Audio: Sen John McCain Admits Dropping the Ball on Filibuster ‘Nuclear Option,’ Pledges to Take Obama’s ‘Recess’ Appointments to Court
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) appeared on America’s Radio News today to discuss the campaign, but about 6:30 into the interview, host Chris Salcedo asked McCain a very pointed question. Back when the Republicans held the Senate, as the leadership threatened to deploy the “nuclear option” to remove the 60-vote requirement to get a bill past cloture and undo a Democratic filibuster, McCain and others created a bipartisan “Gang of 14″ to take that option off the table. They did this, they said at the time, in the name of protecting the Senate minority’s rights. But in 2011, as Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid threatened to deploy the nuclear option to undo a GOP filibuster, there was no “Gang of 14″ from McCain or anyone else. Reid eventually used the nuclear option. Salcedo asked McCain about that, and McCain agreed, calling it a “failure of us to get together and enforce what we agreed to.”
If that isn’t the story of the Republican Party in Washington over the last few years, I don’t know what is.
McCain segued from that admission to a pledge:
MCCAIN: Probably much more alarming than that, Chris, is the NLRB and Consumer Protection appointment during a, quote, recess and we were not in recess. We’ve got to fight that all the way up to the United States Supreme Court. That’s gotta be one of our highest priorities. That is abuse of executive power. And in my view, it is a clear violation of the Constitution of the United States, because we were not recessed.
Sen. McCain added that Obama’s actions constitute a “very very serious” abuse of his presidential power.
Haven’t heard about any cases being filed in Federal court by the Senate or any one else. Just when are we going to start fighting Senator?
Get off your ass and sue the bastads.
Sure you will Senator… Selective outrage over Constitutional provisions is about par for this clown.
Isn’t this the guy that ran the ad saying, “Just build the darn fence!”. Is it built? No! Posing, positioning, laying down defensive groundwork, for later.
Once again, he’s just posing.He’ll do nothing, but, when re-election comes around again, he’ll have this blurb to prove how concerned he was. He won’t mention that he was suckered, or that he sold out his supposed conservative allies, just that he SHOULD have done something, way back when….
In all due respect sir,it is past time for you to retire.
You have managed to become an embarrassment to your party.
McCain is a joke! Big time poser.
McCain is an attention whore. Always has been. He’ll say anything to draw the spotlight to him, and what usually works is to go against his party. it’s not that he’s a maverick, it’s that he’ll say anything.
Senator John McCain insisted, while running against Obama in 2008, that he was a good man; McCain was booed at his own event. The people knew Obama to be a Marxist & McCain refused to identity Obama has such. Therefore, McCain is a little late to party as usual. Retire John McCain & sign a contract with MSNBC. MSNBC doesn’t have enough boobs on their programming.
On paper — that is, constitutionally — Congress is supreme among the three branches of government because it has the power to impeach and remove from office both the president and all nine justices of the Supreme Court. Hence the bottom line is that if the Senate isn’t willing to convict on a motion of impeachment brought by the House, then it agrees with Obama that it was indeed in recess during those appointments. If the Senate passed today a motion stating its willingness to convict Obama if the House impeaches him, that would get Obama’s attention and discourage future presidents from trying to violate the constitution. Ask McCain about impeachment and how it is obviously the constitutionally intended means for Congress to impose its will on the executive branch. I have no respect for the way McCain automatically passes the buck to the Supreme Court, hoping to avoid having to do any of the heavy lifting himself.
– you Viet Cong who beat him up .
Hey, friend, that remark is way off base. It sucks and so do… I’m not a McCain fan but really…
– derivative of what Oliver North said to Bryant Gumbel: “Bryant, back in Vietnam I was shot at and hit by better men than you.”
Sorry.
I long ago gave up on RINO’s like McCain. He wails that Obama’s recess appointment of his NRLB nominee was a technical violation of the Constitution. Sadly, Sen. McCain completely misses the much more relevant point that the entire NLRB itself is a violation of the Constitution.
I suspect the suit will not be filed. As a general rule the Supreme Court does not get involved in squabbles between Congress and the President. I suspect they will continue following the old creed of “Never Issue An Order You Know Will Be Ignored”.
And we warned McCain that when the Democrats were back in Ccontrol of the Senate they would not hesitate to reverse their position and USE the nuclear option .They did. And everyone BUT MCCain and his “Gang OF Fourteen” knew they would.
So I am not much impressed by his admission.
McCain did know. He is a Quisling. He is a Democrat flying a false flag. When the Pubbies tried the nuclear option, he stopped it. When the Dems tried it, he did nothing. On purpose. He purposely let them succeed.
Has anyone ever noticed that when the R’s take over they spread the wealth around even with the D’? But when the D’s take over the door is slammed in the faces of the R’s. McCain’s face is living proof of this and yet he keeps acting like they will be nice soon. Harry Reid is a tool of the left and will do whatever Obama tells him to do.McCain will never file a law suit and neither will any other RINO. I hate to say it but most of the old Senators are happy with the status quo and will not risk their cushy jobs by going after the Marxist president. Not to pick a political fight here but that is why they want Romney. They know he will NOT rock the gravy boat.
isn’t this the same mccain that cosponsored the unconstitutional and treasonous bill that gave obiwon the ability to imprison any American anywhere in the world (u.s.included) and hold indefinitely and w/o representation on his word alone? wtf?
isn’t this the guy who said something about building a ‘fence now’ and was going to file suit in the ussc to stop obama bla bla bla. yeah, when? and romney happily accepted his endorsement? i would have directed him to obiwon’s political offices for endorcements.
my parents are long since retired, and they both for once agree on one thing. when you get too old to do your job you should graciously step aside before you make a complete and utter fool of yourself and ruin any honorable thing you might have accomplished in your lifetime. and in mccain’s case, look like a traitor for sponsoring a bill allowing a marxist #$%^ to have powers that our forefathers fought and died to deny any would-be ruler. what planet were you living on that day mr. mccain? somebody remind us what old time commies had to say about your useful idiots.
There are a lot of Congressmen who should take your parent’s advice.
OK,so Senator McCain is Charlie Brown and the Democrats are Lucy pulling the football away. Nothing has changed in all the years he is in the Senate.
Please forgive me but i have absolute revulsion for mccain.. he’s a coward.. so he was locked up for some time in viet nam… that’s his claim to fame?? .. wonder why they didn’t kill him LIKE THEY DID MY BROTHER… because as he himself said they broke him.. well i’d say he’s easy to break.. i detest this thing that calls himself a hero.. heroes like that need to be drawn and quartered… i’d love to piss on him and shet on him.. he’s scum….he has NO honor.. and a traitor.. YES… i said TRAITOR.. and i’m sticking with it till the day i die.. oh don’t get me started cause i might tell you what i really think .. and it won’t be as nice as the first part……. he’s in the same league as dumbass kerry..