Free Republic

(AP) BENGHAZI, Libya - U.S. Sen. John McCain, one of the strongest proponents in Congress of the American military intervention in Libya, said Friday that Libyan rebels fighting Moammar Gadhafi’s troops are his heroes. (snip) When Obama acted with limited congressional consultation, McCain - who was the 2008 Republican presidential contender running against Obama - defended the president, saying he couldn’t wait for Congress to take even a few days to debate the use of force. If he had, "there would have been nothing left to save in Benghazi," the rebels’ de-facto capital.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Tuesday credited Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) for making "the right decision" with her veto of the so-called "birther bill," which would have required presidential candidates to submit their birth certificates in order to qualify for the ballot. -snip- Legislation like this has been offered in a number of state legislatures across the country, driven by persistent speculation in some quarters that President Obama was not born in Hawaii. No similar law had gotten as far as a governor's desk, however. McCain, Obama's 2008 Republican rival, said in a message posted to Twitter Tuesday afternoon...

Washington - Sen. John McCain, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, calls Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton an “international star” but sharply criticizes the Obama administration’s policy on Libya. At a Monitor-sponsored breakfast for reporters on Wednesday, Senator McCain, the 2008 Republican candidate for president, was asked to rate President Obama’s national security team. “I think the international star is Secretary Clinton,” McCain said. “She has done a really tremendous job.”

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--Two Senate Republicans joined an effort to rapidly wind down government controlled mortgage titans Fannie Mae (FNMA) and Freddie Mac (FMCC), hoping to put pressure on Democrats to take action soon. Sens. John McCain (R., Ariz.) and Orrin Hatch (R., Utah) introduced a bill Thursday to wind down or privatize Fannie and Freddie over the next five years. Their bill mirrors one introduced earlier this month by Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R., Texas). "The events of the past three years have made it clear that never again can we allow the taxpayer to be responsible for poorly managed financial...

Arizona's stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border is still not secure despite improvements, and ending the National Guard mission there is ill-advised, Sen. John McCain said Thursday. (snip) McCain spoke to reporters after a border tour he took alongside four fellow Republican lawmakers from Arizona: Rep. Jeff Flake, Rep. Paul Gosar, Rep. Ben Quayle and Rep. David Schweikert. The group toured the border near Nogales and Douglas and met in Tucson with officials from the Arizona High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, or HIDTA. While in Douglas, they met with the widow of rancher Robert Krentz who was killed a year ago...

With a non-fly effectively put into place over Libya, Sen. John McCain says momentum in the fighting between the Muammar Qaddafi regime and rebel fighters can now swing back to anti-Qaddafi forces, but acknowledges they will need more weapons and better training. McCain, R-Ariz., said on CBS' "The Early Show" that he hopes the United States, or others in the international community, supplies rebels with arms, as it once did insurgents fighting the Russian occupation of Afghanistan. (snip) "If the goal then is to get him out, does that ultimately mean that the U.S. could end up arming the rebels...

A friend of mine recently wrote to the senior senator from Arizona regarding his anticipated "reaching out" to the other side on gun control. The senator's response is clearly a form letter, so I am not revealing privileged information by reproducing it here. My response follows. Thank you for contacting me regarding the Tucson shooting tragedy and its impact on federal gun control legislation. I appreciate hearing from you on this vital issue. On January 8, 2011, a gunman committed a senseless atrocity by murdering six people and wounding many others, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, outside of a grocery store...

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Two influential US senators Monday filed a resolution calling for President Barack Obama to recognize the Libyan opposition force battling against the regime of Moamer Kadhafi. The resolution, which does not carry the weight of becoming law if passed, also urges Obama to support a proposed no-fly zone over Libya to protect the rebels, who have been in retreat from Kadhafi's forces in recent days. It also asks Obama's administration to develop a strategy aimed at fulfilling the president's stated goal: the end of the Kadhafi regime. Senator John McCain, who co-authored the resolution with Senator Joseph...

WASHINGTON -- Sen. John McCain called Moammar Khadafy "insane" today as he reaffirmed his call for a US-backed no-fly zone over Libya to prevent its embattled leader from using aircraft to slaughter its citizens. During an interview on ABC News' "This Week," McCain told Christiane Amanpour that the US cannot "risk allowing Gadhafi to massacre people from the air, both by helicopter and fixed-wing [aircraft]." McCain (R-Ariz.) furthered reiterated his support for imposing a no-fly zone, saying Ghadafi's air assets were "not overwhelming." "Let's just call a spade a spade. A no-fly zone begins with an attack on Libya to...

(snip) "We are spending over $500 billion dollars, not counting Iraq and Afghanistan, on our nation's defense. Don't tell me we can't do a no fly zone over Tripoli," the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services said at the Atlantic Council Tuesday evening. "I love the military, I love it, it's been my life, but they always seem to find reasons why you can't do something rather than why you can," Sen. McCain said. (snip) On Libyan leader Qaddafi, McCain said, "This guy's days are numbered. The question is -- is can we shorten those number of days to...

Senators Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and John McCain, R-Ariz., both expressed disappointment Sunday that President Obama has not responded more forcefully against the violence spreading in Libya and called for the arming of rebel forces in that country. (snip) Lieberman stopped short of calling for direct American military involvement, but McCain did not rule it out. "I think there possibly could be," the Arizona Republican said of using military force, though he hastily added that Libyan pilots are sure to obey a no-fly zone.

CHAMPAIGN – Economist Douglas Holtz-Eakin said he's optimistic the United States can and will solve its problems. But the problems he outlined Thursday – many of them budgetary – are massive and daunting. Holtz-Eakin, director of the Congressional Budget Office from 2003 to 2005, advocated "ruthlessly pro-growth" policies during the annual Bazzani Lecture in Public Affairs on the University of Illinois campus. (snip) His recipe includes reforming Social Security by raising the retirement age for younger workers and putting Medicare and Medicaid "on a budget." Cuts must include defense, especially "legacy systems" that are no longer needed, he said. (snip)...

The politician who once best exemplified the idea of a "maverick" independent has shifted so far to the right that he is now tied for the title of the Senate's most conservative member, according to National Journal's 2010 vote ratings. According to a comprehensive examination of 96 Senate votes taken in 2010, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., along with seven of his colleagues, voted most often on the conservative side. His 89.7 composite conservative score ties him with stalwarts like Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., and gives him a more conservative score than Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Jeff Sessions, R-Ala. (snip)...

Meghan McCain, daughter of U.S. Senator John McCain spoke at Indiana State University tonight. McCain shared her experience on the campaign trail with her father as well as where she sees the country going politically. One big goal of hers is to redefine republicanism."I have two theories. The first is in the next election Republicans will nominate a very extreme conservative. If that happens I think that the idea of a third party rising up could happen for the first time in history," McCain said.

(snip) Of his campaign rival, President Obama, McCain revealed that they now have a "common interest" and "common values" that will help them work together. Specifically, McCain believes the two could cooperate on "enhanced rescission" and "once we get the border secure…immigration reform," along with "several other issues."(snip)

The president has become more centrist, which makes him easier to work with, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Thursday. Speaking with Bloomberg Television a day after a private meeting with President Obama, McCain said he could picture working with Obama on several issues going forward. "I think there's a number of issues we could work on together, and I think it's pretty clear that the president has really pivoted to a much more centrist position, which I think makes it much more for us easier to work with him," McCain said. (snip) McCain said he thought he and Obama could...

U.S. Sen. John McCain won’t be backing former running mate Sarah Palin in the 2012 presidential race. In fact, McCain told Politico.com he won’t be backing any other candidates as Republicans look to defeat President Barack Obama. “I think I’m staying out of this for the first time in many years,” McCain told the news website this week.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - President Barack Obama will meet with his former rival, Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona Wednesday afternoon. The White House announced the closed press Oval Office meeting Tuesday.

(snip) McCain admitted while he felt invincible as a 20 year old testing himself and the very expensive planes the government allowed him to operate. “I wasn’t even very distressed when I found myself in my airplane sitting on the bottom of Corpus Christi Bay one fine day,” McCain confessed in front of his son and other young aviators. “I swam to the surface, went to my quarters, changed my clothes, took a couple aspirin and headed out for another night’s entertainment with my fellow bachelor officers. “Kick the tires and light the fires.” I loved the image of a...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 30 (UPI) -- U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said Sunday that elections planned for September were a key to maintaining stability in Egypt. McCain, a conservative and ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said a plan to ensure fair elections in the fall needed to be laid out promptly and stuck to in order to ensure the Egyptian people their grievances were being addressed. "There is also a good chance for a real functioning democracy and arguably the most important nation in the middle East," McCain said on CNN's "State of the Union."