Republican John McCain of Arizona & Presidential Politics

Senator John McCain the Republican of Arizona stands with the Republican Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi.

During an appearance last weekend at the University of Mississippi, Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, predicted that Mr. Lott would become Republican leader again, adding, "I will tell anyone that of all the majority leaders we've had in the United States Senate, I believe that Trent Lott was the finest leader we've had."

Senator John McCain also stands with George Wallace Junior, who is running for lieutenant governor of Alabama.

Today, Senator John McCain is heading to Alabama to host a fundraiser for George Wallace Jr., who is running for Lieutenant Governor in a contested primary. Wallace has given four speeches in front of the Council of Conservative Citizens, a white supremacist group that was created from the mailing list of the old White Citizens Councils and has been identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as growing more openly "radical and racist" in recent years. However, Wallace claims he sees "nothing hateful" in the group which opposes interracial marriage, hate crime legislation, and "Afrocentric" education in schools.

The so called ‘maverick moderate’ John McCain is soliciting support from Rev. Jerry Falwell.

Sen. John McCain is taking action to make it hard for conservatives to write him off in the 2008 presidential race. His office confirms that the maverick moderate recently met with the Rev. Jerry Falwell, a conservative icon who is influential with voters on the right.

Finally, the Republican Senator John McCain stands with President Bush, VP Cheney and Karl Rove.

That's why I commend to my country the re-election of President Bush, and the steady, experienced, public-spirited man who serves as our Vice-President, Dick Cheney.

Four years ago, in Philadelphia, I spoke of my confidence that President Bush would accept the responsibilities that come with America's distinction as the world's only superpower.

Matt Stoller over at MyDD also points out McCain backing Intelligent Design and has a near perfect extreme record on abortion. John McCain also voted to convict Clinton on two counts, supports a ban on gay marriage and civil unions and supports teaching creationism in schools.

Yes, my friends John McCain is a Republican and a conservative who supported Bush and Cheney for White House, campaigning with George Wallace Junior, supports Trent Lott for Majority Leader and actively courting Rev. Jerry Falwell.

John McCain is running for President in 2008. The question is now, why do Liberals have a love affair with conservative Republican Senator John McCain?

As a Liberal and a Democrat I would never voted for John McCain for any political office, well maybe for dog catcher or something like that.

No person who believes in Liberal values should vote for Senator John McCain.

Patriotism, Republicans & Scoundrels

Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.

The leaders of the Republican party President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney continue to have approve ratings under 36%, with indictments, failed Iraq, terrorism and economic policies, criticism from fanatic and centrist within their party, and a Democratic Party willing to fight back they only have one attack left to lie and question the patriotism of anyone who dares to speak against them.

Dick Cheney

Vice President Dick Cheney accused Democratic senators who allege the Bush administration distorted intelligence to justify the war in Iraq of making "one of the most dishonest and reprehensible charges ever aired in this city."

Speaking at a Wednesday night dinner of the Frontiers of Freedom Institute, a conservative research organization, Cheney said Democrats who say they were misled by the administration are "making a play for political advantage in the middle of a war."

The criticism, Cheney said, threatens to undermine the morale of U.S. troops who are risking their lives while "a few opportunists are suggesting they were sent into battle for a lie."

"The president and I cannot prevent certain politicians from losing their memory, or their backbone," Cheney said. "But we're not going to sit back and let them rewrite history."

Republican party are the real opportunist.

Neither side wants to talk about the context in which Bush won a blank check from Congress to invade Iraq. He doesn't want us to remember that he injected the war debate into the 2002 midterm election campaign for partisan purposes, and he doesn't want to acknowledge that he used the post-9/11 mood to do all he could to intimidate Democrats from raising questions more of them should have raised.

The Republican party lead by Bush, Cheney and Rove use the Iraq war and 9/11 for partisan gains. Now, they attack Democrats for pointing out their failures as dishonest and reprehensible. It will not work.

The bad faith of Bush's current argument is staggering. He wants to say that the “more than a hundred Democrats in the House and Senate” who “voted to support removing Saddam Hussein from power” thereby gave up their right to question his use of intelligence forever after. But he does not want to acknowledge that he forced the war vote to take place under circumstances that guaranteed the minimum amount of reflection and debate, and that opened anyone who dared question his policies to charges, right before an election, that they were soft on Saddam.

By linking the war on terror to a partisan war against Democrats, Bush undercut his capacity to lead the nation in this fight. And by resorting to partisan attacks again last week, Bush only reminded us of the shameful circumstances in which the whole thing started.

Indeed. President Bush and this Republican party choose to use the Iraq war, terrorism and 9/11 as a partisan hammer against Democratic Party rather than lead a successful war against our enemies.

Had we stuck to our guns instead of going off to Iraq, we would have decapitated them in Afghanistan and be able to destroy their other outlets. Instead now, they’re all over the place (Afghanistan, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Bali, to name a few)

The Republican party is using Karl Rove old and tried play book to cover up their failures. It will not work, Dick Cheney is a proven lair and American people are not buy what they are selling.

Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.

All Kids

Gov signs 'All Kids' health insurance plan

Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed a bill Tuesday meant to provide comprehensive health coverage for every uninsured child in Illinois.

At a ceremony on Chicago's South Side, the first-term Democrat said the state is "reaching for the stars" with his "All Kids" plan, which goes into effect July 1.

"Nothing is more important to us than our children," he said.

Blagojevich estimates 253,000 Illinois children lack health insurance. Half of them qualify for existing health programs but have not been enrolled.

The rest come from families that don't qualify for government aid but can't afford private insurance. All Kids is meant to fill that gap by letting families buy into government insurance programs at low prices.

Critics of the program will claim it will cost too much. The only plan they offer is don’t get sick.

Comprehensive health coverage should be affordable for every single American, especially for young children. Gov. Rod Blagojevich plan is a great first step.

President Bush: We do not torture.

The leader of the Republican Party, President Bush.

"There's an enemy that lurks and plots and plans and wants to hurt America again," Bush said. "So you bet we will aggressively pursue them but we will do so under the law."

He declared, "We do not torture."

A betrayal of our most precious values

Well, I guess that settles that.

"We do not torture," President Bush said on Monday. Never mind all those torture pictures from Abu Ghraib. Never mind all those torture stories from Guantanamo Bay. Never mind the 2002 Justice Department memo that sought to justify torture. Never mind reports of U.S. officials sending detainees to other countries for torture. Never mind Dick Cheney lobbying to exempt the CIA from rules prohibiting torture.

"We do not torture," said the president. And that's that, right? I mean, if you can't believe the Bush administration, who can you believe? No torture. Period, end of sentence.

But . . . What does it say to you that the claim even has to be made?

Go read the whole Leonard Pitts editorial.

Bush and his Republican culture of corruption in congress has betrayed our moral values, torture is now acceptable to the leaders of the Republican party.

Bill Frist on the existence of overseas "black sites" where the Bush administration secretly holds detainees in the war on terror:

I am not concerned about what goes on and I'm not going to comment about the nature of that.

The Republican party claims to preach against the evils of the worlds, but now they don’t speaks against the evils of torture.

Isn't it extraordinary how it's the people who reject "moral relativism" and insist on the black-and-white difference between good and evil who argue for making exceptions when it comes to torture.

Indeed.

"We do not torture," says the president. I can remember when that went without saying.

John Edwards: I was wrong.

The Right Way in Iraq

I was wrong.

Almost three years ago we went into Iraq to remove what we were told -- and what many of us believed and argued -- was a threat to America. But in fact we now know that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction when our forces invaded Iraq in 2003. The intelligence was deeply flawed and, in some cases, manipulated to fit a political agenda.

It was a mistake to vote for this war in 2002. I take responsibility for that mistake. It has been hard to say these words because those who didn't make a mistake -- the men and women of our armed forces and their families -- have performed heroically and paid a dear price.

The world desperately needs moral leadership from America, and the foundation for moral leadership is telling the truth.

Good first step, admitting mistakes. More Democrats who voted for the Iraq war should acknowledge voting for a war lead by Republican President Bush was a very costly mistake.

IL-Gov: Oberweis & Undocumented Workers

The immigration bashing, dairy magnate and Republican Jim Oberweis milked illegal labor.

Two undocumented workers from Mexico have filed a complaint with the Illinois Department of Labor alleging Republican dairy magnate Jim Oberweis and a Lake in the Hills subcontractor paid them well below minimum wage to clean three suburban Oberweis ice cream shops.

Jim Oberweis calls the suit, ‘Dirty politics at work'.

Oberweis, who said he would never knowingly hire undocumented workers, questioned the timing of the complaint, which was formally filed Thursday by the coalition and Chicago Workers' Day Laborer Collaboration. He said Ramirez and Ibarra, 34, were "plants" set up by the groups who videotaped the two mopping the stores' floors and wiping its windows.

"Oberweis is proud of its employment record. We have always followed the spirit and letter of the law. I ask that the party behind this smear campaign get their facts right. It's dirty politics at work," Oberweis, 59, said.

During this failed 2004 campaign for Senate Jim Oberweis tried to scare people on issue of ‘Illegal aliens’.

"Illegal aliens are coming here to take American workers' jobs, drive down wages and take advantage of government benefits such as free health care, and you pay," Oberweis said in one of the spots.

Here we are a year later, and Oberweis, who is now running for governor, has an immigration problem of his own.

He doesn't have a stadium full of them. He has two people who say they worked in one of his ice cream shops. And they say they were paid just $3.25 an hour, half the state's minimum wage.

Did Oberweis hire illegal immigrants?

Apparently not. He put the blame on a subcontractor who provided cleaning services for the store. There is no evidence to show Oberweis himself knew of their immigration status.

But there is no question that he benefited from their labor. There is also no question that a lot of people like Oberweis have benefited from the labor of illegal immigrants in the U.S. [..]

Oberweis the dairy owner probably can't be faulted for the illegal labor used in his shop. But Oberweis the candidate surely looks disingenuous for his polarizing rhetoric on the danger he thinks that illegal immigrants pose to the U.S. (The figures in his ad, by the way, were inflated.)

There are an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the U.S., and many employers like Oberweis depend on them to get jobs done. [..]

Maybe Oberweis will stop screaming about "smear tactics" and take a look at the work on immigration reform being done in a spirit of quiet cooperation. Maybe he'll even endorse it.

Jim Oberweis has terminated the janitorial company's cleaning contract. But, I predict he will not cancel this immigration bashing rhetoric or he might just subcontract to Tom Tancredo.

Cross-Post at my blog: A Liberal Stance on Politics

Straight Face Republicans?

Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio

"I do not know how anyone can say with a straight face that when we voted to cut spending last week to help achieve deficit reductions we can now then turn around two weeks later to provide tax cuts that exceed the reduction in spending," he said.

Indeed.

Religion, Values & Traditional Democrats

The Washington Post

In Virginia, victorious candidate Timothy M. Kaine ran a campaign at odds with the strategy of many traditional Democrats, one that focused on religion and values and that appealed as much to swing voters as to the party's base.

Dan Balz is just repeating the old CW about Democrats and Republicans. The Republican party is the party of faith and values and the Democratic Party is not. Any time a Democrat like Kaine talks about his faith and values the candidate is reaching out to swing voters not to the traditional Democratic base.

Dan Balz should try to leave beltway.

Joshua Holland over at the Gadflyer points out letter to the editor in Salt Lake Tribune.

After hearing the GOP's proposed budget that plans to cut spending for foster care and nutritional programs while simultaneously proposing in excess of $50 billion in tax cuts, I had to respond to this naked cynicism.

For a party that espouses evangelical Christian values, this is like removing Matthew 25:31-46 from the Bible and giving the Pharisees any savings. Excellent foster care allows women an option to abortion. Isn't this a Christian solution rather than legislating morality?

Isn't feeding the poor a Christian ideal? Imagine Christ telling the multitude of 5,000 that this is an "ownership society" and to go feed themselves. Imagine Christ teaching that children are important inside the womb, but that after birth they are on their own, depending on their circumstances.

If you want a Christian government, put your money where your mouth is rather than empty words.

Edwin Maynard
Holladay

Amen.

This letter to the editor shows how out of step the CW is in the beltway. The media lets Republicans repeat over and over they are the party of faith and values without pointing out the their hypocrisy, duplicity and two-facedness of their agenda.

My faith and values lead to me the Democratic Party. A campaign of values and religion is not as odds with traditional Democrats, at least to should not be.