Cebu_4_2
30th October 2014, 01:52 PM
The return of mean John McCain
http://images.politico.com/global/2014/10/29/141029_john_mccain_ap_605.jpg McCain says Shaheen has not been a 'serious member' of a committee. | AP Photo
By BURGESS EVERETT (http://www.politico.com/reporters/BurgessEverett.html) | 10/29/14 3:28 PM EDT
Updated: 10/29/14 4:28 PM EDT
Mean John McCain is back on the campaign trail.
This week, the Arizona Republican has harshly attacked two Democrats whom he may have to serve with in 2015: Sens. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and Kay Hagan of North Carolina. The women aren’t just fellow senators — they also serve on the Armed Services Committee that McCain likely will lead if Republicans take control of the Senate.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/10/john-mccain-112315.html#ixzz3HfCEMIGh
On Monday, the famously outspoken senator said (http://nhjournal.com/mccain-shaheen-is-not-a-serious-member-of-the-senate-armed-services-committee/) Shaheen has not been a “serious member” of the panel. And he knocked Hagan in strident terms on Tuesday for missing a briefing about Islamic State militants to raise money in New York in February — six months before the terror network began beheading Americans.
“Here we are with Americans being beheaded, and Sen. Hagan doesn’t even show up for the briefing,” McCain said during an event in North Carolina, according (http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2014/10/28/5273784/gops-mccain-slams-hagan-at-tillis.html#.VFEC0vnF-So)to The Charlotte Observer. “She goes to a fundraiser instead.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/10/john-mccain-112315.html#ixzz3HfC8NjaV
He also blasted Shaheen in her own backyard. At an American Legion post in Nashua, New Hampshire, McCain said she showed little independence from her party and lacked engagement on the panel.
“I don’t see her at very many of the hearings,” McCain said, according to New Hampshire Journal. “I have not seen her really active in the committee.”
Senators have been increasingly comfortable campaigning against their sitting colleagues over the past decade, a practice that went mainstream in 2004 when former Republican Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee openly and successfully stumped against former Democratic Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota. But not everyone is going that way, aware of the fallout that campaigning against a senator who may very well win reelection can bring.
“I will not go into a state that has a sitting colleague,” Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), a key surrogate for Democrats in conservative states, said in an interview last month. “It’s just a horrible precedent.”
(Full 2014 election results (http://www.politico.com/2014-election/results/map/senate/#.VA7_sGOjKSo))
In a statement, McCain spokesman Brian Rogers attributed the senator’s vigor on the trail to lingering frustrations about Democrats’ unilateral gutting of the filibuster last year, when they eliminated the 60-v0te threshold needed to approve most presidential nominees. Both Hagan and Shaheen supported that move.
”Sen. McCain deeply resents that the Democrats blew up the Senate with the nuclear option,” Rogers said in an email, adding that “McCain is confident that all members of the Armed Service Committee will continue to work in a bipartisan manner, given its importance to our nation’s security and the well-being of the men and women serving in our military.”
McCain is famous for his bluntness, and he jokingly refers to reporters as “little jerk” in the Senate hallways and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) as a “dictator.”
He’s called fellow Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa a “f——- jerk” and former Budget Committee Chairman Pete Domenici, also of the GOP, an “ass——” — just two examples from a 2008 Associated Press story (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/02/16/mccains-sharp-tongue-an-a_n_87012.html) about “Senator Hothead.”
But for all his tough talk, McCain has worked with Democrats on sensitive issues such as campaign finance and immigration reform and is widely regarded as a dealmaker. And he has his limits on the campaign trail: When a crowd yelled personal attacks at then-presidential candidate Barack Obama in 2008, McCain, his GOP rival, defended him as a “a decent family man.”
As Republicans across the country gain in confidence that they will take the Senate — increasing McCain’s chances of becoming a committee chairman —the five-term senator appears to be calculating it’s worth piling on the Democrats.
For example, McCain initially set out in August to campaign for Scott Brown as he faced down his primary in New Hampshire — not necessarily against Shaheen as he did Monday. In the past year, he’s introduced (http://www.shaheen.senate.gov/news/press/release/?id=9d4a8d41-24ee-40bb-8f11-5afc49e25358)legislation with Shaheen, greeted (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aOHQCWUFSI&feature=youtu.be)Afghan translators with her and released joint statements (http://www.mccain.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2014/7/statement-by-senators-mccain-cardin-shaheen-and-risch-expressing-disappointment-about-charges-filed-against-former-georgian-president-saakashvili)with her — not exactly the stuff of political rivals.
Retiring Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), the current chairman of the committee, defended Shaheen as an “outstanding” member of the panel. “I’ve been deeply impressed by her knowledge and commitment to our defense, our troops and their families,” he said in a statement relayed by the Shaheen campaign.
Just last month McCain said (http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2014/09/20/5187755/hagan-touts-her-work-on-legislation.html#.VFD9YfnF-Sp) that Hagan has done a “good job” on the panel and in 2011 they introduced (http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1111/67420.html) tax legislation together. But six days before election day, McCain was no longer singing Hagan’s praises in Charlotte.
“Kay has a 98 percent voting attendance record on the Armed Services Committee and she has held over 20 meetings of her subcommittee on Emerging Threats. She is well-informed on these issues and has been briefed by top generals and Pentagon officials,” said Sadie Weiner, a spokeswoman for the North Carolina senator.
McCain has been looked to as a key surrogate this election cycle for any Republican trying to beef up his or her foreign policy credentials, lending his support to embattled Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas and stumping in Iowa on Wednesday for Joni Ernst.
Of the 10 toss-up Senate races, McCain has chosen to attack two Democrats who appear to have a decent chance of returning. Polls have shown Hagan and Shaheen with slight edges in their races.
McCain has declined to wade into Colorado to take on Democratic Sen. Mark Udall, the other embattled Armed Services Committee member who has not kept pace with Hagan and Shaheen at the polls.
McCain is a longtime family friend of the Udalls, a Democratic political dynasty in the West, and told (http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/arizona/politics/2014/09/20/mccain-campaign-mo-udalls-son-colo/15982017/)The Arizona Republic those associations will keep him off the trail.
Although McCain has not shied away from lashing his current, and potentially future, colleagues, he still saves most of his vitriol for the Obama administration. In Charlotte on Tuesday, he said the Islamic State is “winning” against the administration and he turned from bashing Shaheen on Monday to criticizing the administration’s response to the Ebola virus crisis.
Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby got the worst of it. Last week, McCain called (http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/john-mccain-pentagon-spokesman-admiral-kirby-an-idiot) him an “idiot” on a right-leaning radio station — an insult Kirby has ignored.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/10/john-mccain-112315.html#ixzz3HfC34m1I
http://images.politico.com/global/2014/10/29/141029_john_mccain_ap_605.jpg McCain says Shaheen has not been a 'serious member' of a committee. | AP Photo
By BURGESS EVERETT (http://www.politico.com/reporters/BurgessEverett.html) | 10/29/14 3:28 PM EDT
Updated: 10/29/14 4:28 PM EDT
Mean John McCain is back on the campaign trail.
This week, the Arizona Republican has harshly attacked two Democrats whom he may have to serve with in 2015: Sens. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and Kay Hagan of North Carolina. The women aren’t just fellow senators — they also serve on the Armed Services Committee that McCain likely will lead if Republicans take control of the Senate.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/10/john-mccain-112315.html#ixzz3HfCEMIGh
On Monday, the famously outspoken senator said (http://nhjournal.com/mccain-shaheen-is-not-a-serious-member-of-the-senate-armed-services-committee/) Shaheen has not been a “serious member” of the panel. And he knocked Hagan in strident terms on Tuesday for missing a briefing about Islamic State militants to raise money in New York in February — six months before the terror network began beheading Americans.
“Here we are with Americans being beheaded, and Sen. Hagan doesn’t even show up for the briefing,” McCain said during an event in North Carolina, according (http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2014/10/28/5273784/gops-mccain-slams-hagan-at-tillis.html#.VFEC0vnF-So)to The Charlotte Observer. “She goes to a fundraiser instead.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/10/john-mccain-112315.html#ixzz3HfC8NjaV
He also blasted Shaheen in her own backyard. At an American Legion post in Nashua, New Hampshire, McCain said she showed little independence from her party and lacked engagement on the panel.
“I don’t see her at very many of the hearings,” McCain said, according to New Hampshire Journal. “I have not seen her really active in the committee.”
Senators have been increasingly comfortable campaigning against their sitting colleagues over the past decade, a practice that went mainstream in 2004 when former Republican Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee openly and successfully stumped against former Democratic Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota. But not everyone is going that way, aware of the fallout that campaigning against a senator who may very well win reelection can bring.
“I will not go into a state that has a sitting colleague,” Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), a key surrogate for Democrats in conservative states, said in an interview last month. “It’s just a horrible precedent.”
(Full 2014 election results (http://www.politico.com/2014-election/results/map/senate/#.VA7_sGOjKSo))
In a statement, McCain spokesman Brian Rogers attributed the senator’s vigor on the trail to lingering frustrations about Democrats’ unilateral gutting of the filibuster last year, when they eliminated the 60-v0te threshold needed to approve most presidential nominees. Both Hagan and Shaheen supported that move.
”Sen. McCain deeply resents that the Democrats blew up the Senate with the nuclear option,” Rogers said in an email, adding that “McCain is confident that all members of the Armed Service Committee will continue to work in a bipartisan manner, given its importance to our nation’s security and the well-being of the men and women serving in our military.”
McCain is famous for his bluntness, and he jokingly refers to reporters as “little jerk” in the Senate hallways and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) as a “dictator.”
He’s called fellow Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa a “f——- jerk” and former Budget Committee Chairman Pete Domenici, also of the GOP, an “ass——” — just two examples from a 2008 Associated Press story (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/02/16/mccains-sharp-tongue-an-a_n_87012.html) about “Senator Hothead.”
But for all his tough talk, McCain has worked with Democrats on sensitive issues such as campaign finance and immigration reform and is widely regarded as a dealmaker. And he has his limits on the campaign trail: When a crowd yelled personal attacks at then-presidential candidate Barack Obama in 2008, McCain, his GOP rival, defended him as a “a decent family man.”
As Republicans across the country gain in confidence that they will take the Senate — increasing McCain’s chances of becoming a committee chairman —the five-term senator appears to be calculating it’s worth piling on the Democrats.
For example, McCain initially set out in August to campaign for Scott Brown as he faced down his primary in New Hampshire — not necessarily against Shaheen as he did Monday. In the past year, he’s introduced (http://www.shaheen.senate.gov/news/press/release/?id=9d4a8d41-24ee-40bb-8f11-5afc49e25358)legislation with Shaheen, greeted (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aOHQCWUFSI&feature=youtu.be)Afghan translators with her and released joint statements (http://www.mccain.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2014/7/statement-by-senators-mccain-cardin-shaheen-and-risch-expressing-disappointment-about-charges-filed-against-former-georgian-president-saakashvili)with her — not exactly the stuff of political rivals.
Retiring Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), the current chairman of the committee, defended Shaheen as an “outstanding” member of the panel. “I’ve been deeply impressed by her knowledge and commitment to our defense, our troops and their families,” he said in a statement relayed by the Shaheen campaign.
Just last month McCain said (http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2014/09/20/5187755/hagan-touts-her-work-on-legislation.html#.VFD9YfnF-Sp) that Hagan has done a “good job” on the panel and in 2011 they introduced (http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1111/67420.html) tax legislation together. But six days before election day, McCain was no longer singing Hagan’s praises in Charlotte.
“Kay has a 98 percent voting attendance record on the Armed Services Committee and she has held over 20 meetings of her subcommittee on Emerging Threats. She is well-informed on these issues and has been briefed by top generals and Pentagon officials,” said Sadie Weiner, a spokeswoman for the North Carolina senator.
McCain has been looked to as a key surrogate this election cycle for any Republican trying to beef up his or her foreign policy credentials, lending his support to embattled Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas and stumping in Iowa on Wednesday for Joni Ernst.
Of the 10 toss-up Senate races, McCain has chosen to attack two Democrats who appear to have a decent chance of returning. Polls have shown Hagan and Shaheen with slight edges in their races.
McCain has declined to wade into Colorado to take on Democratic Sen. Mark Udall, the other embattled Armed Services Committee member who has not kept pace with Hagan and Shaheen at the polls.
McCain is a longtime family friend of the Udalls, a Democratic political dynasty in the West, and told (http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/arizona/politics/2014/09/20/mccain-campaign-mo-udalls-son-colo/15982017/)The Arizona Republic those associations will keep him off the trail.
Although McCain has not shied away from lashing his current, and potentially future, colleagues, he still saves most of his vitriol for the Obama administration. In Charlotte on Tuesday, he said the Islamic State is “winning” against the administration and he turned from bashing Shaheen on Monday to criticizing the administration’s response to the Ebola virus crisis.
Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby got the worst of it. Last week, McCain called (http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/john-mccain-pentagon-spokesman-admiral-kirby-an-idiot) him an “idiot” on a right-leaning radio station — an insult Kirby has ignored.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/10/john-mccain-112315.html#ixzz3HfC34m1I