John McCain (R-AZ) has been repeatedly claiming on the stump that passing an economic stimulus package is at the very top of his agenda. He has told audiences that the “first thing we gotta do is pass the stimulus package through the Senate.” During a Jan. 24 GOP debate, he explicitly pledged to vote on such legislation when it reached the Senate. Watch McCain make this promise on repeated occasions:

As recently as this morning, McCain again told reporters that he planned on returning to the Senate for this evening’s vote on the economic stimulus, stating that Congress needed to quickly pass legislation.

The measure, blocked by conservatives, fell just one vote short of the 60 needed to end debate. At the “last minute,” McCain decided to skip the vote, even though his plane landed in DC in time. McCain claimed that he was “too busy“:

“I haven’t had a chance to talk about it at all, have not had the opportunity to, even,” McCain said. “We’ve just been too busy, focused on other stuff. I don’t know if I’m doing that. We’ve got a couple of meetings scheduled.”

Both Sens. Barack Obama (D-IL) and Hillary Clinton (D-NY) were able to return to the Senate and vote on the bill.

The stimulus package, which included “$600-$1,200 rebate checks for more than 100 million Americans,” would also have provided “$44 billion in help for the elderly, disabled veterans, the unemployed and businesses.” The bill was opposed by hardline conservatives whom McCain is hoping to woo. By not voting for bill, as he had promised, McCain caved to the right wing and turned his back on 20 million seniors and 250,000 disabled vets. As the AP notes:

Voting “no” with Republican leaders would have offended millions of Social Security recipients and the disabled veterans not scheduled to receive rebates. Voting “yes,” on the other hand, risked alienating Bush, GOP leaders and conservatives already suspicious of McCain’s political leanings. McCain was speaking Thursday before a meeting of the Conservative Political Action Conference, a group that booed him last year in absentia.

Today proved to be quite a detour for the straight talk express.

Transcript: Read more

In the Wall Street Journal forecasting survey released today, economists gave Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke “the lowest grade of his two-year tenure — 75 out of 100 points — and said it was increasingly likely the nation’s economy would tumble into a recession.” On average, participating economists “put the odds of a recession at 49%, up from 40% in the January survey and 23% last June.”

The AP reports:

The fate of $600-$1,200 rebate checks for more than 100 million Americans is in limbo after Senate Republicans blocked a bid by Democrats to add $44 billion in help for the elderly, disabled veterans, the unemployed and businesses to the House-passed economic aid package. [...]

The tally was 58-41 to end debate on the Senate measure, just short of the 60 votes Democrats would have needed to scale procedural hurdles and move the bill to a final vote. In a suspenseful showdown vote that capped days of partisan infighting and procedural jockeying, eight Republicans – four of them up for re-election this year – joined Democrats to back the plan, bucking GOP leaders and President Bush, who objected to the costly add-ons.

While hosting the 2007 Stanley Cup winners at the White House today, President Bush quipped to the Anaheim Ducks: “Like, have you noticed a lot of security around here? It’s because the Vice President heard there were some Ducks around.” In 2006, Cheney shot his 78-year old friend Harry Whittington while hunting. More recently, Bush also joked about Cheney’s secrecy.

AP reports:

For the first time, the top commander of detention operations at Guantanamo has confirmed the existence of the mysterious Camp 7. [...]

Guantanamo commanders said Camp 7 is for key alleged al-Qaida members, who must be kept apart from other prisoners to prevent them from retaliating against long-term detainees who have talked to interrogators. They also want the location kept secret for fear of terrorist attack. [...]

Red Cross representatives have visited Camp 7 and all the other detention facilities at Guantanamo, confirmed Geoff Loane, head of the humanitarian organization’s delegation in Washington. He declined to give details.

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) may have emerged with the most GOP delegates after yesterday’s Super Tuesday contests, but according to Brian Maloney at The Radio Equalizer, the real winner was right-wing hate radio:

Regardless of what the mainstream media might have you believe, talk radio emerged as last night’s biggest winner. It has nothing to do with actual election results, the medium simply has never been more influential than in 2008.

Don’t take your Radio Equalizer’s word for it: take a quick look at pre- and post- election coverage, it is truly difficult to find stories that don’t mention talk radio. Its role has absolutely dominated discussions of this year’s primary season.

Maloney is right that quite a few media stories have covered hate radio’s beef against McCain. But that’s because the media are always interested in the tragic demise of once powerful figures.

There’s no doubt that hate radio flourished under the Bush administration. Talkers have been invited to exclusive gatherings with President Bush and granted coveted interviews with high-ranking officials. Several people, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), noted the oversized role hate radio played in killing a comprehensive immigration bill last year.

But as the primary results have so far shown, hate radio may be on the decline. The majority of Republicans yesterday turned out and voted for McCain and Huckabee, rejecting the candidate chosen by the radical right and the xenophobic hype on immigration. A look at what the media pundits have been saying about the state of hate radio:

“The big loser in South Carolina was, in fact, talk radio: a medium that has unmistakably collapsed in terms of impact, influence and credibility because of its hysterical and one-dimensional involvement in the GOP nomination fight.” [Michael Medved, 1/19/08]

“Sean Hannity said a moment ago that he has his finger on the conservative pulse. The conservative talk radio and activist pulse. Immigration is the top issues for conservatives, for conservative Republicans. I just think there’s no evidence that’s the case of most voters and in most of the country.” [Bill Kristol, Fox News, 2/5/08]

“Can we please stop pretending that immigration is a good issue for Republicans? The restrictionist side can’t even produce a victory for their man in a Republican primary.” [David Brooks, 1/30/08]

“Mr. McCain’s emergence as the dominant candidate in the Republican field has generated an outcry from some of the party’s conservative stalwarts; Rush Limbaugh says a McCain nomination would destroy the Republican Party. We think Mr. McCain…would save the party from some of its worst and most self-destructive instincts.” [Washington Post, 2/6/08]

“Their [Limbaugh and Coulter's] claim that Mr. McCain is not a conservative…is ludicrous, but it’s damaging to a party bloodied by eight years of the politics of George Bush and Karl Rove.” [New York Times, 2/6/08]

If power is shouting and being ignored, then hate radio is king.

UPDATE: Sarah Posner looks at James Dobson’s lack of influence.

UPDATE II: Cliff Kincaid has more on talk radio’s failures.

In a congressional hearing today, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates implied that the U.S. military had routed the Taliban from Afghanistan. Echoing his recent assessment that the Taliban has “lost” in Afghanistan, Gates said the Taliban has been “thrown out”:

The Taliban no longer occupy any territory in Afghanistan. They were thrown out of Musa Qala a few weeks ago before over Christmas. And the Taliban have had some real setbacks. Probably 50 of their leaders have been killed or captured over the past year, and we know that that’s had an impact on their capability and also on their morale.

Watch it:

As late as November, a report said the Taliban controlled over half of Afghanistan. Today, the U.K. and U.S. “issued a renewed appeal to Nato allies in Afghanistan to take on a greater share of the fighting against the Taliban.”