« BACK  |  PRINT

RS

FRONT PAGE CONTRIBUTOR

McCain unloads on Boxer – ‘bitterly partisan’ and ‘anti-defense’

By: Dan Spencer (Diary)  |  October 17th, 2010 at 06:31 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

Campaigning for Republican Senate candidate Carly Fiorina at a rally with San Diego area veterans at the Veterans Memorial and Museum in Balboa Park, Senator John McCain Arizonan called Barbara Boxer the “most bitterly partisan, most anti-defense senator in the United States Senate today.” McCain bases his assessment of Boxer on his “unpleasant experience of having served with her.”

“When you hear her say that she supports the men and women in the military, my friends, she does not…because she has never supported the mission; she has never supported victory whether it be in Iraq, or Afghanistan, or anywhere else in the world. Barbara Boxer wants to wave the white flag of surrender and endanger this nation’s national security. It’s time she went back to San Francisco with [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi.”

Watch the video:

I have had my quibbles with Senator McCain, but I have none on this issue.

In addition to upbraiding a general during a committee hearing last year, Barbara Boxer has voted against funding for such things as body armor, mine-resistant vehicles and communications equipment for troops in times of war. She has also voted against veterans funding for medical facilities, additional funds to treat veterans of the global war on terror and support for the Veterans Administration health care system. Since beginning her service in the Senate, Boxer has voted at least seven times against higher pay for the military, and she was one of only 25 senators who voted against condemning a defamatory ad MoveOn.org ran against General David Petraeus.

Senator McCain also gave Fiorina a strong endorsement:

“As both a veteran and as a senator, I have seen Barbara Boxer put politics ahead of our men and women who have served in uniform.Carly Fiorina, on the other hand, has been outspoken in her support of our military, and I know she will be a vocal advocate for our troops as a member of the U.S. Senate.

Carly will work tirelessly for our veterans and our armed forces, and I know she is the person I want fighting with me in Washington to help support those who have fought for our country.”

Tags: , , , ,

COMMENTS

POSTING RULES  |  LOGIN TO COMMENT  |  REGISTER TODAY
  • snowsoul

    Are we sure this is the real McCain? I mean, last time I checked, Boxer wasn’t a Republican.

    • http://michigantaxes.com/wordpress/ Jason Gillman

      Daughter took care of that this week.. on O’Donnell

      The moderates R’s don’t want to be wrong on THAT thing..

  • erp617

    Didn’t McCain say awhile back that he couldn’t comment on a fellow senator because of the rule of collegiality. Boxer has been a disaster for decades, so how come he’s breaking the rule now?

    • hoootie

      Maybe after some tough lessons Mr. McCain grew some testicles. About all we have in CONgress right now are a bunch of emasculated wusses. I’d love to see some real men running this country again, just like when Ronald Reagan was at the controls. Then we had no fear of our enemies. We dealt with them one by one. Now we have the worlds most inept wuss driving and look at the mess we’re in. So maybe Mr. McCain has got a grip on reality now. Lets hope so. Besides I want to send babs and nazi back to san fransissyco with the queers and carpet munchers. Those are the people they appeal to.

      • Ed54

        But given his life story, lacking testicles is not one of them..

        Or maybe you would like to lay out YOUR service record next to his?

        • http://www.twitter.com/RS_yoyo yoyo

          First, the USS Forrestal then the Hanoi Hilton.

          Yeah, I agree, Ed. I agree.

        • JoeG

          He sacrificed greatly for his country and I respect him for that. He certainly had a pair then.

          He just hasn’t shown that he has any since 1985.

  • indylawyer

    Seems like losing to Obama helped him to un-learn all the false lessons he learned losing to Bush in 2000. He was pretty solid in his early years as well. Nice to have him on our side in more than name again.

    • powertothepeople

      Just because a smelly pile of crap grows crusty and does not smell as much, does not mean all of a sudden it is a wonderful thing or even a better thing. It is still a pile of poo. McCain has not gotten better, he has just added a layer of crust that covers up the smell a little better. Underneath he is still the same old piece of crap and soon enough he will remove the crusty layer and stink all over again.

      McCain is absolutely the best at knowing public sentiment. And he knows when he needs to act like something so that the public is fooled.Once the sentiment dies down, he reverts back to his old ways. No reason to expect anything different from the old buzzard now. The shame here is with us for falling for his swaying so many times in the past and it seems like nothing has changed. Way too many are falling for it again. Guess they think he got redemption or something and this time it is different from all the other times. As for me, I still see the crap though the crust.

      • cwilson

        personal pique.

        He thought W’s campaign in 2000 “dissed” him in South Carolina, so he spent the next eight years fighting against W in ways large and small. This began with the little incident in 2001, when he demanded that the Senate devote two solid legislative weeks (an eternity) to the issue McCain campaigned on (and lost) — Campaign Finance Reform — before he would deign to allow that august body to consider the ACTUAL ELECTED President’s tax cut agenda.

        ‘Course, by the time Senator Maverick allowed it to do so, Jumpin’ Jim Jeffords had jumped and Tom Daschle was calling the shots in the Senate, instead of McCain’s good friend from Mississippi ,Trent Lott.

        If you wonder why the Bush Tax Cuts will expire in 10 weeks, and your taxes will go up — blame the machinations that forced W to push thru his tax cuts under reconciliation instead of regular order.

        Thanks, John!

        Anyway, now that W is gone, and it was Teh Won that dissed His Maverickness, all that personal pique is directed at The Light Worker. Yay for us.

        Until 2012. Who knows what bee will get under McCain’s bonnet by that time, and whether he’ll feel more disrespected by R’s or D’s at that time.

        As a military officer and a POW, he’s a hero. As a politician, the man is basically Jr. High School girl, for crying out loud.

        • Adjoran

          No matter who was Majority Leader, the tax cut package lacked 60 votes. Reconciliation was the only choice or we would have had no tax cuts at all.

          • cwilson

            Remember in the 90′s all those times that Senators “split” their vote: I voted for cloture but against the bill? Recall the shenanigans that Dingy Harry has played/is contemplating for the lame duck, by bundling “must pass” bills with liberal dream items?

            Majority Leader Trent Lott could have taken similar actions in 2001; but Majority Leader Tom Daschle certainly would not “help” W in the same way that an R Leader could be expected to. Not to mention the chairmen of the various committees..

            Who holds the leadership /matters/.

          • indylawyer

            My recollection is that the tax cuts passed by a single vote, with McCain voting against them. Another Republican (I think Voinovich) thought the package was too big, so the cuts had to be reduced pretty substantially to get his vote. With McCain’s support that would not have been needed.

            And having such a prominent Republican opposing the cuts surely made it easier for “moderate” Democrats to oppose them as well.

      • Rusty_S

        It just seems to me like this is a particularly important topic to the Senator. And Senator Boxer has been beyond galling.

        • powertothepeople

          and liking McCain, or anyone for that fact, going after her. But i still stand by my description of McCain. I will not miss him when he is finally gone from congress.

  • Wing Zero

    look East… (as in this may be a sign for the return of Christ)

  • cwilson

    Barbara Boxer is now a Republican.

    She must be…otherwise The Honorable John Sydney McCain would never say such things about her.

  • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

    When given the opportunity to rag on Babs Boxer, and you’re so embittered that you lash out at McCain anyway, you’ve really lost sight of the big picture.

    • cwilson

      …and it is that John McCain is attacking a Democrat.

      All the rest is dog-bites-man (a Democratic Senator that hates the military and votes to cut war funding? Tell me something I don’t know.)

      McCain taking the guns he normally trains on Republicans, and pointing them at a Democrat: that’s man-bites-dog. That’s NEWS.

      • Pirohy

        McCain has been attacking Obama all along.

      • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

        Stop threadjacking.

      • http://908StraightSt.wordpress.com/ mbecker908

        You’ve obviously not read a newspaper or a blog in the last year. McCain, who I have no use for, has been the number one attacker of the Obama Administration.

        The bottom line with McCain is that he’s a Contrarian. He fights against whoever is the current POTUS. Right now he’s a strong voice against Obama, etal and a good guy to have on our side. If Republicans win in ’12 – and that’s no sure thing by any means – he’ll probably go back to his old tricks, but for the next two years he’s a good guy.

        • JSobieski

          Look for McCain to slide in summer of 2012

          • acat
          • gop2010
          • http://908StraightSt.wordpress.com/ mbecker908
          • http://www.gmsplace.com/ civil_truth

            2012 is four years too late for switcheroo.

            Though McCain could be good as VP attack dog. Except the problem is that if he gets elected, then he’ll be attack dog against the new President, which is not so good.

            Better to let him vent over the fall of Senatorial comity, as in taking on Babs. McCain’s wrath is a fearsome thing if you’re the target,

            …Or were you second-guessing 2008? If you want to play that game: Giuliani/Palin.

          • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

            Yeah, putting taxpayer funded abortions on the top of the ticket probably would have cost us even more Congressional seats.

          • http://www.gmsplace.com/ civil_truth

            My “ticket” was strictly along the lines of who would have been the best “take it to the Democrats” street fighters, in response to the Palin/McCain idea.

            I’ve no intention to take “what if” any further – and certainly not two-weeks from mid-terms

          • acat

            This new anti-Dem McCain I like…

            Give that ma’am hell, John!

            Mew

        • cwilson

          Par for the course.

          As for substance…I pointed out that JSM is now upset at Obama for not showing proper respect ([Rush-Limbaugh-Impersonating-McCain-Voice]Call ME a racist? Well, we’ll just SEE about that…). So, YEAH, he’s been attacking Obama NOW. After 2008. (He’s not #1 tho. That’s DeMint, Palin, Ryan, or Blackburn…)

          He just couldn’t bear to act so undignified DURING the election.

          However, The Light Worker excepted, it’s still a very rare thing for McCain to criticize any other D. Unlike “unhelpful” Republicans like DeMint, who he’ll happily skewer or undermine.

          McCain is not a “contrarian” in the sense that he’s always against the President (by my recollection he cooperated pretty often with Clinton; and he was firmly on W’s side viz “Immigration Reform”). He’s simply against anyone — AZ voters, US citizens, Tea Partiers, Palin supporters, other Senators, Congressmen — who do not recognize his pre-eminent greatness.

          Re: Adjoran, below. It’s just McCain, nobody else. He holds a “special” place in my own personal pantheon of backstabbing establishmentarians, singled out for extra double plus ungood opprobrium. Voinovich, the Maine Twins, McCain’s own MiniMe Lindsey…pikers, all. They might do infuriating things, but John simply IS infuriating, personified…

          However….

          Even a stopped clock is right twice a day, so, HOORAY FOR MCCAIN! Gimme-an-M, Gimme-a-C, … (Heck, he’s probably more popular among CA’s brand of republicans than a reliable conservative would be, so his criticism of Babs probably does more good than just about any one else’s.)

    • Adjoran

      And all of the self-styled purists who disparage McCain in this way actually say much nastier things about Republicans of which they do not approve than McCain ever did.

      Hypocrites of the lowest order. They are the sort who rail loudly against the “party establishment,” then whine that the establishment isn’t helping them criticize it.

      Fringe nuts out for vengeance aren’t winning us anything, and many aren’t even Republicans in the first place – which is fine, everybody has that right, but if you aren’t a Republican you probably should spend less time telling Republicans what to do, eh?

  • clintonformccain

    I’m just an independent who would vote for Charles Manson if it meant beating Barbara Boxer in California. So, ignore my advice. But, I’m just thinkin’, maybe it would be a good idea for Republicans to put the circular firing squad thing on hold for just a few weeks. I mean, really, is a horrible thing that John McCain is out campaigining hard to defeat Barbara Boxer? It just doesn’t seem like a bad thing to me. I don’t know….

    • http://www.gmsplace.com/ civil_truth

      Seriously.

    • Adjoran

      You’re making sense – you must be a RINO!!!!

      Get ready to duck and cover!

    • Risky

      a great turn of phrase there.

      Personally I recon that if a someone in your party says something that you agree with and your opponents will hate, then it’s not unreasonable to sort of agree with him.

  • Donald Ayotte

    This is the best thing that McCain has done in years. He called Barbara Boxer a liar and she deserves it.

  • throwback59

    conversion. We’ve all had issues with him before but he is on the right side now.
    -And you know he was just dying to use one additional word in his speech:
    (rhymes with “witch”).

    • Darin_H

      Good on McCain, but I’ll believe it more when he says it in a year he’s not up for reelection.

      • Adjoran

        They are in the same Senate “class” so it wouldn’t do so much good in the off years.

        • drothgery

          One hopes that McCain hangs it up in 2016. Lets leave the octogenarian senator thing to the Democrats.

  • Aaron Gardner

    Glad to see you got your fight back.

    Hopefully you can bring that same sort of enthusiasm for Len Britton this week. I am sure you have some good stories about Sen. Leahy.

  • annas

    —with clintonformccain. Geez Louise it is really unattractive to bash McCain when he is standing on our side. Tearing ourselves down from inside seems non-productive with the stakes so high….just saying.

  • rdelbov

    Kudos to McCain for attacking Barbara Boxer

    I would love to get him on the next plane to Kentucky, The lastest attack ad on Rand Paul from Conway is the absolute lowest piece of filth that has been on the political newswaves. Period end of story.

    I thought democrats could not stoop any lower but I was wrong.

    • Adjoran

      That’s got nothing on the Grayson “Taliban” ad against Webster where he edited the tapes to make it sound as if Webster was saying the very opposite of what he said.

  • septembergurl

    (more likely than not in my opinion) then McCain will be chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee — replacing the odious Carl Levin. This is an area where — as his blistering attack on Sen Ma’am shows — he has a lot of credibility. Beginning in December when the Afghan Review comes in, and then next year when the deadline for withdrawal from Afghanistan comes up, we will be in a truly perilous time, worse than any since 2005-6 in Iraq. Obama appears to be going into some kind of meltdown, the grownups are leaving, and the President is now being advised by a coterie of hacks, fixers, and bagmen, none of whom have any actual foreign policy experience. McCain was able to get the surge in Iraq support when he was the ranking member, so as Chairman he can hopefully get our Afghan and Iraq policies decoupled from Obama’s fixation on political solutions, and actually make some progress.

    I think the primary challenge from JD was useful in that it reminded McCain of what he hopes to accomplish in the Senate.

  • http://theminorityreportblog.com Repair_Man_Jack

    Sen. McCain found his scariest Republican costume!

  • Common_Cents

    but McCain is only acting out his fantasy of a redo taking on Obama.

  • johnt

    But moderates may be disappointed, the hoary “we have to be better than that” business. But at least he broke the pattern here.

  • joayn

    In this venue McCain is absolutely right. Boxer has absolutely no appreciation for what the military does and has failed miserably to support them.

    This is a great counter to the California Chapter of VFW’s endorsement of Boxer, which seems to have gone over a lot of heads here.

    Some of you guys really need to put the McCain Derangement Syndrome on hold. It comes across as arrogant and juvenile.

    • joayn

      And the PAC’s no more. Ace of Spades:

      http://minx.cc/?post=307027