The Despicable Republican "Conservative" Sycophants

[saidsimplesimon]

My father died from an aggressive form of brain cancer. He was a combat war vet who served his country. I have been reflecting on him while I watch members of McCain’s tribe attack him while he battles for his life. Where is the empathy for him and his family? Back off you Republican sorry excuses for human beings.

I have been living in Arizona for decades. During that time the “Maverick” has only on rare occasions stood against his party and his own ambitions. While I have disagreed very vocally with his policy positions related to the military, approvals of spying on Americans, the banking industry, hawkish war mongering and hypocritical challenges regarding the ethics of Democratic colleagues, the current character attacks coming from rumpians are disgusting to me.
In headlines, my take on just a few of the good, the bad and the ugly moments during his long political career.

Torture is illegal and immoral, I oppose the selection of Haspel to lead the CIA.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/keating-scandal-still-haunts-mccain/

CBS/AP March 24, 2008, 3:48 PM

Keating Scandal Still Haunts McCain

Sen. John McCain's ethics entanglement with a wealthy banker ultimately convicted of swindling investors was such a disturbing, formative experience in his political career that he compares the scandal in some ways to the five years he was tortured as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.

"I faced in Vietnam, at times, very real threats to life and limb," McCain told The Associated Press. "But while my sense of honor was tested in prison, it was not questioned. During the Keating inquiry, it was, and I regretted that very much."
In his early days as a freshman senator, McCain was known for accepting contributions from Charles Keating Jr., flying to the banker's home in the Bahamas on company planes and taking up Keating's cause with U.S. financial regulators as they investigated him.

The Keating Five was the derisive name given McCain and four Democratic senators, including then-Sen. John Glenn of Ohio, who were defendants in a congressional ethics investigation of their connections to Keating. McCain is the only one still in the Senate. They were accused of trying to intimidate regulators on behalf of Keating, a real estate developer in Arizona and owner of Lincoln Savings and Loan based in Irvine, Calif.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/10/mccain.crowd/index.html

updated 2:42 a.m. EDT, Sat October 11, 2008

Rage rising on the McCain campaign trail

From Ed Henry and Ed Hornick

(CNN) -- With recent polls showing Sen. Barack Obama's lead increasing nationwide and in several GOP-leaning states, some Republicans attending John McCain-Sarah Palin campaign rallies are showing a new emotion: rage.

At a rally in Minnesota on Friday, a woman told McCain: "I don't trust Obama. I have read about him and he's an Arab."
McCain shook his head and said, "No ma'am, no ma'am. He's a decent family man...[a] citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues. That's what this campaign is all about."

"I want to be president of the United States, and I don't want Obama to be," he said. "But I have to tell you, I have to tell you, he is a decent person, and a person that you do not have to be scared as President of the United States."

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/jan/16/john-mccain-plans-massive-boost-in-spending-to-bui/

McCain plans massive boost in defense spending to restore military dominance
Aligns goals with Trump, who pledges to end sequestration

By Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times - Monday, January 16, 2017

Sen. John McCain called Monday for a massive boost in defense spending totaling more than $85 billion per year over the next half-decade, saying that is just the beginning of what it will take to restore the U.S. military to a dominant role.
The Senate Armed Services Committee chairman’s plans, detailed in a white paper, are an important marker, laying out defense hawks’ wish list as Congress prepares to debate budget priorities under the Trump administration.

Mr. McCain, Arizona Republican, said that after years of bleeding, the Pentagon will struggle to fight the war on terrorism while preparing to engage emerging threats in Russia and China.

The Defense Department, he said, needs more fighter aircraft, a giant increase in the number of ships in the Navy, boosts in the number of Marines and Air Force personnel and a major modernization of the Army that has been due for decades.
Mr. McCain also called for ending the budget caps imposed by the 2011 debt deal, which left the Pentagon struggling financially, and wreaked havoc on the budget, forcing Congress to use gimmicks to add money back into the Defense Department.


https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/28/us/john-mccains-real-return.html

McCain Provides a Dramatic Finale on Health Care: Thumb Down

By Carl Hulse

July 28, 2017

WASHINGTON — All week long, Senate Democrats had quietly groused that Senator John McCain made a stirring return to the Senate after a brain cancer diagnosis, that he preached the virtues of bipartisanship — and that he then backed a Republican-only push to replace the Affordable Care Act.

But early Friday morning, Mr. McCain, showing little sign of his grave illness, strode onto the Senate floor as the vote was being taken to repeal it, and shocked many of his colleagues and the nation. He sought recognition from the vote counters, turned his thumb down, and said “no.” There were gasps and some applause.

He had just derailed the fevered Republican effort to undo the Obama-era health care law

http://thehill.com/homenews/news/386392-mccain-i-regret-picking-palin-as-my-vice-presidential-nominee

McCain says he regrets picking Palin as running mate

By Morgan Gstalter - 05/05/18

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said he regrets choosing former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) to be his running mate during the 2008 presidential campaign.

The New York Times reported on Saturday that McCain, while still defending Palin’s performance, said in his upcoming book, “The Restless Wave: Good Times, Just Causes, Great Fights, and other Appreciations,” that he wishes he had instead selected former Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.)

His advisers reportedly had warned against choosing Lieberman, who was once a Democrat, stating that Lieberman’s support of abortion rights could divide Republicans.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/john-mccain-gina-haspel-cia-nomination-enhanced-interrogation/

By Kathryn Watson CBS News May 9, 2018, 9:39 PM

John McCain opposes CIA nominee Gina Haspel

Sen. John McCain is urging the Senate to reject Gina Haspel, President Trump's pick to run the CIA, claiming Haspel's "refusal to acknowledge torture's immorality is disqualifying."

McCain, who is home at his ranch in Arizona as he battles brain cancer, made the statement after Haspel testified in her confirmation on Capitol Hill Wednesday morning. McCain said Haspel had a chance to "explain her involvement in the so-called enhanced interrogation program during the Bush administration, and account for the mistakes the country made in torturing detainees held" after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.