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Security

McCain On Whether To Arm Syrian Rebels: ‘Sure, Why Not?’

By Ben Armbruster on Jul 23, 2012 at 12:30 pm

Yesterday on CNN, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) again scorned the Obama administration for not intervening militarily in Syria, calling its efforts to resolve the crisis diplomatically “shameful.” When host Candy Crowley asked if the U.S. should be sending arms to the Syrian rebels, McCain immediately replied, “Sure, why not?“:

CROWLEY: U.S. arms, you want to get U.S. arms to them. You don’t…

MCCAIN: Sure, why not? Why not? Russian arms are coming in. Iranians are on the ground. Meanwhile, the Iranians are helping Bashar al-Assad and they are committing acts of — they are committing terrorist acts around the world — they are planning on terrorist acts. The talks with Iran on their nuclear development have broken down and where is the United States of America?

Watch the clip:

McCain is wrong to suggest that the Obama administration is standing idly by while Bashar al-Assad kills his own people. The U.S. has been delivering non-military assistance to Syria’s rebels behind the diplomatic scenes, including providing intelligence, logistics and communications assistance and technological aid and training. And the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal reported today that the administration is tabling for now diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis in Syria and instead increasing aid to rebels, “scrambling spies and diplomats to block arms and oil shipments from Iran and passing intelligence to front-line allies.”

But McCain’s knee-jerk “why not” arm the Syrian rebels response demonstrates his apparently unwillingness to consider the repercussions of such a move. “To argue that we ought to be arming the opposition is a very consequential statement,” U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice said recently. “And I don’t think that those that are advocating that have fully thought through the consequences.”

House Intelligence Committee chair Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) said last month that he sees the intelligence everyday and urged caution in arming the rebels. “We just don’t have a good handle on who they are,” Rogers said.

And Republican House Speaker John Boehner (OH) agrees with Rice, last week dismissing McCain’s Syria position in favor of Obama’s. “I believe that Assad has to go,” he said, “But I don’t think that we need to overly involve ourselves to the extent of direct military action.”

NEWS FLASH

Cindy McCain Defends Kirk Cameron’s Bigotry | Cindy McCain reiterated her support for marriage equality to Piers Morgan last night, but defended comments Kirk Cameron made condemning homosexuality as “detrimental and ultimately destructive.” Even though she “strongly disagrees” with his rhetoric, she still thinks it’s “too harsh” to label him a bigot because “he has his views, he has his beliefs — I respect that.” Last month, McCain blamed the media for portraying the Republican party as being anti-gay, arguing that most Republicans are not. Watch her comments from last night:

(HT: Towleroad.)

LGBT

Cindy McCain Claims Republicans Are Not Anti-Gay, Says GOP Believes In ‘Equality For All’

By Igor Volsky on Feb 23, 2012 at 12:55 pm

Cindy McCain — the wife of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and a supporter of marriage equality — does not believe that the Republican party is on the “wrong side of history” for opposing same-sex marriage. During an interview with CNN’s Erin Burnett ahead of Wednesday’s GOP presidential debate in Arizona, McCain claimed that members of the GOP have “diverse opinions” on the issue and blamed the media for portraying the party as anti-gay:

BURNETT: Do you find it frustrating that there’s a perception among the voting public, and maybe it’s a wrong perception, but there’s a perception that to be a play-by-the-rules Republican, you can’t be friendly to gay marriage, you can’t be friendly to abortion. All of these things, that social issues still define the party.

C. MCCAIN: I disagree with that. I think the media portrays that. I think being a Republican, being part of the party for — as many years as I have and knowing the Republicans the way I do that is not the case and that’s not the bulk of Republicans that believe in that, at all. The vocal ones, maybe the ones that are on the far right side of the issue, but I — certainly in the state of Arizona –

BURNETT: Right.

C. MCCAIN: — we are open-minded Republicans and believe in equality for all.

Watch it:

Health

Rep. Moore On The ‘No Exceptions’ Abortion Stance: ‘You Shouldn’t Have To Die To Bring A Child Into The World’

By Tanya Somanader on Oct 28, 2011 at 5:45 pm

Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI)

Anti-choice activists are driving an increasingly radical and successful attack against a woman’s constitutional right to choose. Be it through “personhood” measures or anti-contraception bills, Republican lawmakers are trying to ban abortions under any circumstances, including rape, incest, or even when the mother’s life is in danger.

Following anti-choice activists down this radical road, GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain recently declared, “I am pro-life from conception. [No] abortions, no exceptions.” Cain’s campaign has since insisted that he in fact does support exceptions. Yesterday on Capitol Hill, Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI) bemoaned Cain and Republicans increasing extremism on abortion. Noting that most Americans agree “that you shouldn’t have to die in order to bring a child into the world” and that “it was OK to have birth control,” she blasted the GOP for “branding themselves” as anti-government intrusion while trampling a woman’s privacy as obviously “hypocritical”:

MOORE: I think that people have overreached. This is a debate where really good decent people on either side of a woman’s right to choose can disagree. And I think where people had gotten to, people at least decided that you had the right to terminate a pregnancy if your life was in danger. That you shouldn’t have to die in order to bring a child into the world, I think people had gotten to that point. I think people had gotten to a point that if you were a victim of a traumatic rape or incest or some unusual circumstances like that that you deserved to have an abortion. [...]

And I think we’re seeing a defiance here, that really overrides the majority of American opinion, that this is something that is a private issue between a woman and her family, her doctor, and certainly an issue between a woman and her relationship with God. So Republicans who like to brand themselves as being independent of government control and regulations certainly are hypocritical with respect to this issue.

Watch it:

Of course, Cain may yet again be switching his position on abortions. If given a few hours, he’ll undoubtedly be on the radical road again.

NEWS FLASH

Manchin To McCain On Afghanistan: I Don’t Have Your Experience, But I Have ‘A Little Common Sense’ | This week on the Senate floor, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) said, “We can no longer, in good conscience, cut services and programs at home, raise taxes or — and this is very important — lift the debt ceiling in order to fund nation-building in Afghanistan.” Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) then attacked Manchin, saying his remarks are characteristic of the “isolationist-withdrawal-lack-of-knowledge-of-history attitude that seems to be on the rise.” Manchin responded last night on CNN, saying he’s “proud to serve” with McCain and that he’s “a great American,” but added, “I don’t have the experience he has. But what I do have, like most West Virginians, is a little common sense.” Watch it:

Yglesias

Pillgate

By Matthew Yglesias on Sep 12, 2008 at 9:32 am

WaPost takes a look at Cindy McCain’s drug addiction, the illegal stuff she did to get drugs, the way she got caught, the stuff she said after getting caught and “coming clean” that actually wasn’t true, efforts by the McCains to punish a whistleblower, etc.

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