If You Are Suggesting that John McCain is Playing 3D Chess, You are an Imbecile

It appears that some people are suggesting that John McCain voted for allowing the motion to proceed before voting against the actual motion as some some sort of political Jujitsu.

Let's be clear: McCain is neither intelligent enough to come up with this, and he is far to vain and chatty to keep his mouth shut for the requisite 24 hours of so to make it work.

He did this, because he was upset that people were calling him out on the "straight shooter" myth that he has cultivated his entire political career, and I believe that acted in this manner because of his own self regard.

But in the interest fairness, I will quote the theory: (%$# mine)

I'm not sure if it's really being appreciated just how comprehensively the Republicans were just f%$#ed over.

See, the Republicans have been trying to pass these godawful healthcare bills through a process called budget reconciliation, which, among other things, protects the bill from being filibustered in the Senate and only requires a simple majority of 50 votes (rather than 60, which the Republicans don't have).

The thing is, the Senate can only consider one budget reconciliation bill per topic per year. Of course, if the bill dies in committee and never comes to an official vote, it doesn't count- which is why they've been able to keep hammering away at the issue.

This bill, though, was allowed to come to the Senate floor, because the Republicans thought they'd secured the votes. Collins, Murkowski and the Democrats would vote no, everyone else would vote yes, and Pence would break the tie. And then McCain completely f%$#ed them. And it was almost certainly a calculated move; he voted to allow the bill to come to the floor. Had McCain allowed it to die in committee, McConnell could have come back with yet another repeal bill; but he let it come to a vote, and now they can't consider another budget reconciliation bill for the rest of the fiscal year. The Senate needs 60 votes to pass any kind of healthcare reform now.

So now they're caught between a rock and a hard place. Either they concede defeat on the issue and try again later (causing a big, unpopular stink that could damage elections if they try it before the midterms, or risking losing the slim majority they already have if they wait) or they actually sit down with the democrats like adults and write a halfway decent healthcare bill.

This is amazing.

While I admit that his actions MAY have had the stated effect, I think that was a happy accident.

Simply put, this is not how John McCain plays the game.

Also, the idea that McConnell gives a flying f%$# about Senate procedure, and won't wreck 200+ years of dysfunction tradition to get his way is simply delusional.

H/t DC at the Stellar Parthenon BBS.

Quote of the Day

This is vile. John McCain was never anyone’s white knight. This is the man who ushered in the age of troll candidacies by tapping Sarah Palin as his running mate. This is the man who caved to Donald Trump even after Trump had the audacity to mock his time as a POW. This is the man who called his own wife a c%$# in public. This is a man who has spent all this time acting as if all the Bad Republicans were forcing him to go along with their nefarious deeds while voting in lockstep with them. He is not a reluctant Republican. He’s a sh%$bag, same as the rest of them.

—Drew Magary at GQ

(%$# mine)

The Whole Russia Hysteria Muishugas in a Nut Shell

Today, when Rand Paul objected to a bill providing support for Montenegro's accession into NATO, the warmongering Senator from the great state of Arizona, John Sydney McCain III, said that Paul was working for Vladimir Putin:

The long-simmering war between Sens. John McCain and Rand Paul boiled over on Wednesday when the Arizona lawmaker directly accused his colleague of working for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

While speaking from the Senate floor in support of a bill advancing Montenegro’s bid to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), McCain noted objection from his Kentucky colleague, saying that if you oppose the measure, “You are achieving the objectives of Vladimir Putin... trying to dismember this small country which has already been the subject an attempted coup.”

McCain continued: “If they object, they are now carrying out the desires and ambitions of Vladimir Putin and I do not say that lightly.”

Several moments later, after the 80-year-old senator asked for unanimous consent to move the bill forward, Paul took the mic to raise his objection before dramatically exiting the room.

In response, McCain began railing against Paul, his voice trembling with anger: “I note the senator from Kentucky leaving the floor without justification or any rationale for the action he has just taken. That is really remarkable, that a senator blocking a treaty that is supported by the overwhelming number—perhaps 98, at least, of his colleagues—would come to the floor and object and walk away.”

He then directly connected Paul to the Russian government: “The only conclusion you can draw when he walks away is he has no justification for his objection to having a small nation be part of NATO that is under assault from the Russians.

“So I repeat again, the senator from Kentucky is now working for Vladimir Putin.”

Rather unsurprisingly, the Mitch McConnell chose not to cite Senate Rule XIX, which says in part, "No Senator in debate shall, directly or indirectly, by any form of words impute to another Senator or to other Senators any conduct or motive unworthy or unbecoming a Senator," because it's OK if you are a Republican to accuse your colleague of being a Russian mole, but it's somehow wrong to quote Coretta Scott King from the Senate record in a debate if you are a Democrat.

How about a nice cup of shut the F%$# Up, Johnnie?

One of the truisms of the DC political scene is that John McCain thinks that he should be President, and that whoever has become President had better listen to him, or he will throw a tantrum and hold his breath until he passes out.^*


The press, largely because of McCain's tradition of giving them booze and palling around with them, seems to think that this is "Mavericky", but it appears to be an exercise in arrested development to me.

Case in point, the overcooked potato from the state of Arizona is trying to dictate Russia policy:

Sen. John McCain, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, sent his first shot across the bow of President-elect Donald Trump’s national security plans Tuesday, saying that any attempt to “reset” relations with Russia is unacceptable.

“With the U.S. presidential transition underway, Vladi­mir Putin has said in recent days that he wants to improve relations with the United States,” McCain (R-Ariz.) said in a statement released by his office.

It's really depressing what qualifies as an elder statesman in DC.

^*No sh%$. At age 2, the only way that his parents could get him to stop was to put him in an bathtub full of cold water.

Deep Thought

John McCain has lost what little he had of his mind.



H/T Digby.

Who Knew that Sarah Palin was the Smart Republican in 2008?

Facepalm!

Because, in support of spending billions on border security, John McCain just compared the border fence to the Berlin Wall:

"I think that, first of all, the legislation concerning beefed up border security removes any validity to the argument that border security is not sufficient," McCain said during an appearance on CNN. "I mean, this is not only sufficient, it is well over sufficient. We'll be the most militarized border since the fall of the Berlin Wall so that's why I think this amendment was very important."

Seriously, you are comparing border security measures to the Berlin f%$#ing Wall, and you are supporting this measure, you are too stupid, or too senile, to cut your own meat.

Epic Fail

John Sidney McCain III goes to Syria. He takes a picture with the noble freedom fighters. One small problem: it turns out that two of the guys are terrorist who kidnapped religious pilgrims :

Everything was going relatively smoothly following John McCain's surprise visit to hang out with Syrian rebels this week until Lebanon's Daily Star reported that one of the "brave fighters" pictured on the senator's Twitter is "a known affiliate of the rebel group responsible for the kidnapping of 11 Lebanese Shiite pilgrims one year ago." If so, McCain's office said, that would be "regrettable."

"According to families of the remaining captives and one of the released men, Anwar Ibrahim, one of the men standing alongside McCain in photographs released by the senator's office, is Mohammad Nour, the chief spokesman and photographer for the Northern Storm kidnappers," according to the Daily Star. "Ibrahim and other members of the kidnapped family said they recognized Nour, and another man affiliated with the group, also identified as 'Abu Ibrahim,' immediately after seeing the photos."

So, John McCain thinks that he knows who the good guys are.

Here's a thought, if you cannot tell who is the good guys are, it's best not to choose sides.

Whiney Beotch of the Day: John McCain

Just in case you don't know, the entire Republican Jihad over Susan Rice and Benghazi is about two things: They desparetely want a real Obama scandal, and they realize that if they kill her nomination to replace Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, then the likely alternative is John Kerry, which would open up the other Massachusetts Senate seat, to a run by Scott Brown.

Leading the charge are Lindsay "Mincing Fool" Graham, and John "McCrankypants" McCain, and now we find out that McCain skipped a classified briefing on Benghazi in order posture in front of the press:

I have to tell you something that just happened on Capitol Hill, and that is our senate producer Ted Barrett just ran into John McCain and asked about something that we’re hearing from Democrats, which is John McCain is calling for more information to Congress, but he had a press conference yesterday instead of going to a closed briefing where administration officials were giving more information. Well, Ted Barrett asked John McCain about that, and it was apparently an intense very angry exchange and McCain simply would not comment on it at all.

(Emphasis original)

John McCain seems to have spent most of his entire political career in a fit of pique directed at people who he thinks unfairly kept him from becoming president.

Wanker.

Do Not Frack With Them………Ever!!

Jon Stewart and Rachel Maddow take on John Sidney McCain III's flip flopping, Rachel generally, and Jon just on DADT.

Damn, this is brutal.

100% true, but brutal.

John McCain, You Need to Go On The Daily Show

Because when you don't, Jon Stewart tees off on you something fierce:




Well, that will leave the proverbial mark.

Jon Stewart Goes After Jon McCain

Ouch!

John McCain, in a tough primary fight with a man whose political corruption John McCain covered up is now denying that he was ever a maverick.

Considering the fact that it was every 3^rd or 4^th word out of his mouth in the campaign, this merits some comment, of a particularly scathing nature.

Well, luckily, Jon Stewart writes a lot better than I do, so I will just leave you with his comedic flaying of the "straight talking maverick" from Arizona:

But even with all that, you never felt like the guy was selling his soul. You just felt like he was maybe shaving little slivers of his soul …off …for money. But you still always felt like he maintained a controlling interest in his soul. Fifty-one percent of his soul. The majority shares of his soul. Until now.

And then he goes say that McCain is making "soul default swaps on the back end," in a masterful juxtaposition of corruption and our opaque financial system.

Really, I cannot do justice to what he does in just 5 minutes and 4 seconds.

He shows the hypocrisy and political cowardice of the the man that the Beltway pundits, and the Sunday talk show hosts, love beyond measure.

Of course the aforementioned Beltway pundits Sunday talk show hosts will never acknowledge that their guy is basically a selfish and petulant politician, but I think that the rest of America is starting to realize this.

FCC Votes to Approve Network Neutrality

The vote was unanimous, despite the fact that the phone and cable companies, <Sarcasm> who are so beloved by Americans,</Sarcasm> were lobbying against it:

US communications regulators voted unanimously to support an open Internet rule that would prevent telecom network operators from barring or blocking content based on the revenue it generated.

The proposed rule now goes to the public for comment until Jan.14, after which the Federal Communications Commissions will review the feedback and possibly seek more comment.

A final rule is not expected until the spring of next year.

Needless to say, one of the best barometers in the business, John Sidney McCain III, is trying to stop them.