Althouse: "It’s always the wacko birds on right and left that get the media megaphone.”

March 8, 2013

"It’s always the wacko birds on right and left that get the media megaphone.”

McCain, referring to Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, and Justin Amash.

ADDED: It's actually McCain who's always getting the media megaphone, but maybe it takes one to know one.

71 comments:

Nonapod said...: Poor ol'McCain. "Nobody's paying attention to me :-("; 3/8/13, 3:32 PM
Known Unknown said...: Aren't they just being "mavericky?"; 3/8/13, 3:33 PM
Anonymous said...: So said the wacko bird that got a presidential nomination a little while back...; 3/8/13, 3:33 PM
Rocketeer said...: Irony: Are you gonna tell him about it, or should I?; 3/8/13, 3:34 PM
Sim said...: “We spent 13 hours talking about a scenario that won’t happen and can’t happen,”.. something tells me he was there for the full 13 hours lol; 3/8/13, 3:36 PM
Known Unknown said...: The Notorious Rand P?; 3/8/13, 3:39 PM
Big Mike said...: Seems to apply more to McCain himself than to Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, et. al.

What Oliver Cromwell said dissolving the Long Parliament seems particularly appropriate to McCain and Graham:

"... Ye are a factious crew, and enemies to all good government; ye are a pack of mercenary wretches, and would like Esau sell your country for a mess of pottage, and like Judas betray your God for a few pieces of money.

Is there a single virtue now remaining amongst you? Is there one vice you do not possess? Ye have no more religion than my horse; gold is your God; which of you have not barter'd your conscience for bribes? Is there a man amongst you that has the least care for the good of the Commonwealth?

Ye sordid prostitutes have you not defil'd this sacred place, and turn'd the Lord's temple into a den of thieves, by your immoral principles and wicked practices? Ye are grown intolerably odious to the whole nation; you were deputed here by the people to get grievances redress'd, are yourselves gone! So! ... In the name of God, go!"; 3/8/13, 3:39 PM
garage mahal said...: Perhaps we'll get some insight Sunday on Meet John McCain w/ David Gregory. He has a bed in the green room doesn't he?; 3/8/13, 3:40 PM
Marie said...: He subsequently told Fox News that he does think there should be “more congressional oversight” of the drone program,

Hello? That's what Paul was saying. Congress and the Senate need to pay more attention, carry out their Constitutional duties and stop abdicating to the executive branch.; 3/8/13, 3:40 PM
Achilles said...: Hopefully this is the not so graceful end of the RINO big government wing of the Republican Party. Cruz and Paul are our best chance to stop the growth of government control of our lives. Paul's unapologetic defense of the citizen against the government has unhinged the statists because the citizenry has been waiting for this type of movement to support.; 3/8/13, 3:41 PM
Methadras said...: Fuck you McCain. I dare say that you are the meandering do-nothing fuckwad that lets Obama turn him into a human carpet. Get the fuck out, these guys aren't wacko birds, they are mainstream thinkers that have in effect exposed you and the left for the frightful statist sycophants you are so you can hold onto your power for the sheer sake of it. Enjoy your decline old man. You are done.; 3/8/13, 3:54 PM
sakredkow said...: Get the fuck out, these guys aren't wacko birds, they are mainstream thinkers

Yes, in the same sense you are a "mainstream" commenter.; 3/8/13, 3:56 PM
Kirk Parker said...: Meth,

I could do without the taunt about McCain's age, but otherwise that's spot on.; 3/8/13, 3:57 PM
Astro said...: McCain and Graham are complaining at the steamboat terminal about being left behind by the rocketship that left its launchpad 6 hours earlier.; 3/8/13, 4:01 PM
Unknown said...: McCains age isn't the problem. He was a statist sycophant from the beginning.; 3/8/13, 4:02 PM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: I daresay that Cruz and Paul have views on immigration, budgeting and tax policy that are straight in line with "mainline" American thinking. McCain who used to say "build the damn fence first" now just whines about the whippersnappers getting all the good press. And he does nothing to address the mainstream Tea Party concerns that average Americans have. Time to shuffle off the stage grandpa.; 3/8/13, 4:06 PM
Andy said...: It's fun watching the nutjob extremist rightists in the Republican Party pretend that the nutjob extremist rightists who have been elected to office aren't nutjob extremist rightists.

Romney has talked before about the damage that was done to him, and to the Republican brand, during the primary when the various candidates that are nutjob extremist rightists were taken seriously.

So I guess the members of the Republican Party are welcome to keep pretending that Cruz isn't a nutjob extremist rightist and they will continue to suffer the consequences.; 3/8/13, 4:13 PM
Cedarford said...: I normally despise nepotism in the DC and NYC Ruling Elites..or the Chicago variant..
And hate the idea of spousal accession to Congress on death of the one partner in office as some sort of unspoken entitlement voters must grant them.

But in Cindy McCains place, I would make an exception if grumpy, war-thirsty Johnny, pet of the Neocons and the NYTimes, suddenly croaked.

She would be a better Senator than he has been.; 3/8/13, 4:19 PM
Rusty said...: phx said...
Get the fuck out, these guys aren't wacko birds, they are mainstream thinkers

Yes, in the same sense you are a "mainstream" commenter

Maybe you should talk to your parents.; 3/8/13, 4:20 PM
Rusty said...: Andy. How many tome do I hsve to tell you.
You're not gay.; 3/8/13, 4:22 PM
Amartel said...: Hopelessly self-involved and mired in establishment privileges and pretensions. The "wacko birds" threaten this comfortable existence. He must know that his "maverick" act only plays when it's convenient to damage conservatives and not when it's deployed in the other direction. I hope he learned that in 2008.; 3/8/13, 4:23 PM
Revenant said...: Just when I think I couldn't like Rand Paul any more than I already do, John McCain starts attacking him.

Time to go, John. Actually it was time to go 25 years ago, but now's good too.; 3/8/13, 4:24 PM
Bart Hall (Kansas, USA) said...: This all reminds me so much of what the Whigs were saying 160 years ago about those crazy, uncompromising (about the evils of slavery) young upstarts who by 1854 had had enough of the Old Establishment and banded together to form the Republican Party.

Or as another more clear-thinking Arizona Senator put it about 50 years ago: Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.

Major General Goldwater (certified to pilot over 150 different types of aircraft) went on in that same speech to say: Those who seek absolute power, even though they seek it to do what they regard as good, are simply demanding the right to enforce their own version of heaven on earth. And let me remind you, they are the very ones who always create the most hellish tyrannies.

Sounds a lot more like Paul and Cruz and Rubio and Moran et al. than it does like Mssrs. McCain and Graham, does it not?; 3/8/13, 4:34 PM
Revenant said...: It's fun watching the nutjob extremist rightists in the Republican Party pretend that the nutjob extremist rightists who have been elected to office aren't nutjob extremist rightists

You would think "ACLU and Code Pink Endorse Right-Wing Extremism" would be bigger news.; 3/8/13, 4:40 PM
Lydia said...: A reminder: Goldwater lost to Johnson by almost 26 points, 38.5% vs. 61.1%.; 3/8/13, 4:43 PM
Revenant said...: A reminder: Goldwater lost to Johnson by almost 26 points, 38.5% vs. 61.1%.

It is generally acknowledged that he paved the way for Reagan.; 3/8/13, 4:46 PM
tiger said...: McCain casts a long shadow because the Sun is setting on him.

What a whiny pissy self-centered and self-involved ass-hat who is unable to tolerate someone else getting any attention.

'Maverick' my ass; he has been a preening RINO for his entire time in the Senate whose idea of compromise is doing what the Dems want.; 3/8/13, 4:47 PM
Anonymous said...: Once upon a time, McCain's military creds, his ability to break from the Republican establishment on legislation, and his appeal to the youth vote were his calling cards. He almost won the presidency. He was 'cool' enough.

Now he looks like an old fuddy-duddy, as we have a progressive president, and a strong libertarian resurgence against it uniting perhaps more people on civil liberties issues.

You can bet Republicans are looking at optics for every little thing with such a low approval rating for gov't in general.

Where are Republicans on foreign policy? Anyone?; 3/8/13, 4:55 PM
Lydia said...: Revenant said...
A reminder: Goldwater lost to Johnson by almost 26 points, 38.5% vs. 61.1%.

It is generally acknowledged that he paved the way for Reagan.

----------

Nah, it was mostly Carter's doing.

And Reagan's charm.

Plus, I don't think most of those who voted for Reagan got the Goldwater connection at all.; 3/8/13, 5:02 PM
Cedarford said...: Lydia said...
A reminder: Goldwater lost to Johnson by almost 26 points, 38.5% vs. 61.1%.

=================
And that was 50 years ago, when there were few takers vs. contributors and the country was 88% white, 10% black and 2% "other".

The "Give me that old white conservative, Jebus loving, social Darwinist - Religion!!" ain't what it used to be.
Not even in the South, the only states Goldwater took outside AZ.

Demos mean Reagan could not be elected to statewide office in California.

Emmanuel Cellar, Jacob Javits, the gay Curia of the US Catholic Church, Teddy Kennedy - all did their work well on mass immigration.; 3/8/13, 5:08 PM
Anonymous said...: Bart Hall

I see Traditionalists, Libertarians, and Neoconservatives as the 3 biggest wings of the Republican Party.

Cruz is tapping into the anti prog energy on the right in populist fashion appealing to traditionalists most, Rubio is appealing to it but trying to strike a deal on immigration, his forte, and bet on where popular RINO territory will be in the future and Paul is in the libertarian wing which is anti war and largely anti-Statist and anti collectivist.

McCain is deeply loyal to the military, and Graham is southern establishment traditionalist and and both are strong on National defense and and both probably look at libertarian anti war sentiment as nutty and unrealistic, even with Obama in office, even with the 'rise of the drones'

It's always a matter of principles and the lack of them, when to move and when to stand on them. Politicians always have a finger in the wind; 3/8/13, 5:13 PM
Bart Hall (Kansas, USA) said...: I worked on Goldwater's campaign. It was generally acknowledged that there was absolutely no way the American people would vote to have a third President in less than 14 months.

The decision was therefore made early on to devote the entire campaign to fundamental principles of modern conservatism, most especially that of human liberty.

Goldwater performed that task admirably and beyond expectations. 1964 turned out to be the last year Democrats won the Presidency in any sort of big way. Within just eight years the party margins had been reversed.; 3/8/13, 5:23 PM
Anonymous said...: I should say Paul is Iibertarian-republican, and that McCain's getting sour that his best days are behind him. Even if he's got a point, you should probably get off his lawn.; 3/8/13, 5:24 PM
Anonymous said...: Bart:

Good on you for the Goldwater campaign. He stuck to his guns.; 3/8/13, 5:26 PM
Anonymous said...: Seriously, just get off McCain's lawn.

When you're playing shuffleboard or horseshoes, you'll find it's best not to look him in the eyes, either.

He's a real competitor.

Sorry McCain. Cheap shot.; 3/8/13, 5:32 PM
Michael K said...: " Blogger Lydia said...

A reminder: Goldwater lost to Johnson by almost 26 points, 38.5% vs. 61.1%"

How long was that before Johnson gave up and did not run again ?

Goldwater was a better thinker than a candidate. Some are.; 3/8/13, 5:34 PM
Alex said...: phx is a self-defined "mainstream thinker".; 3/8/13, 5:41 PM
Cedarford said...: Revenant said...
A reminder: Goldwater lost to Johnson by almost 26 points, 38.5% vs. 61.1%.

It is generally acknowledged that he paved the way for Reagan.
==============
And Reagan was 30 years ago and anyone acting like a Goldwater now to "pave the way" for another Reagan with his failed voodoo economic ideas and failed dereg of Wall Street 20 years out...would likely mean 8 more years in the Wilderness. (After the 8 years we are now mired in under Obama, following the massive Bush fuckups on Neocon wars of adventure, free trade, and fiscal policy/regulation.)

In a sense, it is as pathetic as 30 some years on, the out of touch old white farts at the 1968 Democrat Convention singing FDR Administration songs and the good old days of the Works Progress Administration and touting Humphrey as "the next FDR".; 3/8/13, 5:53 PM
edutcher said...: chrisnavin took my idea, but that's where we are.

The RINOs have had this act going since '08.

Andy R. said...

It's fun watching the nutjob extremist rightists in the Republican Party pretend that the nutjob extremist rightists who have been elected to office aren't nutjob extremist rightists.

As opposed to the small c communists in the Democrat Party, sweetie?

Your little wet dream hasn't exactly covered himself with glory recently, has he?; 3/8/13, 5:59 PM
Methadras said...: phx said...

Get the fuck out, these guys aren't wacko birds, they are mainstream thinkers

Yes, in the same sense you are a "mainstream" commenter.

Do you think your leftist ideology is mainstream, you outlying little fascist? My commentary or how I comment isn't what is in question here, but then again, this type of comment is typically indicative of the shallow minded thinking you and your ilk display daily ad nauseum as a means to deflect the spotlight from the poison you call an ideology.; 3/8/13, 6:29 PM
Cedarford said...: Bart Hall -

Goldwater performed that task admirably and beyond expectations. 1964 turned out to be the last year Democrats won the Presidency in any sort of big way. Within just eight years the party margins had been reversed.

By losing so big in a landslide, Goldwater handed LBJ a mandate so big and a filibuster Democratic Congress so "empowered" by the landslide that nothing could stop LBJ transformining society on a fundamental level -

1. Affirmative Action.
2. The Great Society that has the guaranteed unpaid entitlements that have fiscally wrecked America - welfare, medicare, SSI.
3. Massive expansion of the Federal Government size, intrusion into States, more taxes.
4. Win the black vote through goodies that would guarantee Democrat control of America's cities and by beneficence to blacks - win a good chunk of the Hollywood, Chicago, and East Coast progressive Jewish money.

All permanent fixures. They really can't be changed in the near future anymore than Republicans were able to stop it in the 50 years following the Goldwater Debacle.; 3/8/13, 6:58 PM
KCFleming said...: Another queen bee thread already?; 3/8/13, 6:59 PM
gk1 said...: Takes one to know one. Just retire already pops.; 3/8/13, 6:59 PM
Revenant said...: Nah, it was mostly Carter's doing. And Reagan's charm. Plus, I don't think most of those who voted for Reagan got the Goldwater connection at all.

Between 1928 and 1964 there were NO serious Presidential candidates arguing for small government in either party.

Goldwater broke the "big government conservative" monopoly on the Republican Party. Prior to him, people who thought like Reagan were classified by the Republican mainstream as, well... "wacko birds".

Without Goldwater, Reagan would never have won the nomination, let alone the Presidency. He would have been marginalized as a small-government wackjob, unlike "mainstream" Republicans like Nixon, Ford, and Bush.; 3/8/13, 7:01 PM
Cedarford said...: should have written "filibuster-proof".; 3/8/13, 7:09 PM
Known Unknown said...: Letting my son watch WWE Smackdown.

The bad guy has "We the People" emblazoned on his singlet. He's the "Real American" and then his mentor a "Founding Father" goes on a rant about illegal immigrants taking jobs away from real Americans.

A video spoofing the characters shows a Gadsden flag on the wall.

The Mexican is the hero World Champion, Alberto Del Rio.

What the heck is wrong with WWE?; 3/8/13, 7:10 PM
Known Unknown said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 3/8/13, 7:16 PM
Known Unknown said...: Andy R would be careful not to attack libertarians, who may indeed be his allies in his fight for SSM.; 3/8/13, 7:16 PM
Revenant said...: Andy R would be careful not to attack libertarians, who may indeed be his allies in his fight for SSM.

Andy doesn't care about winning the fight. He cares about having the fight. Why do you think his SSM posts are 100% attack and 0% persuasion?

If every SSM opponent in America changed his mind tomorrow, Andy's response would be depression at not having as many people to hate. :); 3/8/13, 7:23 PM
Known Unknown said...: To go further on the WWE thing, I really wouldn't like to watch it if they made the Mexican guy some vile bad guy, either. The politics was really strange and off-putting, especially for something so phony and just for stupid entertainment.; 3/8/13, 7:26 PM
Cody Jarrett said...: phx thinks phx is smart. phx doesn't understand how dumb phx really is--but insulting others makes phx feel like less of an ignorant cunt.; 3/8/13, 7:36 PM
ken in tx said...: I was in Goldwater's campaign. I handed out bumper stickers. So was Hillary Clinton. I was a high school member of the Young Americans for Freedom. Goldwater got 27 million votes, not enough to win but a lot for those days. I was arrested for reckless driving on election day in 1964. Interesting times.; 3/8/13, 8:08 PM
rcommal said...: Interesting: the "Rand p" tag; 3/8/13, 8:13 PM
Teri said...: "Cruz served as a law clerk to William Rehnquist, Chief Justice of the United States, and J. Michael Luttig of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.[17] Cruz was the first Hispanic ever to clerk for a Chief Justice of the United States.[18]

Cruz has authored more than 80 United States Supreme Court briefs and presented 43 oral arguments, including nine before the United States Supreme Court"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Cruz

Yeah, sounds like a real right wing extremist, alright.; 3/8/13, 8:45 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "Interesting: the "Rand p" tag"

It's just my bad handling of the new software. It used to autocomplete, but I have to click on the words now. It's very hard not to keep doing it the old way.; 3/8/13, 9:09 PM
rcommal said...: Althouse:

SO get that. Learning is one thing. Unlearning is something else. Both learning AND unlearning, especially when there's no choice but to do both simultaneously, at once, is the real bitch. I mean this sincerely: It's a truism, in my experience and in m observation, not to mention a pain in the ass.

Sorry I happened to mention it, on account of being curious about what, if anything, I was supposed to read into something. I should've gone with some relevant version of Occam's Razor and kept my query to myself.

Carry on!; 3/8/13, 9:16 PM
sakredkow said...: Do you think your leftist ideology is mainstream, you outlying little fascist? My commentary or how I comment isn't what is in question here, but then again, this type of comment is typically indicative of the shallow minded thinking you and your ilk display daily ad nauseum as a means to deflect the spotlight from the poison you call an ideology.

Methadras shut up. You had me at "You little fascist."; 3/8/13, 9:27 PM
Clyde said...: A tiresome scold who just won't go away.

John McCain is becoming the Republican party's Jimmy Carter.; 3/9/13, 2:43 AM
Tom from Virginia said...: Early in the Obama years, McCain was being interviewed by Larry King via a remote feed from the Capitol. King closed the interview thanking McCain with these words - "You're always there when we need you." McCain would have been a much better Senator if he hadn't always been there when the Larry Kings of the world needed him.; 3/9/13, 4:24 AM
Jim in St Louis said...: Senior Senator from AZ went through hell and deserves all honor and respect. But its sobering that so many are proud of the Junior Senator from KY for having the courage to stand up and say "We don't think its a good idea to drone Americans without charge or trial or process."

Really? We have sunk this far? This is even a topic for debate? Letters cachet are seriously accepted as appropriate?

Hugo Chavez may have gone to his reward but his work lives on.; 3/9/13, 5:10 AM
AllenS said...: John McCain's military claim to fame was that he was shot down and a POW. McCain began as a sub-par flier who was at times careless and reckless; during the early-to-mid 1960s, the planes he was flying crashed twice and once collided with power lines, but he received no major injuries.

He finished school at the bottom of his class. The time his plane collided with power lines was in Spain, and he admitted he was hot-dogging and flying too low. His father was an Admiral and he knew he could do anything that he wanted.

He's an asshole, and has been one for most of his life.; 3/9/13, 6:42 AM
Aridog said...: I've got no dog in this fight, or much interest either. Whoopie...Rand Paul did a mini-filabluster, then voted for cloture himself. WTF?

Can anyone tell me specifically what he/they accomplished? Accomplished that is enforceable or anything more than a "Mother-May-I" stunt?

Holder (!!) gives his condescending assurance? Oh, please...just fucking please.

Meanwhile...whilst everyone is paying attention to the pointless (unenforceable) Rand Paul "Oh Look, SQUIRREL!" moment...Obama and Holder are bringing Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, a foreign national and combatant, to trial in civilian Federal Court. Just happens he is a son-in-law of Osama bin Laden ... coincident, right?

Man, the Democrats are playing anyone right of Pol Pot as suckers and they go for it, to boot!; 3/9/13, 8:03 AM
roesch/voltaire said...: Perhaps in the back of his mind he was thinking of that Alaskan Bird Palin who keeps dropping poop for pay making his past choice looking even more wacko. But then as a War Hawk, McCain and the the neo-con chicken hawks need to use the megaphone to drown out the Libertarians and Liberals who opposed the war and the expansion of our empire.; 3/9/13, 8:13 AM
Astro said...: Most Republican voters had McCain at the bottom of their list (or not on it at all) for the '08 nomination partly due to his collusion with the Democrats (e.g., McCain-Feingold which Republicans felt hurt the Reps and helped the Dems). but mostly because he just came across as a grumpy, wacko narcissist. I gotta wonder if his experience as a POW has made him susceptible to the faux praise the media heaps on him.; 3/9/13, 8:13 AM
Rusty said...: roesch/voltaire said...
Perhaps in the back of his mind he was thinking of that Alaskan Bird Palin who keeps dropping poop for pay making his past choice looking even more wacko. But then as a War Hawk, McCain and the the neo-con chicken hawks need to use the megaphone to drown out the Libertarians and Liberals who opposed the war and the expansion of our empire.

I hope to god you don't teach history.
Those poor students.; 3/9/13, 8:39 AM
Unknown said...: As opposed to the small c communists in the Democrat Party, sweetie?

This from the doofus who insists that Mittens won the election.; 3/9/13, 8:41 AM
Rusty said...: Where are Republicans on foreign policy? Anyone?

Israel; 3/9/13, 8:43 AM
Aridog said...: roesch/voltaire said...

...Liberals who opposed the war and the expansion of our empire.

Yeah, right. Like John Brennan, right?

If you skip the cliche' terminology and cite politicos for what they are, you might get somewhere. Brennan is the new Robert Komer...and IIRC he was a liberal under LBJ, Nixon, and Carter.

The term "Liberal" is meaningless if you try to equate it with anti-warfare. But it's fun to toss out bullshit and make it sound otherwise.

Libertarians....oh, yeah, patriots all, except they don't like to pay taxes. They openly advocate "evasion" and have tried multiple stunts to evade it...like the 99 dependent exemption stunt in Michigan auto plants that sent a couple of them, one my next door neighbor at the time, to prison. I found it amusing how the punk little bitches whined "unfair."; 3/9/13, 8:46 AM
roesch/voltaire said...: Rusty you mean we should ignore the voice of the Rands and thousands of others who opposed our 60 billion dollar loss in Iraq--I don't have to teach history, just direct students to the many excellent books and government reports documenting the folly. You could start here: http://www.sigir.mil/learningfromiraq/index.html; 3/9/13, 8:50 AM
Kelly said...: McCain was on the Michael Medved show yesterday..the man is so thin-skinned. He and Obama have that much in common at least. A caller asked him about his comments and stated in a respectful way that McCain was wrong. McCain went off stating that he, "wouldn't be intimidated".; 3/9/13, 11:15 AM
AlanKH said...: If Rand Paul is a wacko bird, McCain is a green pig.; 3/9/13, 11:16 PM