Top Russian diplomat: ‘We’re not interested in what McCain has to say.’
Top Russian diplomat: ‘We’re not interested in what McCain has to say.’
On Sunday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) defended his plan to kick Russia out of the G8, a policy that Fareed Zakaria called “the most radical idea put forward by a major candidate for the presidency in 25 years.” Today, a top Russian diplomat dismissed McCain’s threat, claiming McCain was trying to turn Russia into a “scapegoat”:
“We can afford to cut off relations with any of our partners if that’s what they want … We’re not interested in what McCain has to say. Let him become president first, then we’ll listen to him,” the diplomat told reporters.
“We want the American electorate to answer for the choice it will make … At the moment, they are turning Russia into a scapegoat for the mistakes of their foreign policy,” said the diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The United States “is on the verge of an existential crisis,” he added.
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We’re not interested in what McCain has to say. Let him become president first, then we’ll listen to him,” the diplomat told reporters.
BOOM!! Headshot! Another feather for McCain’s foreign policy cap.
July 29th, 2008 at 12:41 pmSo much for the value of JM’s vast foreign policy experience. My guess is that Russia is not alone in their “love” of the man.
July 29th, 2008 at 12:41 pmThe United States “is on the verge of an existential crisis”
I would say that we are on the verge of another existential crisis. We have already had two of them — one in 2000 and another in 2004.
Third time is the charmer.
And I agree with the Russian diplomat. I am not interested in what McNumbNuts has to say, either.
July 29th, 2008 at 12:42 pmWow…Europe is definitely interested in what Obama has to say, but not McSame. I wonder why???
Maybe because they are sick of Bush and his cronies ???
July 29th, 2008 at 12:44 pmWow, as I read “existential crisis”, a Pentagon mouthpiece called Iran an “existential threat” on C-SPAN2. It seems Neocons paved the way for all these existential blow ups. McCain panders to the violent, greedy element of his party.
July 29th, 2008 at 12:44 pmIt takes a real expert in foreign policy to tick off another country even before you’re officially nominated by your party, much less elected President.
July 29th, 2008 at 12:45 pmActually, the United States is in the midst of a constitutional crisis. We have an Executive Branch that thinks it has more constitutional authority than the Legislative Branch, which is wrong.
A famous person was fond of saying, “The Legislative Branch is in the first Article and the Executive Branch is in the second Article. That is no accident.”
That famous person was Bush’s former Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld. Funny how they ignored one of his favorite sayings.
July 29th, 2008 at 12:48 pm” We’re not interested in what McCain has to say.”
Neither are most Americans.
July 29th, 2008 at 12:50 pmdon’t worry Russia, in a couple of days Mcstake will be on CNN saying that Russia is an important cog in the G8 and he never said he wanted to kick Russia out. Of course a couple of days after that, he’ll deny denying what he said…
He does this so he can claim he is for or against anything and have a sound bite to back it up. It’s the same with the surge, the timeline, the decision to invade Iraq, Don Rumsfeld, etc. It works when your base is the media.
July 29th, 2008 at 12:51 pm“Jim Wilke: Troll For Hire.”
coming to a blog near you.
July 29th, 2008 at 12:51 pmThe GOP needs a ‘bogey man’ to blame our poor decisions on. It is a standard part of how they operate. Our poor choices aren’t our fault – it is Russia’s (or Iran, or Syria, or Egypt, or Israel, or anyone else’s fault), but never ours.
The world sees what a petulant little bully we have become. It will take 20-30 years for us to regain our standing in the world.
July 29th, 2008 at 12:52 pmMcCain’s foreign policy experience is limited to falling to Earth from a very high place in Viet Nam & getting captured.
The fact the rest of the Planet views him as uninformed and full of himself just proves what voters should be considering in Nov.
July 29th, 2008 at 12:52 pmRight wingers are so easily manipulated.
They aren’t smart enough to realize when they are being lied to, so they believe they are under constant threat because their radios and TVs tell them they are.
What’s more, they are too cowardly to believe AMERICA is strong enough to defeat criminal thug terrorists without resorting to war.
Ignorant sissies, the whole lot of em.
July 29th, 2008 at 12:52 pmwell, McBush is getting his foreign policy advice from such a stellar guy — his track record is mind-boggling
July 29th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
McNasty is just a silly old man, who is clueless about most everything these days.
Maybe it’s time to look at “the conditions under the ground in Iraq,” that is, six feet under the ground, when the one million Iraqis murdered by Bush lie in their graves. It is time to end our hostile imperial occupation of Iraq. Haven’t we do enough to the Iraqi people?
July 29th, 2008 at 12:57 pmBut… but … but… I thought us and the Russkies were soulmates! Georgie and Pooty-Poot, BFF’s, right??
What the hell happened???
/snark
July 29th, 2008 at 12:58 pmOT, but just heard that Ted Stevens has been indicted…
July 29th, 2008 at 1:01 pmMcStake also called Putin ‘President of Russia’ Sunday morning.
He contradicted himself in less than a minute in the same interview, claiming he was against affirmative action before he was against it. (I know that doesn’t make sense, but try to paraphrase McCan’t sometime!)
July 29th, 2008 at 1:02 pmin small print underneath: Cheap rates. call me.
July 29th, 2008 at 1:03 pmLink re Stevens’ indictment:
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/45824.html
July 29th, 2008 at 1:03 pmYup to that Ted Stevens thing.
July 29th, 2008 at 1:05 pmWho Misspoke Today? Says:
Link re Stevens’ indictment:
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/45824.html
and the hits just
keep on coming!
*
July 29th, 2008 at 1:05 pmJim Wilke Says:
Ah yes, the anonymous quote from an unnamed diplomat.
The audacity of credible.
July 29th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
Just out of curiosity, Jim, how did you feel about all those anonymous quotes from “senior Bush Administration officials” who would say things praiseworthy of Bush or his policies (especially when those things turned out to be false)?
July 29th, 2008 at 1:05 pmMeanwhile, the Reich-wing is quietly dumping tens of thousands of registered voters off the rolls.
Out of the public eye, and unreported by the MainStreamMedia, tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of voters are being purged from the rolls in swing states.
What the MainStreamMedia does report are poll results indicating a close race between Obama and McCain.
Make no mistake: the powers that be have selected McCain. He may yet win by a Diebold. And, thanks to Bush’s Executive Orders, McCain will be able to use the full force of the military to quash any post-election civil uprising.
Yes. We are on the verge of an existential crisis. The Stage is set. The Play is in motion. Act III approaches.
July 29th, 2008 at 1:09 pmchew on this
jimmy.
*
good luck.
:)
July 29th, 2008 at 1:09 pmThe US is in more than an existential crisis and more than a constitutional crisis. We are in a Corporate inspired death spiral. We have been systematically torn apart sinew by sinew for all those golden eggs. (via deregulation and media infested lies)
Our unregulated corporate media contines to mislead too many of us. And misinformation or full information is the bottom line of what counts in a voting democracy. As a whole: We are only as good as the information we receive from our corporate media.
July 29th, 2008 at 1:12 pmYeah, Trippy, I can see how you wouldn’t understand.
You’re quite the sad little eejit, aren’t you?
July 29th, 2008 at 1:15 pmDr. Hussein Matt Says:
Surrendering to the enemy and signing anti-American documents as a POW is “foreign policy breadth”? LOL. Thanks for the laugh
This is a little over the line. McCain was tortured while in the Hanoi Hilton. Many men broke under those conditions and signed documents or made statements that the Vietnamese wanted for propaganda purposes. This isn’t a valid argument against McCain.
July 29th, 2008 at 1:15 pmHowever, they hypocrisy of McCain now advocating the use of torture or “enhanced questioning techniques” after years of speaking about how ineffective they are at getting reliable information, is a VERY, VERY, VALID knock against him.
Its quite the opposite and actually exemplifies McCain’s foreign policy breadth.
McCain’s “foreign policy breadth” is suffering from a severe case of halitosis.
July 29th, 2008 at 1:20 pmAnd, thanks to Bush’s Executive Orders, McCain will be able to use the full force of the military to quash any post-election civil uprising.
Yes. We are on the verge of an existential crisis. The Stage is set. The Play is in motion. Act III approaches.
Comment by Briseadh na Faire
I agree, but my guess would be that Busch will retain power after an international incident that he and Cheney create.
¶ AIO
July 29th, 2008 at 1:25 pmYeah, and they’ll have lots of brownshirted, jackbooted thugs like Triplekick to herd the rest of us into concentration camps…right, Trippie?
July 29th, 2008 at 1:29 pmPsssst, Trippie, we aren’t attacking you because you’re “correct” – on the contrary, we’re attacking you because you’re a Chimpy-leghumping bootlicker and unapologetic sycophant.
Just clearing that up.
And yes, you’re welcome.
July 29th, 2008 at 1:31 pmTop Russian diplomat: ‘We’re not interested in what McCain has to say.’
Good………Neither are we.
July 29th, 2008 at 1:32 pmOh, I love it when trolls shake their fingers at me!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA!!!
Oh, Trippie, you’re just a laff riot. ;o)
July 29th, 2008 at 1:32 pmNo. Not at all. Facts are facts. He surrendered to the enemy and signed anti-American documents as a POW. Fact. America should be aware of this.
I think America is aware of it. You paint with a wide brush when you say he “surrendered to the enemy”…being shot down over enemy territory is the equivalent of surrendering? I have read several books about the men who were locked in the Hanoi Hilton POW Camp, including McCain’s and former Senator Jeremiah Denton. The torture they were subjected to was absolutely brutal. Military code orders the men to not give ANY information, but the abuse was so bad the Ranking officer in camp ordered the men to endure it as long as they could, and when you couldn’t hold out any longer to give false information. McCain wasn’t the only man to give false statements in that situation. I believe every man in that camp gave false statements or “cooperated” at one time or another. In fact, the Vietnamese wanted to release McCain as a P.R. move, to show how merciful they were, but McCain refused any preferential treatment (his father currently was an Admiral in the Navy).
McCain’s policies regarding torture are beyond hypocritical considering his history, but to portray his “breaking” as a political advantage for Democrats would be on the level of a Karl Rove tactic.
July 29th, 2008 at 1:33 pmTripleKick 3 Says:
Leftside,
Please enlighten me as to your opinion regarding why this unnamed Russian diplomat may not be interested in a McCain presidency. Something specific to Russia, please. Matt, same to you. Dazzle me with your collective wit and please, refrain from trolling anymore. Stay on topic.
Stop trying to deflect any discussion at TP with your nonsense about others being trolls. You’ve been playing the same game for ages and no one is fooled.
And none of us are here to entertain you.
July 29th, 2008 at 1:40 pm….butto portray his “breaking” as a political advantage for Democrats would be on the level of a Karl Rove tactic.
Comment by DvlsAdvocat
You must have a short memory, but Rove (and Limbaugh) used that very tactic in 2000, and they started it up again early in the current Republican primary.
This is one of the few times I agree with Rove-it’s probably true.
¶ AIO
July 29th, 2008 at 1:48 pmAmerica is, in fact, n the brink of an existential crisis. Unless we change this disastrous course we’re on, we will cease to be a major nation.
Crazy? The Republicans have shattered our military. As long as we’re in Iraq, the United States is not capable of another military effort, except dropping bombs. Our economic vigor is being depleted by the destruction of our middle class–and the drunk-sailor spending of the Republicans. Our technological and scientific edge is being blunted by the Republicans’ hysterical denunciation of scientists on more than one front.
What do we have to offer the world? a bastion of freedom? An example of prosperity? A scientific powerhouse? There are a;ll sorts of countries that are more free, more prosperous than we are, with a better educated populace. The European Union collectively has a much bigger GDP than America does.
Remember that it took less than 50 years for Great Britain to go, at te time of the Boer War, from an empire on which the sun never set, to a second class hanger-on nation. It can happen.
We can go from being admired, to feared, to despised, to ridiculed, to thought quaint and charming. We’ve alreade gone from 1 to 2 and halfway to three.
July 29th, 2008 at 1:54 pmSo, I guess we can add the Russians to the list of many nations that don’t respond positively to inappropriate, belligerent, insulting or otherwise distasteful statements/actions that form the core of neocon foreign policy and diplomacy. Perhaps we need just a few more data points before we ditch this diplomatic approach. After all, on it’s face, it seems like a such good strategy. So, for the ultimate test, we can tell the Swiss that if they drop their mamby-pamby neutrality bull and get behind the US efforts to oust Russia from the G8, they can be the replacement. Oh, but, obviously, they have to stop speaking French too. If they respond negatively, then maybe we can consider something else.
July 29th, 2008 at 2:01 pmalphainfinityomega Says:
You must have a short memory, but Rove (and Limbaugh) used that very tactic in 2000, and they started it up again early in the current Republican primary.
This is one of the few times I agree with Rove-it’s probably true.
Oh….no. I hate to hear that. I DO remember the Right Wing machine slandering McCain on this issue, as well as his “black baby” whisper campaign in South Carolina. Rove is trash, and any position he advocates is trash by extension. Its a distinction he has brought on himself from decades of orchestrating the most vile, slander-filled campaigns. Don’t bite because its ammuntion that WE can use….we don’t need to stoop to that level. We should be 100% aligned against that type of campaigning. We have the better candidate.
July 29th, 2008 at 2:03 pmIn your trollish manner you wish to convey to us that you think mccain and the right might have a legitimatly good idea.
When has that happened? What have they done that would show a thinking person that they know what they are doing on anything…..forign policy….please, the economy…please.
You have, by being a coward and a bootlicker and unwilling to enter civil discussions in the past here pigionholed yourself…..you made your position clear and we understand…you just won’t get much respect here for being willfully ignorant.
flagged again.
July 29th, 2008 at 2:09 pmDvlsAdvocat Says:
got concern…..direct it towards real criminals. We have been nice and it’s over. They can say the vile things they say about our candidate and you want to condemn us for disparaging a “senators son” who couldn’t even make it in the real world with all of the help of his rich parents…..sound like somone else you know?
If people on the left are starting to get nasty you should thank the right for making it that way….it’s their baby. The only way to change it is to wrest power from them and put them back in their place…..we may have to play rough with them to accomplish that. Too bad, but as I said….they set the ground rules, remember?
July 29th, 2008 at 2:17 pmTripleKick 3 Says:
bye bye
July 29th, 2008 at 2:20 pmFred Says:
Too bad, but as I said….they set the ground rules, remember?
Just because they set their rules, it doesn’t mean we have to play by them. That is the same thought process that brought us Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, “the terrorists don’t respect the Geneva Conventions, why should we”….
Because we’re better than that, thats why.
July 29th, 2008 at 2:22 pmTK3:
July 29th, 2008 at 2:22 pmPerhaps Russia doesn’t have to be an adversary? Perhaps we might be able to accomplish a few things that are in our interest if we weren’t constantly antagonizing our allies and other non-aggressive nations. What could possibly be the benefit of McCain’s suggestion at this point? Yeah, it might benefit him politically, but does it really help the country and our international relations? If not, then isn’t McCain making statements that may be counter to official US foreign policy? Isn’t McCain being presumptuous? Or is that only a concern for other candidates?
McCain showing signs of senile dementia?
July 29th, 2008 at 2:23 pmWah, wah, wah, Trippie. You don’t like it here, go somewhere else.
July 29th, 2008 at 2:36 pmNo, that’s the same thought process that allowed the right to bulldoze us in 2000 & 2004. We didn’t push back….prime example Kerry not pushing back against the swift boaters. We can’t be nice while they behave the way they do and expect the electorate to see the differences.
July 29th, 2008 at 2:40 pmTripleKick 3 Says:
Russia is still a US adversary in global influence, so it sounds like TP is a bit shortsighted in its approach here.
July 29th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
____
Considering that they sell us about 420,000 barrels of oil a day, I’d say they’re much more of a frenemy than an adversary.
July 29th, 2008 at 2:43 pmI’m just trying to figure a logical reason that we wouldn’t want Russia in the G8. They are a gigantic country, albeit with a weak economy. Are we afraid that Russia and China will team up ? If so, shouldn’t we at least act friendly ?
July 29th, 2008 at 2:50 pmFred says:
No, that’s the same thought process that allowed the right to bulldoze us in 2000 & 2004. We didn’t push back….prime example Kerry not pushing back against the swift boaters. We can’t be nice while they behave the way they do and expect the electorate to see the differences.
Pushing back against false claims is one thing, I support that 110%. Perpetuating false claims in the mold of a swift boat attack is a whole different matter.
July 29th, 2008 at 2:53 pmOur ideas are better, our candidate is better, our IDEALS are better, than a Rovian attack on McCain’s patriotism, based on his POW experience.
If you want to question McCain’s commitment to the ideals of Democracy, or even his patriotism, using his voting record and statements regarding the Iraq war, torture of detainees, wiretapping American citizens, etc…then let’s go to town on that front. But not any statements or propaganda extracted from him while under torture.
TripleKick 3 Says:
If anything, the story helps McCain for those who are informed on the Russia issue.
________________
Good lord, you utter fool. McCain doesn’t even know Czechoslovakia doesn’t exist anymore and thinks Iraq& Pakistan have a common border. It’s not a question of whether or not McCain has a valid stance on “the Russia Issue”, but rather, does Johnny even know where he is half the time?
July 29th, 2008 at 2:57 pmTripleKick3:
July 29th, 2008 at 2:58 pmI sort of doiubt that anything you might think you comprehend is over my head and I am a really humble guy
DvlsAdvocat Says:
Well then get busy doing that instead of holding my feet to the fire…..I will support you….you seem intent on shutting me down….Why? Get with the program then and post some anti-false claims by the right instead of tearing people down here for being angry…..are you not angry.
You seem to miss the entire point of the conversation….mccain was shot down because he was a poor pilot and he was captured and he says tortured. He spilled his guts as anyone probably would have done but it nothing to be proud of and imply that it gives you forign policy experience is it?
July 29th, 2008 at 3:03 pmI’m “holding your feet to the fire”..because I DO have a passionate desire to get these Republican thugs out of office. To do that we need to have a coherent, rational, argument about our candidates strengths versus McCain.
If you wanted to see Obama go down in a landslide defeat, then you couldn’t pick a better move than to have him question McCain’s patriotism, using as evidence: “Surrendering to the enemy and signing anti-American documents as a POW is “foreign policy breadth”….which is the original argument I’ve been positioning against.
Ami angry? Absolutely. I am furious about what has been happening to my country. I counter the false stories about Obama EVERY DAY with my coworkers and family members. I guarantee you that you will not convert anyone with cheap points about his being shot down. You have to have a real reason why Obama is better. Cheap shots about getting shot down just get answered with crap like “well,Obama’s a muslim…”
July 29th, 2008 at 3:16 pmDvlsAdvocat Says:
Obama’s a muslim is there anyway….it’s their talking point. Most Americans are not interested in a coherent, rational, argument about our candidates strengths versus McCain. We have plenty of them but we had them in 2000 and 2004 also, did we not?
If I can paint mccain as what he is, a fool who could not get through the academy without interferance from his daddy and even then graduated 4th from last in his class then I will.
You seem to want to win but be a nice guy. We are the nice guys and it has gotten us beaten. I intend to hammer them until they bleed. You play nice if you want.
July 29th, 2008 at 3:41 pmDvlsAdvocate:
With all due respect to you, John McCain would not have left that prison with his skin intact had he not ’spilled his guts’.
What pisses me off is how the Right is trying to say now that he stood up to the ‘Gooks’ and they got no info. from him.
That’s just not true.
¶ AIO
July 29th, 2008 at 3:44 pm“We’re not interested in what John McCain has to say.”
ha ha
Especially since McCain wants to kick Russia out of the G8. They won’t talk to him anytime.
July 29th, 2008 at 3:47 pmalphainfinityomega
With all due respect to you, John McCain would not have left that prison with his skin intact had he not ’spilled his guts’.
John McCain was just like hundreds of American airmen who walked out of those prisons. A great number of them, if not all of them, “spilled their guts” to a degree. Do you think McCain, as a front line soldier, had some kind of useful information that helped their war effort? Any more than the hundreds of other airmen did? The greatest “help” that McCain gave them was the P.R. boost and bargaining chip of holding the son of an Admiral.
July 29th, 2008 at 4:06 pmSo does this mean torture works?
July 29th, 2008 at 4:13 pmFred says:
You seem to want to win but be a nice guy. We are the nice guys and it has gotten us beaten. I intend to hammer them until they bleed. You play nice if you want.
I don’t want to be the “nice guy”…I want to be the “fact guy”. I want hammer those bastards with the cold, unadulterated FACTS about where we are today, and where we’re headed. I don’t want to bring up John McCain’s POW experience, except to point out, as starkly as possible, that he is now flip-flopping and willing to subject detainees to the same torture he endured while in that hell-hole. Ask him to explain why we should be allowing these techniques to extract information that he himself said, from his own experience, is UNRELIABLE. Mr. McCain, why should we continue to allow this practice, when even the military tribunals are disallowing the resulting testimony from the prosecutions of the detainees?
July 29th, 2008 at 4:16 pmI want to go after these clowns with their own words. Make them defend the indefensible. Their votes.
“Top Russian diplomat: ‘We’re not interested in what McCain has to say.’”
And there you have it folks. Have many more leaders and diplomats that Grandpappy McCain is going pissed off?
July 29th, 2008 at 5:28 pmRussia is still a US adversary in global influence, so it sounds like TP is a bit shortsighted in its approach here.
July 29th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
Upon what evidence do you rest your conclusion? How is Russia’s position in relation to global influence adversarial compared to every other nation? How is Russia’s supposed adversarial position relevant to this discussion?
What is this “Russia issue” to which you refer? Since you offer no citations nor links to support your assertions, are we to resort to Rune-casting to divine your meanings?
For all I know, you could be talking about Russia’s eligibility for joining the European Union. Should Russia be admitted to the EU, Russia would certainly stand to benefit economically.
July 29th, 2008 at 5:37 pmDumbass McCain wants to bring back the Cold War (like we can afford another one of those). Besides, I don’t think Russia is going to go quietly because McSame says so. This isn’t “radical”, it’s really stupid.
July 29th, 2008 at 9:13 pm