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WASHINGTON, Libya (AFP) — Senator John McCain called Sunday for urgent US medical aid to help thousands wounded in Libya, amid a growing humanitarian crisis as revolutionary forces battle the final vestiges of the Moamer Kadhafi regime. "They've got thousands and thousands of wounded. They say that they've lost 25,000 people killed, 3,000 have been maimed, 60,000 injured. That's their government figures," McCain told CBS television's "Face the Nation" program. "We should be helping them," said the influential US lawmaker, a Vietnam War aviator and prominent voice on US military matters who also was the Republican Party's losing 2008 presidential...

Veteran Sen. John McCain has had enough with tea-party-aligned lawmakers who have vowed not to vote to raise the debt ceiling before passage of a constitutional balanced budget amendment. The Arizona Republican, the GOP’s 2008 presidential nominee, described their position as “foolish,” “deceiving, even bizarro,” given Americans’ anxiety about the sliding stock market, a halt on hiring and the possibility of higher interest rates related to the looming default.

Mr. McCain mocked Tea Party-allied Republicans in the House for believing — wrongly, he said — that President Obama and Democrats will get the blame for a default if Republicans refuse to increase the nation’s debt ceiling. By that flawed logic, “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,” he said, quoting a Wall Street Journal editorial. “This is the kind of crack political thinking that turned Sharron Angle and Christine O’Donnell into G.O.P. nominees,” he jeered, referring to two losing Tea Party...

As rain splatters the windows of Sen. John McCain’s second-floor office on Capitol Hill, the 74-year-old Arizona Republican leans back, clasps his hands, and recalls the Nineties. Brinksmanship, he says, cost the party then, and it could cripple Republicans this summer — especially if Rep. Michele Bachmann gets her way. Over in the House, “I am told that it is very difficult,” McCain says. “There are Republicans who are committed, like Michele Bachmann, to vote against raising the debt limit under any circumstances.” Bachmann, he warns, is acting “sort of like Senator Obama did.”(snip) Yet as poorly as Obama has...

GLENDALE, Ariz. – Sen. John McCain hasn't always talked tough on immigration. That haunted his presidential ambitions, and now his political survival hinges on whether he can show that his conversion is genuine. It hasn't been easy. Boycotts, vigils and a legal fight over the state's attempted crackdown on illegal immigrants have kept voters attuned to each nuance in his run for re-election. "Since 2007, I've said we have to secure the border first. I said it in 2008 and 2009 and 2010," McCain told 120 people at a town hall meeting in suburban Phoenix. Leaning against the back wall...

PHOENIX - In the race for U.S. Senate, J.D. Hayworth is accusing John McCain of flip-flopping on the issue of illegal immigration. Does McCain want border security or a path to citizenship for illegals -- or both? McCain once championed comprehensive immigration reform that would allow people here illegally a path to citizenship. "The present situation with broken borders and 11 million people that are in America without citizenship is unacceptable," he said on the campaign trail. Now McCain says border security must come first before tackling what to do with the 12 million illegals already living in the u.s.....

Phoenix, AZ (April 13) – Following yesterday’s shocking admission by former McCain advisor Mark McKinnon that John McCain would vote to confirm Hillary Clinton to the U.S. Supreme Court, J.D. Hayworth said “it’s time to bring John home.” “Any senator willing to even consider giving Hillary Clinton a life-time position to this land’s highest court is clearly out of touch with Arizona and the rest of the nation for that matter,” he said. Hayworth said her record is so far left that she should not even be on a short-list for consideration. “From Whitewater, to HillaryCare Round One to ObamaCare...

PHOENIX - Arizona Senator John McCain is getting some heat because of video made by his campaign. A Web video just released by the McCain campaign is under the guise of being a message from his U.S. Senate race opponent former Congressman J.D. Hayworth. "I've stood up against the grave threat of man-horse marriage," the announcer says on the video, followed by Hayworth's own comments, "if you really had affection for your horse, you could marry your horse." CNN's Anderson Cooper says the video attacks Hayworth on things that some Republicans take seriously. Republican strategist Ed Rollins says McCain should...

(snip) Hayward should turn the tables on McCain. You see, aside from Obama, no one is more to blame for the continuing controversy over the missing birth certificate and the eligibility issue than is … John McCain. In fact, you could easily call John McCain "the father of the birther movement," or "the author of the birther movement." Why? Because McCain did something very strange during the 2008 campaign. When the press and obviously partisan groups like FactCheck.org and even McCain's colleagues in Congress raised questions about his constitutional eligibility to become president as a "natural born citizen," McCain quietly...

John McCain's campaign is having a great deal more fun this year than in 2008, relentlessly attacking a primary rival who could be a real threat. See video at link

Sarah Palin said Wednesday that the embattled chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC) is "doing a great job." During an appearance on conservative commentator Sean Hannity's show on the Fox News Channel, Palin said, "I support Michael Steele.... I think he's doing a great job. Michael Steele is an outsider. The machine, I think, is tough to penetrate... I think it's been good to have an independent outsider trying to create some change in the Republican Party." The former Alaska governor's remarks are in sharp contrast to the comments of other leading Republicans, who have criticized Steele in recent...

(snip) PALIN: The point here is that Senator McCain and I agree on the big picture, where it is that the country needs to go. There are so many challenges facing America right now, and Senator McCain has been on the right track trying to get the country back on that track that will lead to more prosperity, more security for this nation. We agree on those things that have to take place in order for us to kind of undo some of the things that Obama is doing and get us back on that right track towards prosperity and...

Illegal Immigration: An Arizona rancher is murdered while patrolling his ranch. A gaping hole in the border fence and footsteps back to Mexico tell the tale. When will we put the National Guard back on the border? Robert N. Krentz Jr., 58, scion of one of the best-known and oldest ranching families in southeast Arizona, was found shot to death March 27 on his vast, remote ranch after radioing to his brother that he was checking out someone he believed to be an illegal immigrant. Krentz was found slumped over his ATV on his 35,000-acre ranch about 35 miles northeast...

Conflicting loyalties seem to have resulted in some surprising political decisions by Sarah Palin. On Monday here at NewsReal Blog I argued that Govenor Sarah Palin’s active support of John McCain’s Senate reelection campaign makes no sense. Palin, after all, doesn’t owe McCain anything. Whatever debt she might have owed McCain she paid off during the 2008 presidential campaign. In fact, if anything, it seems to me that McCain is indebted to Palin. This because his ‘08 campaign really did her a disservice, and also because McCain staffers have since betrayed the former Alaska governor with malicious and disparaging leaks...

<p>"America, if you love your freedom, thank a vet!" Palin wrote on her Facebook page. "And if you're looking for leaders who believe in integrity, service, and country first, look to our veterans."</p> <p>"Last week I campaigned for a true American hero, John McCain, and this week I'd ask you to join me in supporting a new generation of heroes who are heeding their country's call for leadership in Washington," she added.</p>

"...my deep respect and admiration for the McCains..." "Send the maverick back to the United States Senate!" "He is a man of the people!" http://www.johnmccain.com/live

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This weekend, dozens of Southern Californians plan to march in Washington for immigration reform, joining thousands of activists from around the country. Today, a different group of Southern Californians – members of the L.A. Area Chamber of Commerce – heard from a U.S. senator who took a lot of political heat for his efforts at immigration reform. The question arose at lunch during the Chamber’s annual lobbying trip to Washington. What did Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona think the U.S. should do about the “flood of immigrants” “running over” California? McCain cosponsored the last major immigration reform bill with...