John McCain Emails Supporters: "Our Country Does Not Need Another Spending Bill"

Despite his claims of reaching across the aisle in the spirit of bipartisanship, former Republican presidential candidate and senior Arizona Senator John McCain sent an email to his supporters urging them to sign a petition against President Barack Obama's stimulus package. The petition appears on McCain's own fundraising website called "Country First," although it should more accurately be named "Republicans First" since its single goal seems to be fundraising to elect more Republicans.

McCain's email flirts with misinformation throughout its four paragraphs: giving a half nod to President Obama's attempts at Republican outreach ("I appreciate the discussions President Obama is having with my Republican colleagues") and then immediately throwing that nod away ("Republicans have not been given the opportunity to be involved"), and suggesting that Senate Democrats are either bullies ("In the Senate, the Democrat leadership is trying to jam the existing proposal through") or Joe Lieberman ("regardless of reservations from a number of members"). And in what might be its most galling line, McCain ignores the massive spending of the last eight years under Republican leadership ("Our country does not need just another spending bill, particularly not one that will load future generations with the burden of massive debt."). Really? And the war in Iraq did what exactly?

Of course McCain is up for re-election soon, and considering how close the presidential election was in his home state of Arizona he feels the need to start grandstanding, and grandstanding is something McCain can pull out of the hat like a well-trained bunny ("I have long been a fighter against wasteful spending in Washington and long an advocate for a balanced budget -- that will never change."). But as the economic news continues to worsen, one wonders at McCain's wisdom in sending an email short on new ideas ("payroll tax cuts") and strong on obstructionism (one particularly baffling sentence reads: "the time for talking has come to an end and we must now begin some serious negotiation.").

Maybe he'd be wiser to take advice from the one line in his email that makes sense:

With so much at stake, the last thing we need is partisanship driving our attempts to turn the economy around.

Comments

[2008CaliforniaFan]

I emailed John McSame at his Senate website email address about Fred Malek who is a convicted criminal.. but hired by John to be his Co-Campaign chairman. Said he was a hypocrite.
Geoffrey Dunn's story was about Pa lin but had some notes about Fred Malek who is a convicted criminal. John 'pals around with ' criminals. Read below

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/geoffrey-dunn/dog-eat-dog-palin-patrons_b_163385.html
Someone in MSM should ask John about his associatio­ns... and the friends he keeps.

[rasit]

John McCain, here are three sad facts:

1)You are 8 years LATE with your petition drive;
2) The American people did NOT elect you President in Nov. 4, 08...
3) You are NO Maverick, just another RICH Republican Senator., who seems to place his party's interest, ahead of that of this country...­....

[Sykon]

I so wish John McCain would sit down one day, review and contemplate the wisdom expressed by General Douglas MacArthur in his final farewell speech to Congress.

Comes a time for every old soldier, no matter his personal convictions, to face the fact it is time to "... just fade away."

Do your country a favor and just say, "Good-bye", John.

[BCubedReg]

Ms Phillips, both sentences make no sense.

"(one particularly baffling sentence reads: "the time for talking has come to an end and we must now begin some serious negotiatio­n.")."

"Maybe he'd be wiser to take advice from the one line in his email that makes sense:
With so much at stake, the last thing we need is partisanship driving our attempts to turn the economy around."


First: " the time for talking has come to an end and we must now begin some serious negotiatio­n."
How are you going to begin negotiations if you are unwilling to talk?

Second: "With so much at stake, the last thing we need is partisanship driving our attempts to turn the economy around."
Isn't "turn[ing] the economy around" what the stimulus is supposed to achieve? "Partisanship" or bipartisanship, the American people don't care what it takes.. just "turn the economy around" from the current death spiral we are in.

I fear J. McCain is suffering from the same dementia Reagan began to suffer from in his 2nd term and of which George Bush always suffered from using words like 'nucular' and 'childrens'.

[melissamsouza]

Shame on McCain. He will pay for what he is doing.

[tlgeiger62]

Not soon enough for me!!

[Shashi0224]

I hope he loses his senate seat in 2010. It would be justice.

[MaryK2924]

I thank God each and every day that this man is not our president. And hopefully he won't be Arizona's senator for very much longer. He must think the economy is still sound.

[Pupadup4oBama]

Mary, you've got it wrong...it­'s the FUNDAMENTALS of our economy that are strong....­remember, the fundamentals are the people!! (seriously, I think this man IS suffering from some sort of dementia.)

[hollybork]

Thank God this man is not our President and will continue to vie with his parochial supporters for the "stupidest ideas of the century" prize. So we don't need a spending bill? What economists and business people are advising McCain these days - Phil Gram and John Thane? McCain's idea to solve all our problems by gritting our teeth would most likely end with the US starting a new war and closing the charity hospital wards to the uninsured and poor. That would be one solution to get jobs for the poor and to force the uninsured to "buy" their healthcare on the competitive market. Hope McCain can hold on to his hundreds of millions of dollars and live happily ever after on his government healthcare plan. The rest of us are not so lucky. We want the stimulus and national healthcare and an extension of the safety net beneath the poorest and weakest among us.

[Marie62866]

McCain you lost by 9 million people! Obama is also sending out e-mails to his supporters! Contact your senators to support this Bill! Blue states with Repubs senators: e-mail them/call them and remind them that Obama won that state!

[elmoor]

It's it sad what McCain has managed to do to himself. I can't even look at him without just rolling my eyes.

[Shashi0224]

I wonder if he sees how much of a joke he has become in the eyes of the majority of American citizens?

[angelvsion]

After his campaign auctioned off black berries with his supporter's email accounts and other information I would consider the source of this email attempt to sabatoge President Obama's rescue plan. When it comes to Senator McCain and what's left with his two year term he should really focus on his state of AZ, it is a matter of the people who have chosen their president.

Love and Peace

[TomTheAlmostUgly]

Let him speak. The chance he'll convince anyone who's not already a Rightard is zero.

[isom74]

John McCain is a tired, bitter old man who has decided to become a major player in the Republican plan to destroy the momentum of the Obama inauguration. Republicans hope to derail the Stimulus Plan as it is the first major piece of legislation pushed by President Obama and rewrite the bill using their failed 'cut taxes and increase military spending' philosophy. They hope to doom the stimulus plan, label the Obama presidency a failure and run on a promise of 'change' in 2012. The Republicans have no interest in reviving the economy, just in returning to power.

[roblabrousse]

Didn't McCain die(figuratively) in November 2008?

[blood1]

As he was incapable of reading Paulsen's 3 page request for the bailout, I am sure that he has not read the Senate version of the Reinvestment and Retirement bill.

With that in mind, as he will be out of the country, I am sure that his proxy vote is no...as is his co-conspirator John Kyl, who will be with McCain....­wasting our money on some important foreign affair.

Sad but true examples of how the GOP congress works.

[Dogyeller]

Sad, but not surprising. McCain's latest move is as tone-deaf as his campaign. He's still playing to the GOP "base" and acting in a way that alienates moderates and progressives. The GOP is headed for permanent irrelevance and marginalization if they keep playing politics while millions of "Joe the Plumbers" are struggling with unemployment, rising health care costs and food prices, and mortages they can't afford. He still doesn't get it.

[JimR]

The financial crisis belongs to the Democrats now. If their big Christmas tree bill fails to stimulate the economy, it's not the GOP out-of-work voters will be blaming in 2010...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29025047/

[blood1]

All the GOP has to do is filibuster this bill and Americans will remember that in 2010. That will just re-enforce why they should be voted out....Ame­ricans are not that short sighted or dumb!