After Endorsing Bush’s Comments, McCain Camp Claims ‘We Never Used The Term Appeasement’
After Endorsing Bush’s Comments, McCain Camp Claims ‘We Never Used The Term Appeasement’
While speaking to the Israeli Knesset yesterday, President Bush compared those who advocate speaking directly to our enemies to Nazi appeasers, a comment interpreted as a hit at Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL). Speaking on MSNBC this afternoon, Nancy Pfotenhauer, a policy adviser to Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), stood by Bush’s comparison even as she tried to claim that McCain had never used the word appeasement:
PFOTENHAUER: Senator McCain responded directly himself and said he took the president at his word, that those comments were not directed toward Senator Obama. […]
SHUSTER: Nancy, does the McCain campaign believe that talking to our enemies is the same as appeasing them?
PFOTENHAUER: We have never used the term appeasement and you know that.
SHUSTER: But the president did. […]
PFOTENHAUER: We have specifically not used the term appeasement.
Watch it:
Pfotenhauer needs to get her facts straight. First, McCain himself specifically used the word “appeasers” yesterday, insisting “the president is exactly right“:
Yes, there have been appeasers in the past, and the president is exactly right, and one of them is Neville Chamberlain. I believe that it’s not an accident that our hostages came home from Iran when President Reagan was president of the United States. He didn’t sit down in a negotiation with the religious extremists in Iran, he made it very clear that those hostages were coming home.
What’s more, it’s unclear what Pfotenhauer was referring to when she said the McCain campaign “took the president at his words,” considering Bush never said that his comments were not directed toward Obama. In fact, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino confirmed that the comments did “include” him. CNN’s Ed Henry reported yesterday, “White House aides are acknowledging that this was a reference to the fact that Sen. Obama and other Democrats” support meeting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad.
Washington Post Reporter Complains In Online Chat: ‘Oy, What’s With All The McCain Questions?’
Washington Post Reporter Complains In Online Chat: ‘Oy, What’s With All The McCain Questions?’
Earlier today, Washington Post reporter Jonathan Weisman opened up an online chat with readers by saying that “zany things happening on Capitol Hill” and “John McCain has found the end date for our adventure in Iraq.” Weisman then asked readers to “Take it away!”
But after five out of the first 11 questions focused on Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), Weisman began to complain. Asked about senior McCain adviser Charlie Black’s lobbying for Ahmed Chalabi, Weisman had enough, complaining, “Oy, what’s with all the McCain questions?“:
Jonathan Weisman: Oy, what’s with all the McCain questions? Anyone wondering about those Miley Cyrus photos anymore? Anyway, Charlie Black’s lobbying business has gotten a lot of attention of late, and wil continue to get it as long as he keeps it going.
Weisman was relieved though, when a reader asked a question comparing President Bush’s “appeasement” shot at Democrats yesterday to Rep. Jim McDermott’s (D-WA) criticism of President Bush while in Baghdad before the Iraq war. Weisman exclaimed: “Ah, thank goodness someone in chatting land is a Republican“:
Jonathan Weisman: Ah, thank goodness someone in chatting land is a Republican. But I must protest that Jim McDermott took a lot of heat for what he said and did in Baghdad. He was shunned by his fellow Democrats for, like, days (maybe weeks). No one has the squealing thing cornered, my friend.
Weisman, like a lot of the news media at the moment, often appears reluctant to put McCain under tough scrutiny. Last month, in another washingtonpost.com online chat, Weisman stuck up for McCain’s “maverick brand,” claiming without evidence that McCain had “clashed” with President Bush “repeatedly” over the years.
Neoconservative McCain Adviser: ‘At Some Point,’ ‘You Might Want To’ Talk To Iran
Neoconservative McCain Adviser: ‘At Some Point,’ ‘You Might Want To’ Talk To Iran
Robert Kagan, adviser to Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and brother of Iraq surge architect Fred Kagan, is a prominent leader of the neoconservative movement. In 1997, for example, he and Bill Kristol co-founded the neoconservative Project for the New American Century (PNAC), which advocated overthrowing Saddam Hussein.
Yesterday, McCain reiterated his unwillingness to engage diplomatically with various Middle East countries, particularly Iran. But last night on PBS’s Charlie Rose, even Kagan moved away from McCain’s position. While he defended the Bush administration’s current refusal to sit down with Iran, Kagan admitted that this policy may not be as sustainable as McCain thinks:
ROSE: Does it make sense to talk to the Iranian government?
KAGAN: You know, I think, and this is where John McCain may not — doesn’t agree necessarily. I think at some point we may find ourselves in a position when you might want to do that. But I think at this moment, there isn’t a great deal — we have a very sensible position.
Watch it:
Later in the segment, Rose forced Kagan to admit that the administration’s current posture with Iran also hasn’t worked well. “Do you think [not talking to Iran] stopped them from getting closer to building a nuclear weapon?” pressed Rose. “Obviously not,” Kagan admitted.
As former State Department official James Rubin noted today, McCain was open to meeting with Hamas just two years ago. And as Max Bergmann observed, in 2003, when former Secretary of State Colin Powell was criticized for meeting with Syrian leaders, McCain encouraged the talks, stating, “Colin Powell is going to look [President] Bashar aside in the eye and say, look, you know. You better clean up your act here.”
Flashback: McCain once sought to push the NRA out of the GOP.
Flashback: McCain once sought to push the NRA out of the GOP.
In Louisville, KY today, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) will address nearly 60,000 gun enthusiasts at the annual National Rifle Association convention. McCain requested the speaking spot, but, as Cliff Schecter points out, McCain once said the NRA shouldn’t be embraced by the Republican Party:
The NRA is entitled to their advocacy. I don’t think they help the Republican Party at all, but I don’t think they should in any way play a major role in the Republican Party’s policy making. [CNN, 5/12/00]
Watch it:
U.S. News and World Report notes that McCain is expected to flip-flop on his position regarding the closing of the gun show loophole.
Rubin: McCain’s Rhetoric On Hamas Is ‘The Ultimate Flip-Flop’
Rubin: McCain’s Rhetoric On Hamas Is ‘The Ultimate Flip-Flop’
Sen. John McCain (R-Z) has criticized Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) by disingenuously claiming that he “approved” of negotiations with Hamas. “It is a grave and dangerous mistake for an American leader to meet with a terrorist organization like Hamas,” McCain claims. But in an op-ed today, James Rubin, a former State Department official under President Clinton, revealed that in a 2006 interview on Britain’s Sky News, McCain supported direct diplomacy with Hamas:
RUBIN: Do you think that American diplomats should be operating the way they have in the past, working with the Palestinian government if Hamas is now in charge?
McCAIN: They’re the government; sooner or later we are going to have to deal with them, one way or another, and I understand why this administration and previous administrations had such antipathy towards Hamas because of their dedication to violence and the things that they not only espouse but practice, so…but it’s a new reality in the Middle East.
Interviewed on CNN today, Rubin said McCain’s “180-degree flip flop” on negotiating with Hamas was at the “height of hypocrisy”:
RUBIN: This is the ultimate flip-flop in American politics. When he was in Davos amongst the European crowd…he was talking as if it were appropriate and natural and reasonable to negotiate with Hamas, the new government of the Palestinian territories. And then, two years later, he’s taking a very, very different position, saying anybody who wants to talk to them is somehow an equivalent to terrorists … It was he himself who was prepared to talk to Hamas two years ago.
Watch it:
“The old John McCain, it appears, was ready to do business with a Hamas-led government, Rubin wrote. CNN said it contacted McCain’s campaign for reaction to Rubin’s comments but said, “We have yet to hear back from them.”
There should be no confusion, John McCain has always believed that serious engagement would require mandatory conditions and Hamas must change itself fundamentally - renounce violence, abandon its goal of eradicating Israel and accept a two state solution. John McCain's position is clear and has always been clear, the President of the United States should not unconditionally meet with leaders of Iran, Hamas or Hezbollah. Barack Obama has made his position equally clear, and has pledged to meet unconditionally with Iran's leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the leaders of other rogue regimes, which shows incredibly dangerous and weak judgment.
McCain: Bush ‘Exactly Right’ On ‘Appeasement’ Remark, Praises Reagan’s Handling Of Iran Hostage Crisis
McCain: Bush ‘Exactly Right’ On ‘Appeasement’ Remark, Praises Reagan’s Handling Of Iran Hostage Crisis
Referring to President Bush’s notorious comments, MSNBC’s Pat Buchanan asked this morning: Will Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) “endorse this statement about Barack Obama that in effect he is an appeaser?” Today, McCain confirmed that he would.
The New York Times reports that McCain “wholeheartedly endorsed Mr. Bush’s veiled rebuke” at Obama. Talking to reporters this morning, McCain said:
Yes, there have been appeasers in the past, and the president is exactly right, and one of them is Neville Chamberlain. I believe that it’s not an accident that our hostages came home from Iran when President Reagan was president of the United States. He didn’t sit down in a negotiation with the religious extremists in Iran, he made it very clear that those hostages were coming home.
McCain elaborated on his campaign bus today, claiming diplomatic talks are a “serious error.” Watch it:
McCain’s praise of Ronald Reagan is wholly misplaced. To recap, during the Iran-Contra affair in the 1980s, hostages were not released because of Iran’s fear of Reagan, as McCain suggested. In reality, Iran released them after Reagan administration officials infamously sold arms to the country, which were transfered to Ayatollah Khomeini. As a result, 11 Reagan officials were convicted of crimes.
Furthermore, Reagan did not have to “negotiate” with Iran during the hostage crisis of the 1970s because he wasn’t involved in it. The extensive negotiations with Iran were done before his presidency. In fact, Reagan’s inauguration occurred only minutes before the hostages were released.
McCain should take note of what Reagan said in 1981: “Our reluctance for conflict should not be misjudged as a failure of will.”
Reporter calls McCain’s ‘2013′ speech a ‘magic carpet ride.’
Reporter calls McCain’s ‘2013′ speech a ‘magic carpet ride.’
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) delivered a speech today in which he provided his vision of what the world might look like by the year 2013 if he is elected president. In 2013, McCain claimed, “the Iraq War has been won,” “Iraq is a functioning democracy,” a “newly formed League of Democracies” has gathered to “to stop the genocide” in Sudan, and the U.S. “has experienced several years of robust economic growth.” One reporter told McCain that his speech sounded more like “a magic carpet ride.” Taking issue with that characterization, McCain said, “I don’t think it has anything to do with fantasy.”
McCain campaign threatened to cut off Newsweek’s access.
McCain campaign threatened to cut off Newsweek’s access.
Earlier this week, after Newsweek published a cover story examining the hardball tactics conservatives might use in the general election, Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) “true partner” and longest-serving aide, Mark Salter, fired off a stinging retort that accused the magazine of being “biased.” Today, a Wall Street Journal profile of Salter reveals that he also “threatened to throw the magazine’s reporters off the campaign bus and airplane“:
He threatened to throw the magazine’s reporters off the campaign bus and airplane, according to people familiar with the matter. Mr. Salter says he expressed the campaign’s displeasure and is talking to the publication about future access.
Salter’s move to cut off Newsweek’s access is reminiscent of how in 2004, “a New York Times reporter assigned to cover Vice President Cheney was routinely excluded from the press plane.”
Cindy McCain sells off $2 million in Sudan investments.
Cindy McCain sells off $2 million in Sudan investments.
In an April 24, 2007 speech on energy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) criticized China for opposing sanctions in Darfur, saying that the reason it refused to do so was because “China needs Sudan’s oil.” Now, in a moment of irony, the AP reports that McCain’s wife, Cindy, just “sold off more than $2 million in mutual funds” whose holdings include companies that do business in Sudan’s oil industry:
According to McCain’s personal financial disclosure, Cindy McCain’s investments include two mutual funds — American Funds Europacific Growth fund and American Funds Capital World Growth and Income fund — that are listed by the Sudan Divestment Task Force as targets for divestment.
“Those have been sold as of today,” said McCain spokesman Brian Rogers.
Both funds have holdings in Oil & Natural Gas Corp., an India-based company that does business in Sudan. The American Funds Capital World Growth & Income Fund also has holdings in Petrochina, a Chinese government-owned oil company with vast investments in Sudan.
Despite the fact that her vast wealth has been used to benefit her husband’s campaign, Ms. McCain said recently that she will never release her tax returns, even if she becomes First Lady.