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Arizona Republicanism.
I’m not surprised.
With full knowledge that this doesn’t pass the laugh test, Judicial Watch’s statement implicates only Kerner.
You’re right. It doesn’t pass.
I’m a literalist. It’s a career decision.
John McQueeg is a ‘Republican’ … just like Steve Schmidt, Nicole Wallace, Jennifer Rubin, Joe “Intern” Scarborough, et. al.
He loved Hillary most of all. He was her chief protector over Benghazi.
John McCain is wretched scum. Always has been, always will be.
I voted for McCain for president once for exactly the same reason — and with exactly the same expectation of success — that I voted for Trump this time.
Trump for his myriad faults has proved to be better at it than that slug ever could have been.
McCain suffered from the all-to-common malady of professional politicians (and I’ve known a few). They believe that because they win a political office it makes them some kind of superior being, set apart from the ordinary citizen. Then, the primary motivation in their life is holding on to that position — at whatever the expense to their own morality.
I continue to honor McCain for what he endured as a POW, but nothing more; because he has dishonored himself, his country and the Constitution in his year after that.
You know how you’ve forgiven someone when you don’t feel he owes you anything? I feel McCain owes us conservatives an apology for his years of “service” in the Senate. It’s a damn shame we won’t get one before he meets his Maker. What a legacy.
For those who don’t think there is such a thing as the Uniparty…
It takes a pretty big ego to believe that you are smart enough to order the affairs of the little people. That being said when you have voters that are seeking a mommy or daddy to order their lives no one should be surprised at a John McCain, Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, or for the psychotic voter Maxine Waters.
When a job interview consists of a campaign breakfast when the job candidate tells a group one thing, and then a campaign lunch when the same job candidate tells another group another thing what do you expect. The lack of virtue is a common virtue regardless of political party.
I’ve said before that John McCain peaked about 45 years ago. He is a disgrace, you’re right. Until the inevitable bitter end…a disgrace.
Here’s the rub, isn’t it? Lois Lerner escapes with her pension because if she doesn’t get it she’s going to expose the duplicitous nature of the GOP in the Senate. What’s that word? Oh, yeah. “Kompromat.”
McCain’s name is not mentioned in the 11 page memo. Check out the source material.
Gary, if you try to sell that I don’t ever want to hear any criticism of any White House staffer or Trump appointee. Suddenly, the boss isn’t responsible? There’s a bridge and some ocean front property out your way that you may be interested in.
The original FOI request had that little tidbit redacted. Why? To save Senator McNasty.
This such a silly comment. The Republican party was the biggest enemy of McCain Feingold. They fought it at every step, including in the courts.
Pretending McCain represents standard pre-trump Republicanism is revisionist history.
McCain-Feingold passed in what year? 2002 you say? Gee, who had the House majority? The GOP? Really?
And who was the president that signed it? Started with a “B…”
It would nice if I could at least pretend to be surprised.
Other than the fact that he was the nominee in ’08?
Yes, Gary. That was my point quite awhile ago. And I would never ascribe the actions of a Chief of Staff to his boss.
Interestingly, when the history of our times is fully written, this Kerner character will be afforded only one fewer sentences [than] his (here) unmentionable boss. Completely appropriate in both cases.
@franksoto I don’t mean to be sarcastic (well, ok, maybe I do), but McCain-Feingold is typical of pre-Trump Republicanism. It was absolutely gutless. Why does it get out of committee? Why does Hastert let it out on the floor? Why didn’t W. just strangle it with a veto? Gutlessness, that’s why. Instead they chose to spend thousands to kill a bad law through the courts. This bill was so bad it should have been killed, embalmed, cremated and buried in the Oval Office. Don’t tell me about “muh principles!”
And to think I actually liked him. A disgrace to his country, a dishonor to the name McCain, and a traitor to the Republican party. I will shed no tears for him.
If you could walk me through how this is connected to “acceptable pre-Trump norms” that would be most helpful.
Neither the document nor the article by Judicial Watch provide any evidence that Kerner (McCain’s aide) actually called for targeting conservative groups. Rather, he called for targeting political advocacy groups in general. And remember that this meeting was held before news broke that Lerner had been primarily targeting conservative/Tea Party groups.
That still brings McCain in for a lot of criticism – after all, anyone with a pulse in DC should have reasoned that the IRS under a Democrat president would pursue conservative advocacy groups much more strongly than liberal groups.
But since this article is (currently) the only hit on this topic at Google News, it’s worth pointing out that Judicial Watch is not accusing McCain of specifically targeting conservatives.
In my opinion, that doesn’t make him or this meeting much less disgraceful.
The unsatisfying – but correct – answer is that you’re both right.
The Republican party has been an amalgam of two often-opposed “wings” for decades now, constantly swinging between unity and open war.
Remember Ross Perot? Or the Gingrich revolution? Or the Tea Party? All signs that the same “anti-establishment” movement that Trump supposedly called into being has existed for at least 25 years.
But of course the go-along-to-get-along wing has also been powerful, nay dominant, during that same period – but never with a complete grip on power within the party or the movement.
Really, the establishment vs anti-establishment (or elite vs populist, or coastal vs heartland, or centrist vs true-blooded, whatever you want to call it) divide among the American right has been going strong since at least the end of WWII. Save for a few years after 9/11, I can’t think of a single time in my life when there wasn’t some major intra-party strife.
Yes, but the divide was fundamentally between entrenched office-holders and voters. The elected officials would lie to voters and work against the few officials who managed to get elected by these voters. This is all being exposed. There are only a few Republicans left who are still operating out of the old system, and many of them are retiring and dying. The ones left are Baghdad Bobbers in hilarious denial, and brazen phonies like John Kaisch.
The establishment would continually set up false choices for the voters. It’s either Arlen Spector or the evil Democrat. Then we discover the masquerade later ( some earlier than others). This faction actually had a vested interest in Democracts being more and more radical, since it made the choice more stark.
Now we are seeing this charade exposed in real time as well as forensically.
Im actually quite surprised and well-pleased that this is happening so rapidly.
Ding dong the witch is dead!
Doesn’t surprise me. I voted for him, but was somewhat relieved when Obama won because McCain would have done many of the same things and it would have been the Republicans fault. After electing the next Democrat, probably, Hillary that’d be it. At best he was a man of limited understanding.
Well, I didn’t vote for him because I considered him to be a complete fraud and would have done vastly more damage than Obama ever did.
He is such an utter fraud that I cannot blame those who question his veracity going back to the “hero” days. Mc Cain brought that upon himself.