John McCain

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And Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) was similarly underwhelmed, calling it "business as usual." "No one can make a convincing argument that this legislation indeed prevents any institution from being "Too Big To Fail" -- you can't make that argument," he told reporters at the Capitol today. McCain's amendment, which would have mandated an end to government support of the failed companies within two years, failed 43 to 56.

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Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) will vote against confirming Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, he announced Wednesday in an op-ed piece to be published in Thursday's USA Today. The main beef McCain cites, in fact his only beef, is with Kagan's move in 2004 to ban military recruiters from official recruiting channels at Harvard Law School. She said she took the action to uphold the school's policies against dealing with employers who discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. "She interpreted her duties as dean at Harvard to be consistent with what she wished the law to be, not with the law as written," McCain wrote. "Given the choice to uphold a law that was unpopular with her peers and students or interpret the law to achieve her own political objectives, she chose the latter. I cannot support her nomination to the Supreme Court where, based on her prior actions, it appears unlikely that she would exercise judicial restraint."

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“It’s completely understandable why the president made the decision that he did, based on the civilian-military relationship that goes a long way back…” McCain said today on “Good Morning America.” “I also point out to the president, with my strong support of Petraeus, we also need a new team over there as well — perhaps at the embassy and other areas.”

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From the New York Daily News:

McCain had a similar prescription for GM: "I think the best thing that could probably happen to General Motors, in my view, is they go into Chapter 11."

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Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the 2008 GOP nominee, said the president had demonstrated a lack of experience and “also a lack of competence,” and added, “No one can understand why he wouldn’t speak to the head of BP.”

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McCain, appearing on Imus in the Morning, said that reading Shahzad his Miranda rights “would be a serious mistake.” “Don’t give this guy his Miranda rights until we find out what it’s all about,” he added. That is, give him an opportunity to incriminate himself before telling him that he doesn’t have to do so.

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In an interview with Bill O’Reilly on Fox News on Monday, Mr. McCain said: “The state of Arizona is acting and doing what it feels it needs to do in light of the fact that the federal government is not fulfilling its fundamental responsibility — to secure our borders.” He added that it would be regrettable if the legislation, which still needs Gov. Jane Brewer’s signature, led to racial profiling. But he said it was aimed at protecting “people whose homes and property are being violated, drivers of cars with illegals in them that are intentionally causing accidents on the freeways.”

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But I have spoken with our military and civilian leaders, and I think the 30,000 additional U.S. troops that the President has called for — plus greater force commitments from our allies — will enable us to reverse the momentum of the insurgency and create the conditions for success in Afghanistan. I support the President's decision, and I think it deserves the support of all Americans, both Republicans and Democrats.

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Obama's defeated Republican presidential opponent, John McCain, has praised the surge in troops but has attacked the withdrawal timeframe, suggesting that the Taliban will simply wait for the Americans to leave – he said extremists take the attitude that "you've got the watches and we've got the time".

"Do you break the enemy's will be saying 'we're going to be there for a year and a half and then we're going to leave, no matter what the conditions are?'" McCain asked. "Or do you tell them 'we're going to win. We're going to break their will and then we're going to leave'?"

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Dec. 16 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Senators John McCain and Maria Cantwell proposed reinstating the Depression-era Glass-Steagall Act that split commercial and investment banking to rein in Wall Street firms in response to the financial crisis.

“Under our proposal, too-big-to-fail banks would be forced to return to the business of conventional banking, leaving the task of risk taking or management to others,” McCain, an Arizona Republican, said at a Washington news conference. A former bank regulator said splitting up companies is “crazy.”

Bloomberg

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Washington Post:

NEW YORK, April 10 -- Two weeks after drawing criticism for saying he favored only a limited federal role to help deal with the home mortgage crisis, Republican presidential candidate John McCain sought to assure Americans that he is prepared to use the government where necessary to help ease the impact on working families of a declining economy.

In a campaign appearance Thursday with small-business owners in Brooklyn, Sen. McCain (R-Ariz.) also addressed the economic downturn with proposals to help families facing foreclosure restructure their mortgages and to give workers who have lost jobs more flexibility and incentives to seek retraining and a speedier return to the workforce.

McCain plans a more comprehensive economic speech next week, but he came here to blunt criticism from his Democratic rivals, Sens. Barack Obama (Ill.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), that he is insensitive to the plight of ordinary Americans.

"Let me make it clear that in these challenging times, I am committed to using all the resources of this government and great nation to create opportunity and make sure that every deserving American has a good job and can achieve their American dream," he said.

[...]

Instead, McCain proposed a federal program that would require individual homeowners to seek help from the government and, if they qualified, enable them to restructure mortgages and stay in their homes. Families who can afford their current, albeit higher, mortgage would not qualify, and the aid would cover only primary residences.

Does offering aid in the form of "restructuring mortgages" to qualifying homeowners constitute "financial assistance?"  I think so.

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CBS News (via Real Clear Politics...shame on them for not linking back to the source though)

First let me start by saying the President made the right decision to have a properly resourced counter insurgency strategy. I support it. I believe the addition of 30,000 troops and additional NATO troops are sufficient to get the job done.

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Washington Post

DO YOU SUPPORT AFFIRMATIVE ACTION? IF YOU DO, WHY DO YOU THINK IT IS A BENEFIT TO OUR COUNTRY? IF NOT, WHAT DO YOU THINK WOULD BE GAINED BY CHANGING OR ELIMINATING IT?

I believe in the protection of civil rights and equal opportunity for all Americans. America must never relent in its pursuit of equality under the law. Regardless of race, ethnicity or gender the law should be equally applied. We must recommit ourselves to the ideal that every individual is created equal in the eyes of God and every individual must therefore be treated equally under the law. Fully embracing this ideal means providing every American the ability to compete on a level playing field where individual creativity, hard work and initiative are rewarded. It means aggressively enforcing our nation's anti-discrimination laws. It means taking seriously our commitment to educate all of America's children so they have the necessary tools to compete and succeed in life. It means building a strong, vibrant economy where opportunity is always abundant for all who seek it. It also means rejecting affirmative action plans and quotas that give weight to one group of Americans at the expense of another. Plans that result in quotas, where such plans have not been judicially created to remedy a specific, proven act of discrimination, only result in more discrimination and violate the concept of equality of opportunity. As President, I will use to power of my office to promote economic opportunity and to strengthen the fabric of our nation. I also believe that rather than engaging in unnecessary, divisive political debates, it is far more constructive to engage in dialogue and cooperation, focusing our mutual efforts on providing all Americans the chance to fulfill their expectations.

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From the Jewish World Review:

On the Senate floor, John McCain, R-Ariz., cut to the unconstitutional core of this bill and all such "hate crime" legislation. Leahy's bill, as of this writing, the president is eager to sign.

Said McCain: "Our legal system is based on identifying, capturing and punishing criminals, and not on using the power of government to try to divine biases." In opposing what James Madison condemned as "thought crimes," McCain added: "Crimes motivated by hate deserve vigorous prosecution, but so do crimes motivated by absolute wanton disregard for life of any kind." No matter against whom.
 

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Senate.gov

Speaking before the Japanese Diet on November 11, 1983, President Ronald Reagan said, “The only value in possessing nuclear weapons is to make sure they can't be used ever. I know I speak for people everywhere when I say our dream is to see the day when nuclear weapons will be banished from the face of the Earth.” That is my dream, too, and it is one shared by many of our most distinguished national security practitioners. In 2007, former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and George Shultz, along with former Secretary of Defense William Perry and Senator Sam Nunn, authored an article titled “A World Free of Nuclear Weapons,” in which they laid out their vision of the globe free of the most dangerous weapons ever known.

This is a distant and difficult goal. And we must proceed toward it prudently and pragmatically, and with a focused concern for our security and the security of allies who depend on us. But the Cold War ended almost twenty years ago, and the time has come to take further measures to reduce dramatically the number of nuclear weapons in the world's arsenals. In so doing, the United States can – and indeed, must – show the kind of leadership the world expects from us, in the tradition of American presidents who worked to reduce the nuclear threat to mankind.