuesday, with spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom saying, "Sometimes when you shoot from the hip, you miss the target." Sen. John McCain, Romney's former rival...

SAN FRANCISCO, May 12 (UPI) -- Meghan McCain, the 24-year-old daughter of the 2008 Republican U.S. presidential nominee, could be the upcoming face of the GOP, political analysts say. The San Francisco Chronicle reported Tuesday that the younger McCain has described herself as a pro-sex, "pro-life, pro-gay-marriage Republican." The newspaper said she appeals to younger Republicans, who could become known as the "Meghan McCain Republicans" -- interested in fiscal conservatism and less government involvement in peoples' private lives. "That's the kind of positioning it will take to appeal to more millennials," said Mike Hais, a fellow with NDN, the Washington...

John McCain says he "vehemently" objected to the Bush administration's use of harsh interrogation tactics -- and suggested Nancy Pelosi should have done the same when she first learned of waterboarding in Feb. 2003. Pelosi said she was only told Bush administration officials asserted their right to conduct enhanced interrogations during her first briefing on the topic in Sept. 2002. She learned that waterboarding had been used on high-level detainees after an aide attended a briefing in Feb. 2003 -- and tacitly supported a protest letter by Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.). I asked McCain if he bought Pelosi's argument that...

Arizona Republican voters don’t see Senator John McCain having much trouble winning the GOP Senate Primary next year, but 50% believe he has lost touch with his party’s base. Conservatives are even more critical of the longtime incumbent. Forty-three percent (43%) of Arizona Republican voters offer a more positive assessment and say McCain has done a good job representing GOP values, according to a new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the state. Nationally, 69% of GOP voters believe that Republicans in Congress are out of touch with the party’s base. A recent analysis by Scott Rasmussen suggested that the Beltway...

Sen. John McCain said Sunday that his party needs to be “inclusive” without betraying its “fundamental principles.” . . . . . Asked if being inclusive meant welcoming candidates and voters who support abortion rights or gay marriage, McCain said: “It means that we can have people in our party who do not have the same views on specific issues, as long as we share common principles.”

The NY Daily News is reporting that Republican Senator John McCain' Daughter is suffering from some sort of amnesia. The poor girl's affliction was displayed in public at the White House Correspondents' Dinner Saturday night. She showed up at the door, with only two tickets but she was trying to squeeze herself and two friends into this sold out dinner. After trying to work things out with the guards“She muttered to her friends, ‘Does he even know who the f--- I am?’ ” You see, the poor woman doesn't know who she is, she needs to ask guards who are...

The Republican Party is not an endangered species but can do a better job of outreach, recruiting candidates and getting the message out, Sen. John McCain said Sunday. In an appearance on ABC’s “This Week,” McCain responded to a question referring to a story in Time magazine, describing the party as “in distress.” “I probably would not go that length,” McCain said. “We all work in cycles for many years. We have seen parties down and parties up. That’s a great thing about American politics. “But having said that, do we have to do a better job of getting our...

WASHINGTON (CNN) – The Democratic National Committee criticized the Republican Party in a new Web video released Sunday evening for having former Vice President Dick Cheney, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Sen. John McCain serve as the GOP’s national spokesmen. The 38-second clip, posted on YouTube, opens with the statement: “Meet the New GOP Sunday Show Guests” stripped across the screen before it shows the three Republicans being introduced on the Sunday morning talk shows. The videos closing line: “The New GOP. Same As The Old GOP.”

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Sunday condemned the Obama Administration for placing a deadline on the closure of the prison at Guantanamo Bay without having a solid plan for what to do with its detainees. “What should have taken place, in my view, was the announcement of the closing and an announcement of exactly how we’re going to put these people on trial, (and) where you’re going to put people that are enemy combatants,” he said. . . . . . “I would say, I’m not going to close Guantanamo until I have a comprehensive approach to every aspect of...

Social conservatives are blasting the National Council for a New America, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor’s (R-Va.) nascent effort to rebrand the Republican Party, as a misguided and weak-kneed initiative that is out of touch with the GOP rank and file. The council, unveiled last week by Cantor and Sen. John McCain, is designed to be a “forward-looking, grass-roots caucus” that formulates policy prescriptions and communicates with voters in a way that could expand the Republican ranks. In announcing the formation of the group, McCain said he hoped the group would attract moderates and “like-minded Democrats” to a series of...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Senate unanimously approved a bill Thursday to change the costly process of procuring weapons and equipment for the military, a budget reform pushed by President Obama. Michigan Democrat Carl Levin, who sponsored the bill with Arizona Republican John McCain, called it a matter of not only saving money but protecting troops. "Our troops have a right to the best equipment that we are able to provide them," Levin said after the bill was passed. "And when we use extra excessive funds for cost overruns on some weapon systems, that means we're denying other systems which we...

Bristol Palin's new abstinence campaign shines a light on the Republican Party's unhealthy attitude about sex and desire. BY MEGHAN MCCAIN The first time I ever heard about oral sex was during the Lewinsky scandal. Mostly, I remember being confused by President Clinton’s response—“it depends on what the meaning of ‘is’ is”. When it comes to sex, politicians face all sorts of double standards: who is allowed to have sex with whom, what constitutes sex, and whether it’s appropriate, to name a few. Candie’s Foundation’s announcement that they were partnering with Bristol Palin to promote an abstinence-only campaign has caused...