In December, 2012, the Strident Conservative enshrined John McCain (Rino-AZ) as a member of its G.O.P (Gutless On Principles) Hall of Shame. Our decision was made, in part, as a result of his tirade from the Senate floor when he railed against Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) for having the audacity to use the Senate filibuster on a spending bill in order to protect the Constitutional right of Americans to a fair trial. He would attack him again a few months later—a tag-team affair involving his man-crush and fellow G.O.P. Hall of Shame member, Lindsey Graham (Rino-NC)—when Paul filibustered the nomination of John Brennan for C.I.A. Director in order to assure Americans that their government wouldn’t kill them in a drone attack on U.S. soil.
You see, when Johnny doesn’t get his way, he naturally targets T.E.A. Party Republicans—or as McCain likes to call them, “tea party hobbits“—particularly when they have the audacity to question his great wisdom on “how business has been done in the Congress of the United States,” an accusation he leveled against another T.E.A. Party favorite, Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) from the Senate floor today.
Well, if there’s one thing we can say about Harry Reid John McCain, he’s always looking for ways to skewer Conservatives to get his way, even going as far as to change the rules of the game.
As a part of his long-simmering feud between with T.E.A. Party Republicans, McCain took to the Senate floor on Thursday to accuse them of overplaying their hands and tempting Democrats to change Senate (filibuster) rules as they struggle with the nation’s budget issues. Senators Rand Paul, Mike Lee, Marco Rubio, and Ted Cruz object to a blank check increase of the national debt, while McCain and the Democrats—was that redundant?—want to pass a budget without any conditions, leaving the debt ceiling problem to the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.
I can see McCain’s point. Boehner has established a track record at fixing the budget, right? Didn’t Boehner keep his promise to reduce spending by $100 billion dollars after the T.E.A. Party handed the House to the Republicans in 2010? Oh wait, he caved to Obama on that one. Well, he kept the Bush tax cuts in place and avoided the Fiscal Cliff after the 2012 elections, right? Oops, he flip-flopped on that one too, didn’t he?
McCain accused T.E.A. Party Republicans in the Senate of “not trusting” Republicans in the House. An accusation that Senator Cruz didn’t ignore.
“Let me be clear. I don’t trust the Republicans,” Cruz responded. “And I don’t trust the Democrats. I think a whole lot of Americans likewise don’t trust the Republicans and the Democrats, because it is leadership in both parties that has gotten us in this mess.”
Based on Boehner’s history, maybe Senator Cruz is right not to trust Republicans, wouldn’t you say?
Being a maverick used to mean you had the courage to oppose the status quo, even if it meant taking a stand against your own party. That’s exactly what we are witnessing from the T.E.A. Party Republicans in the House and Senate; it’s what we used to see from John McCain.
But for America’s current needs, John McCain isn’t the maverick your looking for.
What others had to say:
4 comments for “John McCain: This isn’t the maverick you’re looking for”