McCain Thinks Roberts’ Hold on Army Secretary Misses the Mark April 28, 2016

(AP) – Kansas Republican Sen. Pat Roberts is blocking a vote on the nomination of Eric Fanning to be the next Army secretary. At issue are efforts by the president to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and transfer detainees to the United States.

Republican Sen. John McCain tried to secure a vote on Fanning, who if confirmed would be the first openly gay leader of a U.S. military service.

But Roberts objected on Thursday, saying he won’t relent until the White House promises no detainees will be moved to Fort Leavenworth in Kansas.

McCain says it’s unfair to block Fanning’s nomination over an unrelated issue. McCain calls it a distortion of the Senate’s advise and consent role.

Fanning has served in several roles at the Pentagon.

Roberts Brings in McCain for Campaign Help September 24, 2014

Republican incumbent Senator Pat Roberts continues to campaign this week with Republican big shots.
He spent Monday and Tuesday accompanying former Senator Bob Dole.
Today, 2008 GOP presidential nominee John McCain today in Overland Park at 3pm.
Later in the week Roberts is expected to be joined later this week by McCain’s running mate, Sara Palin.

McCaskill Says McCain Skips Benghazi Briefing to Hold Benghazi News Conference November 15, 2012

Missouri Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill says Arizona Senator John McCain skipped a top-secret Senate briefing on the Benghazi attack to hold a news conference on—Benghazi.
In an interview with KMBC TV, McCaskill says she and McCain sit on the Senate Homeland Security Committee.
McCaskill says the Committee had a closed-door Benghazi briefing Wednesday morning, given by the Department of Defense, the Department of State and other intelligence agencies. McCaskill says McCain, however, was not at the meeting.
She says he was at another part of the Capitol giving a news conference. McCain says the Congress needs a special Select Committee to investigate what happened when the Benghazi consulate was attacked and the US Ambassador to Libya and three others were killed.
McCain’s staff told KMBC today his absence was due to “a scheduling error”.
Thursday, CNN reported McCain became irritated with a reporter who asked by he was not at the Homeland Security Committee hearing.
“When CNN approached McCain in a Capitol hallway Thursday morning, the senator refused to comment about why he missed the briefing, which was conducted by top diplomatic, military and counter-terrorism officials. Instead, McCain got testy when pressed to say why he wasn’t there.
“I have no comment about my schedule and I’m not going to comment on how I spend my time to the media,” McCain said.
Asked why he wouldn’t comment, McCain grew agitated: “Because I have the right as a senator to have no comment and who the hell are you to tell me I can or not?”
When CNN noted that McCain had missed a key meeting on a subject the senator has been intensely upset about, McCain said, “I’m upset that you keep badgering me.”
McCaskill says only two Republican Senators were at the entire secret briefing.
McCaskill opposes McCain plan for a Select Benghazi Committee. She thinks existing Congressional Committees can ask the same questions
Kansas Senator Jerry Moran’s staff says Moran arrived late to the Homeland Security session.Moran is also a member of the Homeland Security panel.
He was in the Republican Caucus leadership meeting.
Moran was elected to lead the Republican Senate Campaign Committee for the next two years. His office says that leadership election process ran overtime.

Four Years Later, McCain Defending Palin Pick as Veep May 7, 2012

Politico:
Sarah Palin’s qualifications were the overriding reason Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) selected the former Alaska governor as his 2008 presidential running mate, he said Sunday.
Speaking about presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney selecting of a vice presidential running mate, McCain said on ABC’s “This Week” that the “primary, absolute, most important aspect is if something happened to him, would that person be well qualified to take that place?”
“I happen to believe that was the … primary factor on my decision in 2008,” McCain said, “and I know it will be Mitt’s.”
Having a “person [Romney] knows he could trust,” is also a critical consideration,” McCain told host Jake Tapper.
In the aftermath of McCain’s failed presidential campaign, Palin’s detractors – and some supporters – criticized her as ill-prepared to serve as president had she been pressed into duty. The recent movie “Game Change” dramatized just that.
Republicans are lucky this election cycle, McCain added, because they have a “very deep bench” when it comes to potential vice presidential nominees.

The Politics of OBL April 28, 2012

(AP) – The killing of Osama bin Laden, first presented as a moment of national unity by President Barack Obama, has become something else: a political weapon.

Obama’s re-election campaign is portraying his risky decision to go after America’s top enemy as a defining difference with his Republican presidential opponent, suggesting Mitt Romney might not have had the guts to order a mission that put lives and perhaps a presidency at stake.

Obama himself is opening up on the raid again – and opening the secretive White House Situation Room as an interview stage – to hail the one-year anniversary.

The broader goal for Obama, whether through campaign web videos or the trappings of the White House, is not to just to remind voters of an enormous victory on his watch. It is to maximize a political narrative that he has the courage to make tough calls that his opponent might not.

“Does anybody doubt that had the mission failed, it would have written the beginning of the end of the president’s first term?” Vice President Joe Biden says in laying out Obama’s foreign policy campaign message. “We know what President Obama did. We can’t say for certain what Governor Romney would have done.”

The strategy underscores the fact that the Obama who ordered the raid as commander in chief is now seeking a second term as president. The risk is the political blowback that can come if he is seen as crossing a line into politicizing national security.

“Sad,” said a Romney spokeswoman. “Shameless,” said 2008 Obama election foe John McCain.

Biden even combined the killing of the al-Qaida leader and Obama’s support for a failing auto industry into what he called a re-election bumper sticker message.

“It’s pretty simple: Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive,” the vice president said in a speech on Thursday.