McCain just made it clear he won't 'play ball' with *, vis a vis JFK/JRE.

[Padraig18]

I've been listening to The Tony Snow Show on WLS, and Sen. McCain was a guest. MCain made the following points, among others:

1.) He was *never* asked to be VP.

2.) John Kerry *could* capably lead America as President.

3.) He would prefer that *neither* party use him in campaign ads.

4.) John Kerry is 'a fine man and a fine American' who is not 'weak on defense'.

5.) John Edwards is *also* 'a fine man and a fine American' and quite capable of leading America as President, should Kerry die, etc..

6.) He will be campaigning FOR *, but will NOT attack Kerry--period.

I don't think that's exactly what KKKarl Rove had hoped to get, do you?

:evilgrin:

[mourningdove92]

1. Oh wow, how did Snow handle this?

Way to go McCain.
At least he doesn't seem to fall for the old "loyalty" game Smirk tries to shove.

[Padraig18]

4. Snow was semi-dumbfounded...

It was obviously not what he was expecting McCain to say, and he stumbled and fumbled and changed the subject every time McCain said these things...

[spooky3]

31. At least he had a good excuse for his inarticulateness this time!

[hlthe2b]

2. What was Tony Snow's response.... he must have been babbling

incoherently at the end of that...

[burythehatchet]

3. I don't buy McCain just yet.

He's known to change tack at critical moments

[Rose Siding]

8. He's just saving his attacks for the kids

"Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly?
Because her father is Janet Reno" -John McCain

http://www.salon.com/news/1998/06/25newsb.html

[hlthe2b]

11. Detestable, but as one who has joked impropriately

off the cuff on rare occasions (and later regretted it), I look at the entirety of a person's behavior. I do not put McCain on any kind of pedestal (and certainly did not want him for VP), but I do find him more honorable than most Repugs.

[snippy]

24. I agree. n/t

[maxanne]

36. GOOD!

Don't buy McCain, ever. I am always amazed at the romanticizing of McCain that goes on here at DU. He's a right wing, anti-choice Republican, who sometimes takes the right position. He's hardly worthy of all the adoration showered on him around here.

[REP]

38. My Take On McCain

Is that he's a worthy opponent - someone with whom you can disagree and still respect. While I don't agree with many of his stances, I think he has some honor, which is a scarce commodity in his party.

[saracat]

39. If you really knew anything about John McCain

you wouldn't respect him. He's a former member of the Keating Five and has a worse cheatin background than most Repugs.He is an invetrate liar who will play both sides against the middle for his own advantage.The fact that he will whore for Bush just shows you.He has no honor.It has never occurred to him to be neutral. He chooses to lie about Bush instead.He can't be trusted.

[REP]

40. It's Not That's He's So Great

but that my opinion of most of the others is so low. I do think loyality is an honorable thing, and he is loyal to his wretched party. He also did his military service with honor. You don't have to agree, of course.

[saracat]

41. He was loyal to the military, but

his Party loyalty depends on what's in it for him.I wonder why he's campaigning for Bush?

[Mikimouse]

5. Well, I must say that I feel good about this...

I was beginning to think that McCain was simply going to forget the 2000 primaries and the lies and filth that * so convincingly distributed at every opportunity. I think that * is in for some additional surprises from McCain, if I read McCain correctly. I think he has a long memory and is smart enough to make sure that his salvos count. Just my opinion, of course, but I would love to see him cause * to have a temper tantrum meltdown on national television!

[hlthe2b]

6. Kathleen Hall Jameson (Annenberg Inst.) was on Bill Moyer's NOW

last night, (good interview as always) but maintaining that 1. it was unlikely Bush* would yield to pressure to remove Cheney from the ticket, so short of major health crisis, MR. FU would stay on the ticket; and 2. that McCain's role was shaping up to be the moderating force-the umpire-- on the election, since he would call either party on attempts to cross the line. Said he'd help his party out of loyalty, but would remain honorable to his friendship with Kerry (and Edwards) and had not likely forgotten nor forgiven Bush/Rove's transgressions in 2000 primaries. Seems she may well be right...

[burythehatchet]

26. she was incredible

I had not seen her before and i found her to be very insightful.

[monchie]

32. McCain is a rare bird these days:.

A sane conservative who's not been completely whipped.

You know, we often talk on DU about how so many Dems have been spineless wimps--neutered and whipped. Well, they weren't the first victims of the right wing and the Bush Crime Family. For the most part, moderate Republicans and sane conservatives were neutered way back during the 80s. Even someone like Arlen Specter, who courageously cast the deciding vote that kept Bork off the SC, had to make amends just a few short years afterward, when he became the designated attack dog against Anita Hill at the Clarence Thomas hearings. Yep, old Arlen was whipped now...and has been whipped ever since.

In the late 70s, I voted for Dick Thornburgh for PA governor, and for his first few years he was the model moderate Republican I cast my ballot for. Then, in the early 80s, bending with the political winds, he was assimilated, Borg-fashion, by the right wing/Bush Crime Family cabal, and later became Poppy Bush's Attorney General. Our other senator, John Heinz, Teresa's first husband, kept the moderate Republican faith up until his death in a helicopter crash.

Today, there are only a few prominent moderate Republicans or sane conservatives, and those who are still around have mostly been whipped into submission. Every so often, we hear some quiet rumblings from the likes of Richard Lugar, or Chuck Hegel, or Lincoln Chafee, or Olympia Snowe. But they have no real power in the Republican Party.

McCain has been the most outspoken, most powerful, and most respected of this sorry bunch, which isn't really saying much.

IMHO, a coalition of moderate Republicans and sane conservatives has to take back control of their party from the evil that is the extreme right/Bush Crime Family coalition--for the good of our country. Such a development might very well do some serious damage to the Dems, but just may be the antidote for the poisoned political environment we live in now.

IOW, to save the U.S.A. and the values our flag is supposed to represent, the Republican Party has to reform itself...which is not something we Dems can do much about. However, a landslide for the Kerry/Edwards ticket just might give more power to those Republicans who actually do possess a good deal of honor and integrity (and thus don't have to talk about it), such as Seantor McCain.

[lovedems]

7. Do you think KKKarl really cares about McCain?

I would venture a guess he got exactly what he wanted out of McCain...A weeks worth of "second choice" ads when Kerry announced Edwards as his VP choice. KKKarl is using McCain (why McCain is falling for it is what has me perplexed) and will dump him when McCain is no longer useful. Looks like it will be sooner rather then later? :shrug:

[Padraig18]

12. I think that's why McCain was so adamant about not being asked to be VP

He emphasized and RE-emphasized that Kerry never asked him.

[lovedems]

13. I wish McCain would repeat that nationally.

IMO, the ad has had it's impact. It has been on CNN ad naseum but no McCain on television stating that the ad is false. That is why I am saying KKKarl got what he wanted becasue the impact and implication have been made that Edwards was Kerry's second choice without McCain's counter to the ad.

On the good side, saying those things on Tony Snow's show, he is speaking to people who believe the ad to be true. That could cause more damage to Bush/KKKarl because now the kool-aid drinkers are going to have to come to terms with the facts that Edwards really was Kerry's first choice.

In the end, I am super glad McCain is saying these things, especially on Snow's show.

[billybob537]

9. That WLS in Chicago?

I used to listen 25 yrs ago to Animal stories. Do you remember those?

[Padraig18]

10. Yes, WLS-AM in Chicago.

I'm only 21, though...

:)

[billybob537]

14. Yeah thats before fm really took over

they were the coolest station back then.

[Manix]

21. I used to enjoy WLS-AM when I was a teen. They had a strong signal

you could pick up hundreds of miles away.

[billybob537]

30. Do you remember"Animal stories"

with old uncle Larry and little snot nosed Tommy?
that was hilarious, strange animal news stories.

[charlyvi]

28. Do you remember

Dick Biondi---"On Top of a Pizza, All covered with cheese, etc...

[greatauntoftriplets]

37. I saw my first meatball...

Until somebody sneezed.
It rolled off the table,
And there it was smashed.
It went from a meatball,
Into a pile of hash.

Do I remember Dick Biondi? Sure as hell do, what a riot that man was.

[w13rd0]

15. How is he going to campaign for Bush...

...without attacking Kerry? Attacking Kerry is the sum total of the Bush re-selection strategy. Well, that and TERROR TERROR WAR WAR FEAR FEAR TAXCUT DEBT-SPENDING....

[Padraig18]

17. He may deliver AZ to us.

AZ is in play, and if Sen. McCain refuses to 'play ball', AZ may well go our way. Now, wouldn't that be VERY sweet revenge on * for what he did to McCain in SC in 2000, and McCain's hands would be perfectly 'clean'...

:evilgrin:

[Zorra]

16. I really hope Sen. McCain fully understands how dangerous Bu$h and

the neocons are to the US.

[TexasSissy]

18. I knew McCain was like that. He will never be Bush's VP, either.

He's a maverick who considers himself to be his own man, and his credibility and leadership skills his strengths.

I guess that's why he's arguably the most popular politician in the country.

[Johnyawl]

19. McCain is positioning himself for '08

By campaigning for bush, he proves he's a party loyalist, and builds connections with the money people, and power brokers within his party. By staying out of the mudslinging, he enhances his reputation with independents, moderate Republicans, and conservative Democrats.

If bush, cheney, and their neocon crowd goes down in defeat - and especially if it takes the (r)s in congress down with them - the republicans will be looking for a white knight to rescue them, someone with broad, cross party appeal. McCain could well be that person.

It could make '08 a watershed election. Imagine, two men who genuinely like one another, avoiding the mudslinging, and the trumped up social controversies that have dominated elections in our lifetime, and running on their ideals and their positions on substantive issues. The true conservatism of McCain vs the New Deal liberalism of Kerry. The results of that election could undermine the idealogical foundations of the loser.

[Manix]

22. in '08 McCain will be 72 years old.

[Manix]

20. * hates McCain's guts...but if he can use him for advantage he will.

It's McCain who needs to show a little backbone and tell shrub to
go 'fuck off'.

[Dr Fate]

23. McCain wants to support old time Eisenhower GOP values.

So he is walking a fine line- he knows Bush is bad, but he still feels he should support the GOP- in the hopes that he can "reform" them.

Good luck on that one, sir.

[AntiCoup2K4]

25. McCain's position in regards to his party is similar to Howard Dean's

In that he hasn't forgotten how his own party stabbed him in the back, but that he chooses to remain loyal to that party, at least for now, in hopes that he can change it from within. Time will tell if either is successful in doing so. If not, I wouldn't be surprised to see either one - or both- on a third party ticket in a future election.

[Hippo_Tron]

27. I've been telling you guys this all along, McCain is independent

He doesn't want to be ANYBODY's vice president, he is fine being a senator from Arizona. Don't get me wrong, he's still a Republican and I disagree with many of his votes, but he is definately a decent guy. I think that deep down he wants Kerry to win but the political reality is that he has to endorse Bush or be destroyed by the right. I can't exactly say I blame the guy, because personally I sure as hell wouldn't want to be the Zell Miller of my party.

[Lefty Pragmatist]

29. McCain is a quasi-Paleocon (as much as he is anything)

and the Paleos can't stand Dubya, but they see Kerry as very liberal and worse still. Hence, they'll support the GOP nominee, but they won't be the brownshirts, and if Bush were to lose they'll be ready to try to take back the GOP in '08. Thus we can depend upon the Paleos to fight a hard but legitimate campaign against us.

Naturally, the Neocons will go nuts that the Paelos aren't falling into lock-goosestep, call McCain a RINO, and push the Paleos even further away from wholehearted support for Bush.

It's a good crack to shove a wedge into. If I were Kerry, I would find *one* issue where the Palecons are closer to moderate Dems than to Neocons (the Patriot Act comes to mind), make a policy statement out of it, and hammer... away... relentlessly. This will probably cheese off the Emma Goldman wing of the Dems, but a) that isn't a bad idea anyway and b) that's how you win elections.

[demwing]

34. I see where you get your nickname!

good post, good points.

[kodi]

33. well, mccain just gave bush a squating ovation

good show.

[ronnykmarshall]

35. I love it!

Mc Cain will not be playing a big part in the campaign now.

[auburngrad82]

42. McCain

John McCain is one of the very few Republicans that I would vote for. He is a man of integrity and honesty who can work with both parties to get things done. I like him.

If only the Republicans could support and honest man...