So upset that he made a speech that didn’t mention Trump by name:
John McCain is increasingly mad as hell about President Trump. And on Friday, he went after Trump — hard.
During a speech at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, the Republican senator from Arizona delivered a pointed and striking point-by-point takedown of Trump’s worldview and brand of nationalism. McCain didn’t mention Trump’s name once, but he didn’t have to.
And even considering the two men’s up-and-down history and the terrible things Trump has said about McCain, it was a striking display from a senior leader of a party when it comes to a president of the same party.
That’s Aaron Blake, of “The Fix” at the Washington Post. I subscribe to the Post, and I think Marty Baron’s news crew has been doing the best reporting on Trump of any US newspaper. But “The Fix”, led by the execrable Chris Cillizza, is like the wedding announcements in the NY Times, the Oscar coverage of the LA Times, or the Mardi Gras coverage of the Times-Picayune: a regrettable, provincial placeholder that pays the bills generated by the real reporters.
If John McCain–an 80 year-old who has probably just started his last term in the Senate–lacks the moral courage to call out our Russian traitor President by name, then fuck him and the horse he rode in on. I honestly lack the imagination to understand why an 80 year-old patriot who suffered for our country wouldn’t be in the vanguard of those calling for an investigation of Trump’s ties to Russia. What the hell does he have to lose? After choosing Palin, leading the charge against Trump could be the move that rehabilitates his legacy. Instead, we get this sniveling, indirect, cowardly horseshit.
Baud
McCain’s so mad he will rubber stamp Trump’s agenda with far less vigor than he would any other Republican.
Major Major Major Major
McCain endorsed the trash monster, he can DIAF.
JPL
McCain is going to be on Meet The Press on Sunday. Which McCain will show up is the question. Trump is bad but I support his agenda to destroy us, or the one who spoke overseas.
trollhattan
There’s always a spot on the tireswing for Donny.
Also, too, this fucking guy. Gorda has scrambled to #1 on my list of least-favorite Trumpers, an astonishing feat given the breadth and depth of the competition.
Kristin D
The Congressional Republicans are going to go down as some of history’s biggest cowards and collaborators.
scav
On the other hand, denying the twit-in-chief his explicit brand recognition carries a sting and watching the outrage afterwards demonstrates the pico-meter epidermis of the orange one. Cats still lost some epidermis. With luck, we’re not the intended audience, so not cut to our palate.
ETA: that’s not to say I like the critter. That’s been a flatline for a long time.
quakerinabasement
He was in Munich, in front of an international audience. Mentioning Trump by name would have opened the door for misdirection and blaming. If it had been Obama making the speech and not McCain, I would bet that he wouldn’t have mentioned him by name. If it had been Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton, I bet they wouldn’t have mentioned him by name either.
JPL
I notice a trend in the comments.
McCain sold his soul to the devil along time ago, when he let GW disparage his adopted duaghter .
El Caganer
@JPL: Wow! The reclusive John McCain’s going to be on MTP? Has he ever been on any of those Sunday shows before?
Baud
@quakerinabasement: I’ll be the first to applaud McCain when he actually does something that goes beyond talk.
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
That’s all I could think of skimming that.
Smiling Mortician
Dunno. But I’ll bet Putin does.
Deecarda
“Country First” oh yeah, then he picked Palin.
oldster
This entire operation that Putin pulled off must count as one of the most successful decapitation strikes in all of history. The Russians managed to kill off the entire executive branch with one missile.
Then everyone in the Capitol looked at the damage and decided that being killed by Russians was a really awesome, cool thing, so they all committed suicide.
Can we have a remake of “Red Dawn” where all of the gun-humpers decide that they love the Russians? Because that’s what we’re living through, and I would rather have it on the screen so I can turn it off.
Major Major Major Major
@Baud: I’ve been waiting to applaud McCain for being a maverick and bucking his party since… I’ve been alive.
Well, not the whole time. I wasn’t a very politically aware child.
@mistermix:
Rehabilitate? As far as I’ve seen his entire political career is based on an unearned reputation.
Peale
McCain is a guaranteed vote for any Trump policy that is “forceful”, preferably deadly. His moral compass points down
Hobbes83
This. This times a billion.
TenguPhule
Can I get an Amen on that?
David Spikes
Each one thinks that he will be the one to grab the brass ring on the right wing carousel and will be granted his part of the wingnut wish list
OT-too sad even to be pathetic-and Christie told the story himself-at the WH the other day Trump told everybody to order whatever they wanted for lunch but he and Christie would have the meatloaf-“that’s ok with you isn’t it Chris?”
ruemara
@TenguPhule: Amen
TenguPhule
@Kristin D: Tumbrels. They’re gonna be the ones who brought tumbrels and spiked pikes back into fashion again.
scav
@Major Major Major Major: Indeed, his rep / brand as a maverick is probably as vapid and vaporous as Trump’s as a businessman.
pols of his generation and his party didn’t last this long by thinking or acting individually.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@trollhattan:
Although I have seen the name Gorda, I’ve not seen him on TV. I think Jeffrey Lord and his stupid hair is deeply irksome. He may be my least favorite Trumpling.
Hobbes83
@Peale: He just voted for almost all of his cabinet appointments after McCain blasted him for being a POW during Vietnam. Lets just be clear here at this point; the GOP sees a very small window to enact their regressive and anti-middle class campaign promises, and the ability to cement it by packing the courts with Roberts Jr.s and Alito Jr.s to ensure that it stays put for a generation or so. Its clear that they sold their souls to the 0.001% so that they can make 1.2 billion in profits in the first quarter of any fiscal year, as opposed to 1.05 billion in profits over the same quarter.
Immanentize
Perhaps when McCain was in the Navy, he was the object of lots of drop the soap shower events. Did you ever consider the possibility he likes and welcomes his humiliation?
trollhattan
@David Spikes:
Christie and Romney have both served as willing Trump piñatas but only Willard has enough sense/dignity to quit. Christie has somehow become a bully who’s simultaneously the chump.
JPL
@El Caganer: My first thought was that he wanted to be relevant enough to be invited back. He’s a faux patriot.
TenguPhule
Russia must have found something truly awful in those RNC emails they stole.
Keep in mind, McCain got elected after ditching his wife who had waited faithfully for him through Vietnam for his mistress and never suffered any repercussions or remorse whatsoever.
So whatever it is has to be more morally reprehensible then that.
brendancalling
@quakerinabasement: my feelings as well.
Percysowner
He probably thinks he’ll live for another 20 years and God Forbid! that he pay $10 more in taxes each year. As we were told in the last Presidential scandal, follow the money.
JPL
@trollhattan: Christie ate the meatloaf, after Trump told him to.
If you haven’t seen that story, use google. I expect Trump to get the recipe from the White House and put it on the menu of his hotels. White House Meatloaf, Christie approved.
Timurid
What are they going to do? Send him to Vietnam?
efgoldman
@Baud:
Right. Like actually taking a meaningful vote against him and Yertle McTurtle.
Fuckem.
Brachiator
@TenguPhule:
Amen.
I’d also like some background on the GOP leadership’s decision to back Trump no matter what, and who is chiefly responsible for enforcing discipline.
ETA: Back when McCain was running for president, there was some concern that he might die in office, elevating the empty headed Sarah Palin to the presidency. But McCain’s 105 year old mother is still alive and thriving, and her twin sister died at age 99. McCain might be good for a few more Senate terms.
Immanentize
@efgoldman: all true. But where is the concerted marketing effort by Dems to tie the Trump cinderblock around their necks? I don’t see it?
efgoldman
@JPL:
With a nice bile gravy finish.
SiubhanDuinne
@JPL:
What a surprising announcement, said no one ever.
geg6
Well, it is John McCain after all. He hasn’t shown an ounce he f courage since getting back from Vietnam.
SiubhanDuinne
@Timurid:
Oh. You must not have heard the news. ?
Immanentize
Christie? Meatloaf? Hard to resist:
Baud
OT: The interminable
primaryrace for DNC chair will be over next weekend.Baud
@Brachiator:
Holy cow.
Immanentize
@Baud: do you mean “holy shit we are so fucked?”
Feebog
As pointed out up thread, he has voted for every one of the vile, unqualified cronies Trump has nominated. So, no, his overseas act does not impress. Actions speak louder than words, when I see some action, then he gets a polite golf clap.
? Martin
@JPL: White House Meatloaf: Made with the choicest cuts of Trump Steak, ground fine, seasoned with the last known stock of Chris Christie’s dignity.
Baud
@Immanentize: I can’t believe we are stuck with McCain for another 25 years.
hovercraft
@Baud:
One and done.
Can someone please tell the media that the only person who gives a shit about what McCain says about nothing is them, all the rest of us have to say to him is STFU, you helped build this house of turds. You selected Wordsalad Wassila as your running mate, making a mockery of what qualifies as a presidential caliber person, by normalizing her, you told your base that anything goes, now behold where that has gotten us.
geg6
Anybody read the Roll Call article about Comey going to the hill today for a top secret unannounced meeting with the ranking members of the Senate Intelligence Committee? No one there would discuss it and the rest of the Senate had no idea it was even happening. They asked Durbin about it and he was genuinely surprised that Comey was even in the building. Could this be another shoe about to drop?
Immanentize
@geg6: ranking members of just republicans??
Iowa Old Lady
@geg6: God I hope so. I have had a bad day and need something to cheer me up.
? Martin
@geg6: Likely. Story broken by “failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN”
Suzanne
@? Martin: Ten bucks says that when Christie cleared his plate of that meatloaf, he asked, “Thank you, Sir, may I have another?”.
Fuck McCain. He always acts like a tough, principled guy, then bends over faster than my dog does when I drop food on the floor.
Mike J
@geg6: Tweet after Comey meeting:
? Martin
Trump is paying people to attend his rally.
dmsilev
@? Martin: They should make sure to get paid in cash.
Edit: Cash, in advance.
Suzanne
@Iowa Old Lady: You can always comfort yourself with thoughts of the SCROTUS dying of a stress-induced heart attack. Maybe on TV. That would be epic.
SiubhanDuinne
@? Martin:
Betty Cracker (in her “Come Live With Me” thread) was thinking of going. Maybe this news will tip it for her.
patroclus
I think Aaron Blake must have spent some time on the tire swing at Sedona. McCain says some good things, but he hasn’t and apparently won’t do anything about Trump. He could have voted against some of the nominees or he could have at least held some of them up pending commitments and answers on other issues, but so far, he’s literally done nothing. Nada, Zilch, Zero. I don’t know why there has been so much fluffing of him by Blake and many others in the media.
SiubhanDuinne
@geg6:
That’s what I’m thinking.
SiubhanDuinne
@Immanentize:
Here’s the link.
rollcall.com/news/politics/senators-silent-meeting-fbi-director-comey
Sherparick
@Hobbes83: Yep! Trump is a terrible authoritarian tool of Putin, but I can’t do anything until he signs that big tax cut for Cindy & all our friends.
TenguPhule
@Suzanne:
Hey now, be fair to your dog! Its already so close to the ground that its not really bending more then its neck.
McCain is bending over 180 while holding his buttcheeks open and demanding a Donald enema with extra Christie sparkles.
cmorenc
@Baud:
McCain, Graham, and Collins are the “concern troll” troika – except it’s non-Republicans whom they’re inversely trolling with their shows of distressed concern over Trump.
jl
@Suzanne:
” Fuck McCain. He always acts like a tough, principled guy, then bends over faster than my dog does when I drop food on the floor. ”
McCain adopted a noble truth telling maverick act after he was almost nailed for financial corruption during an old savings and loan scandal. McCain isn’t good at actually doing much of anything, so he probably believes his own act by now.
JPL
@geg6: Hope springs eternal.. NOT
I think he has been compromised, and is trying to stop the investigations.
jl
@SiubhanDuinne:
Your link to Rollcall has one tidbit, which I emphsized below:
“Mark and I set the committee on a path some time ago, and we explained the full scope of the investigation into Russian involvement in the 2016 elections. That also included any contacts that any campaign officials might have had with Russian government officials,”
What’s behind it all? Who knows? Right now my half educated guess is oil lease deals and sanctions and how little problems might be fixed. All for naught in the big picture, if we can keep the ship from turning completely around. Solar will become increasingly cheaper than fiosil fuels. Putin’s Frump’s and Tillerson’s racket will son be up, no matter what evil they are trying to pull.
? Martin
@SiubhanDuinne: I would like to note how pleased I am that Kamala Harris is on the Intelligence Committee. She’s got her knives out for Trump.
prob50
@David Spikes:
I understand he ordered child portions for Christie…4 of them, and refills on all of Chris’s Shirley Temple’s.
geg6
@Immanentize:
No, Schumer, I think. And Burr and Warner. Very tight lipped. CBS just made mention of it but no details.
Villago Delenda Est
John McCain sold out his integrity long ago to benefit his ambition when he embraced the deserting coward instead of denouncing him for engaging in torture, all to pave the way for his run for the Presidency in 2008.
mai naem mobile
John McCain is a POS. He treated his first wife like total shit. If it wasn’t for him becoming a POW he would have turned into a slightly better version of Dubbya.
Villago Delenda Est
@? Martin: Always projection with these assholes. Always.
Villago Delenda Est
@trollhattan: Is Chris Christie the equivalent of Theon Greyjoy/Reek?
Roger Moore
@prob50:
I thought he ordered meat loaf. The roast child was for the rest of the group.
Major Major Major Major
@mai naem mobile: I’m always amused by the fact that even the (earned) respect he gets from being a POW, he got because of privilege. With his flying record, had he not been the son of an admiral, he would never have been allowed in that plane.
jl
@Roger Moore: Buffalo child portions are just the appetizer plate. At least around where I live.
jl
@Major Major Major Major: I have trouble with his crook record until he almost got censured and indicted for financial corruption in that old savings and loan scandal. Was kind of before my time in terms of paying attention to politics. Was it Keating?
Villago Delenda Est
@Major Major Major Major: He also had a training command after he came back from ‘Nam, and apparently wasn’t even considered for flag rank.
Villago Delenda Est
@jl: Aye, he was one of the Keating Five.
geg6
@jl:
Yes. The Keating Five.
Immanentize
@SiubhanDuinne: Thank
You.
Iowa Old Lady
If Christie keeps going back to Trump’s company, he’s asking for it.
jl
@Villago Delenda Est: @geg6: thanks. Just looked it up. I was still a college punk. Seems like mostly Democrats involved, including John Glenn, and they all got off? I’ll read the wiki entry later.
efgoldman
@? Martin:
And served smothered in onions and bile gravy.
Immanentize
@geg6: as Shumer leaves he asks:
“Are we not men?”
Kay
Are Trump hires the whiniest people on the planet, or what?
She’s not doing me any favors. She doesn’t have to show up for work at all as far as I’m concerned. The real employees will only have to train her anyway.
The drama! The unfairness! This billionaire heiress’s life is now A LIVING HELL because 15 teachers were carrying signs in her general vicinity.
Get used to it, lady. You’re a public employee now. You’re one of the same group you spent the last 30 years demonizing. There will be A LOT of resistance.
Immanentize
@mai naem mobile: You forgot the part about his powerful Admiral father.
Suzanne
@jl: As an Arizonan, I remember the Keating Five debacle well.
Irony: about two years ago, Charles Keating IV was killed in action in Iraq in a fight with ISIS. Turned out to have more honor than his grandfather or McCain.
Suzanne
@Kay: Mr. Suzanne is a public educator in this educational craphole of a state, and he says that he has never seen this level of anger from his colleagues. DeVos is so blatantly a horrible pick that it might get some people off the couch.
Frankensteinbeck
Because a black man became president. I try, but I never can impress on people who haven’t grown up in the thick of racism just what a world-changing event that was for Republicans. Faced with supporting a loathsome, commie-hugging, moronic slime who personally humiliated him, or let minorities get another inch closer to equality, every Republican in the nation either gritted their teeth and voted for Trump or yelled ‘Hell, yeah! Fuck you liberals!’
scav
Seems to be a lot of lack of name mentioning going around. German defense chief hits Trump attitudes on torture, Russia and Muslims
Immanentize
@Kay: LIVING HELL?
Are you fed? Do you have a roof over your head? Medical care when you need it? Do you have a fucking job you don’t deserve?
This is what created the French Revolution.
Major Major Major Major
@Kay:
They’re sick of all the winning.
Brachiator
@Villago Delenda Est:
Cold!
But dead on.
Brachiator
@Frankensteinbeck: RE: I honestly lack the imagination to understand why an 80 year-old patriot who suffered for our country wouldn’t be in the vanguard of those calling for an investigation of Trump’s ties to Russia.
But McCain is sadder because the other Republicans tried to knock him out of the South Carolina primary by telling voters that he had fathered a black baby. So he at least has seen their vile racism second hand.
Of course, he bought into all their bullshit to pursue the presidency in 2008. Sold what was left of his soul. Now, any honor is a phony show, going through the motions.
ETA Didn’t McCain also promise to block Hillary Clinton’s Supreme Court picks for all eternity if she won the election? Yah, sold what was left of his soul to be able to keep a seat at the GOP table.
Ruckus
@mai naem mobile:
I don’t see that. OK if you think that he picked SP so that he would lose the election, then I can see slightly better. Otherwise he’s just a another republican blowhard. As I understand it he played the daddy card as a POW (yes he was tortured, but you’d think he’d have some memory of that), he treated his wife like shit, as stated up thread he was involved in the savings and loan scandal….. OK he didn’t start a war, I’ll give him that. But better, no, can’t see it at all.
Roger Moore
@Major Major Major Major:
And the rest of us are sick of all the whining.
Debbie1
@JPL: “Christie Ate The Meatloaf.” God, I hope that’s not euphamism.
hilts
I’ll take the Oscar coverage of the LA Times, and the Mardi Gras coverage of the Times-Picayune anytime over than the fucking Fix. Chris Cillizza and John McCaln are worthless, clueless tools.
mai naem mobile
@Ruckus: I give him credit for serving during Vietnam which Dubbya couldn’t even bother doing correctly in the National Guard. Also,while I completely disagree with pretty much all his political positions, I don’t think he’s just plain stupid and lacking curiosity like Dubbya. That makes him a little better than Dubbya.
There was a big piece years ago during one of his non presidential elections on how he treated his first wife in the Phoenix New Times. He was an asshole to her and I think she had to sign a NDA for her to continue to get healthcare(I think she had chronic stuff.) When you treat your wife who waited for you for years to come back from Vietnam like that you are a worthless POS.
dogwood
@mai naem mobile:
I don’t know about McCain being smarter than W. While it’s true that W didn’t understand the difference between Sunni and Shia after 9-11, McCain was talking about the Iranians supplying AQ during the ’08 campaign. There’s no excuse for that kind of ignorance 5 years into a war that he was anxious to see go on for 100 years. I also read a long piece years ago about the financial crisis that was very unkind to McCain. Paulson and Bernake talk openly about his ignorance. They were very complimentary about Obama’s sophisticated understanding of the situation, and had no problem with W’s ability to get what was going on. But McCain? He was incapable of even asking intelligent questions because he was so clueless.
Mike G
@oldster:
If they remade Red Dawn now, it would be the Russians invading and the ammosexuals join with them to hunt down and murder libruls.
Just One More Canuck
@David Spikes:
Chris, the night of the fight, you may feel a slight sting. That’s pride fucking with you. Fuck pride. Pride only hurts. It never helps. You fight through that shit. This business is filled to the brim with unrealistic motherfuckers. Motherfuckers who think their ass will age like wine. If you mean it turns to vinegar…it does. If you mean it gets better with age…it don’t. We cool?
Limey
This is an advance. Not a spring into the middle guns–a-blazin’. His step forward encourages. Be patient. This will not happen overnight. Allow him the space to move. Encourage.