Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) took to the Senate floor this afternoon to blast President Obama’s mid-day speech on the fiscal cliff. He said that Obama’s actions were “no way for a president to lead.”
In that speech, the president surrounded himself with supporters who applauded when noted that he would be president for four more years, and laughed when he nearly said he would not allow the Republicans to “shove spending cuts down…” before balking at finishing his sentence. He also drew laughs when he joked about spending New Year’s in Washington rather than Hawaii. Some in his support group also applauded when he noted that the agreement being hammered out between Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell and Vice President Joe Biden would raise taxes on the rich. The president’s advisers clearly framed his remarks visually to emphasize the gender and race divisions he routinely plays upon to build his power base.
The president also decried politicians devoted to advancing special interests, after noting that he hopes the Congressional fiscal cliff plan maintains tax breaks for “green” energy companies, firms to which Obama’s government has sent billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded loans, and which have tended to be run by his political supporters, and which have tended to go bankrupt.
All of this was too much for Sen. McCain, who on Fox News this afternoon built upon his remarks in the Senate. He said the president had no business “joking around, and saying things that can’t be conducive to sitting down across the table and getting these things accomplished.”
McCain also said that whatever deals eventually emerge must deal with the sequestration cuts that will hit the Department of Defense hard if they are allowed to kick in. “I can’t support any proposal that would devastate national security in the view of our Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of our Joint Chiefs of Staff.” He called for a delay of a “couple of months” for a vote on those cuts.
McCain was about to head into a GOP Senate members meeting on the Hill after his Fox interview, at which he said he expected to hear the details of the deal that Sen. McConnell and Vice President Biden have worked out. He said that the likelihood that that deal would include meaningful spending cuts is “about zero.”
It is a fact of human nature that you can only like people who like you and conversely that you dislike people who dislike you. I wonder if this president and democrats understand that this dynamic is automatic and that the people they mock and demonize will soon openly express contempt for them?
– bomb, bomb, O – Bama…eh, Sen. McCain?
Joke,Joke, Obama would be a Joke if we’re not so dangerous!
My two cents are here. Point out that Obama is behaving like he’s talking trash during a pick-up basketball game. Keep the tone light. When the Left freaks out, as they will, continue keeping the tone light.
Two can play at talking trash.
But keep this out of the actual negotiations.
“Patton: [voiceover] For over a thousand years, Roman conquerors returning from the wars enjoyed the honor of a triumph – a tumultuous parade. In the procession came trumpeters and musicians and strange animals from the conquered territories, together with carts laden with treasure and captured armaments. The conqueror rode in a triumphal chariot, the dazed prisoners walking in chains before him. Sometimes his children, robed in white, stood with him in the chariot, or rode the trace horses. A slave stood behind the conqueror, holding a golden crown, and whispering in his ear a warning: that all glory is fleeting.”
I hope the President enjoys his triumph. There may have been a price paid, though.
Why shouldn’t Obama laugh and joke around? He’s not hurting; his friends aren’t hurting.
He’s got four more years to beat what remains of the economy and the Constitution to death, and all he’s got standing in his way are a bunch of neutered homunculi like McCain who haven’t got the will to confront him—certainly not the will to put together a bipartisan coalition in the Senate that would work with the House to rein in Obama’s destructive careen.
Seems as though the entire purpose of the primary system is to get rid of anybody who might possibly uphold the US Constitution.
We need to eliminate open primaries, PDQ.
As if none of us knew which way the wind was blowing, or how the cards were being played out, or… who really gives a damned? Can anyone really wonder why the Republicans garner as little respect as they do? Were I a TeaParty legislator, I would identify myself as such and keep away from microphones.