Arizona GOP censures McCain for 'liberal' record

[garbon]

http://news.yahoo.com/arizona-gop-censures-mccain-39-liberal-39-record-211326730--election.html

The Arizona Republican Party formally censured Sen. John McCain on Saturday, citing a voting record they say is insufficiently conservative.

The resolution to censure McCain was approved by a voice-vote during a meeting of state committee members in Tempe, state party spokesman Tim Sifert said. It needed signatures from at least 20 percent of state committee members to reach the floor for debate.

Sifert said no further action was expected.

McCain spokesman Brian Rogers declined to comment on the censure. But former three-term Sen. Jon Kyl told The Arizona Republic (http://bit.ly/1mIyKyy ) that the move was "wacky."

"I've gone to dozens of these meetings and every now and then some wacky resolution gets passed," Kyl told the newspaper on Saturday. "But most people realize it does not represent the majority of the vast numbers of Republicans."

Kyl also said McCain's voting record was "very conservative."

McCain isn't up for re-election until 2016, when will turn 80. He announced in October that he was considering running for a sixth term.

According to the resolution, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee has campaigned as a conservative but has lent his support to issues "associated with liberal Democrats," such as immigration reform and funding the federal health care law.

Several Republican county committees recently censured McCain.

Timothy Schwartz, the Legislative District 30 Republican chairman who helped write the resolution, said the censure showed that McCain was losing support from his own party.

"We would gladly embrace Sen. McCain if he stood behind us and represented us," Schwartz said.

Fred DuVal, a Democrat who plans to run for Arizona governor, called the censure an "outrageous response to the good work Sen. McCain did crafting a reasonable solution to fix our broken immigration system."

McCain has been dogged by conservatives objecting to his views on immigration and campaign finance, among other issues, since he first ran for Congress in 1982. Republican activists were also turned off by his moderate stances in the 2000 presidential race.

McCain was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1982 and won his Senate seat in 1986.

[alfred russel]

Don't judge Arizona too harshly. It is hard to be rational with all that sun and all those old people.

[CountDeMoney]

Don't judge Arizona too harshly. It is hard to be rational with all that sun and all those old people.

Then explain the crazies primarying people in other parts of the country.  The GOP at the grass roots level is off the fucking rails these days.

Political parties with insane people will always eat their own.  Look at the Democrats in '68 and '72.

[DontSayBanana]

This could actually be a good thing.  This brings us one step closer to a big enough fissure in the Republican Party to spawn a legit third party; in fact, I'm convinced it's going to happen- it's just going to be whether the Tea Partiers or the moderates split from the GOP.

That'd be good news for me, since I'm too conservative for the democrats, and too liberal for the GOP the way it is now.

So carry on, GOP.  Eventually, somebody's going to get sick enough of you alienating the saner members.

[alfred russel]

Don't judge Arizona too harshly. It is hard to be rational with all that sun and all those old people.

Then explain the crazies primarying people in other parts of the country.  The GOP at the grass roots level is off the fucking rails these days.

Political parties with insane people will always eat their own.  Look at the Democrats in '68 and '72.

In this case I think they are barking up the right tree for the wrong reasons. We really should stop electing 80 year olds to the Senate.

[DontSayBanana]

In this case I think they are barking up the right tree for the wrong reasons. We really should stop electing 80 year olds to the Senate.

Seriously.  If administrators can be subject to mandatory retirement, why not legislators?  Neither seems particularly physically demanding, and both show similar degrees of required cogency.

[Viking]

In the confirmation hearings for the "next ambassador" to norway were basically mccain skewering the hotel executive sent for confirmation for his complete lack of basic knowledge about the norwegian political system, as if he hand't read a single thing on the topic before the hearing. Pa' Hilton might have traced his origins to the farm of Hilton in Telemark, but working for a company founded by a norwegian american isn't enough to be ambassador.

Mccain got the guy for being incompetent and not having done his homework. A senate full of partisan hacks would be just as incompetent idiot who didn't know who was in the government of the country he was going to be ambassador to all the while making comments about the norwegian government directly at odds with US policy towards norway and norwegian parties.

He'll be replaced by a tea party idiot.

[garbon]

V, could you work on your sentence structure?

[The Brain]

Was it liberal to shoot up that carrier?

[alfred russel]

In the confirmation hearings for the "next ambassador" to norway were basically mccain skewering the hotel executive sent for confirmation for his complete lack of basic knowledge about the norwegian political system, as if he hand't read a single thing on the topic before the hearing. Pa' Hilton might have traced his origins to the farm of Hilton in Telemark, but working for a company founded by a norwegian american isn't enough to be ambassador.

Mccain got the guy for being incompetent and not having done his homework. A senate full of partisan hacks would be just as incompetent idiot who didn't know who was in the government of the country he was going to be ambassador to all the while making comments about the norwegian government directly at odds with US policy towards norway and norwegian parties.

He'll be replaced by a tea party idiot.

Who cares about the next ambassador to Norway?

For better or worse, with the exception of a handful of countries we have sensitive relationships with for one reason or another, ambassadorships are patronage positions. Most of our ambassadors are probably unqualified to handle important stuff.

[LaCroix]

This could actually be a good thing.  This brings us one step closer to a big enough fissure in the Republican Party to spawn a legit third party; in fact, I'm convinced it's going to happen- it's just going to be whether the Tea Partiers or the moderates split from the GOP.

i don't think the dispute within the republican party will bring about a third party. the extreme elements will probably just lose influence over time, especially if the republicans keep losing national elections

[Eddie Teach]

There would need to be competing agendas. "Moderate" Republicans agree with the party the majority of the time and don't always agree with each other.

[Viking]

In the confirmation hearings for the "next ambassador" to norway were basically mccain skewering the hotel executive sent for confirmation for his complete lack of basic knowledge about the norwegian political system, as if he hand't read a single thing on the topic before the hearing. Pa' Hilton might have traced his origins to the farm of Hilton in Telemark, but working for a company founded by a norwegian american isn't enough to be ambassador.

Mccain got the guy for being incompetent and not having done his homework. A senate full of partisan hacks would be just as incompetent idiot who didn't know who was in the government of the country he was going to be ambassador to all the while making comments about the norwegian government directly at odds with US policy towards norway and norwegian parties.

He'll be replaced by a tea party idiot.

Who cares about the next ambassador to Norway?

For better or worse, with the exception of a handful of countries we have sensitive relationships with for one reason or another, ambassadorships are patronage positions. Most of our ambassadors are probably unqualified to handle important stuff.

Apparently one of then senate's jobs is to make sure that the president isn't sending mouth breathers to represent the republic.

[grumbler]

In this case I think they are barking up the right tree for the wrong reasons. We really should stop electing 80 year olds to the Senate.

If that's what you are doing, and you don't want to do it any more, then just stop.  If other people want to do that, let them.

It is dangerous to democracy to have some bureaucrats deciding who gets to run for office.

[garbon]

It is dangerous to democracy to have some bureaucrats deciding who gets to run for office.

Doesn't the constitution set an age restriction on one bound?