McCain: I was misled on bailout

Under growing pressure from conservatives and “tea party” activists, Sen. John McCain of Arizona is having to defend his record of supporting the government’s massive bailout of the financial system.

In response to criticism from opponents seeking to defeat him in the Aug. 24 Republican primary, the four-term senator says he was misled by then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. McCain said the pair assured him that the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program would focus on what was seen as the cause of the financial crisis, the housing meltdown.

“Obviously, that didn’t happen,” McCain said in a meeting Thursday with The Republic’s Editorial Board, recounting his decision-making during the critical initial days of the fiscal crisis. “They decided to stabilize the Wall Street institutions, bail out (insurance giant) AIG, bail out Chrysler, bail out General Motors. . . . What they figured was that if they stabilized Wall Street - I guess it was trickle-down economics - that therefore Main Street would be fine.”

Nearly 15 months later, commercial lenders still are in shaky condition and the commercial real-estate industry is in trouble, he said. On Friday, President Barack Obama announced $1.5 billion in funding for new measures to help Arizona and four other states hit hard by the tanked housing market and by joblessness.

But McCain stopped short of calling the TARP a mistake.

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McCain: I was misled on bailout

I sincerely hope the good folks of Arizona are paying very close attention to this story and are listening intently to the words of John McCain.

One of the comment makers on FOX News just now said, and I paraphrase, “Come election time, McCain comes home and talks like a Conservative, then he goes back to Washington and votes like a liberal.”

That sums it up nicely I believe.

“Something had to be done because the world’s financial system was on the verge of collapse,” he said. “Any economist, liberal or conservative, would agree with that. The action they took, I don’t agree with.”

Can you smell what John McCain is spewing? Smells like duplicitous BS to me.

Republican Senate primary challenger J.D. Hayworth is using the TARP vote as a bludgeon against McCain’s reputation as a fiscal hawk. Tea partyers point to it as the start of a new explosion of federal spending that has continued into the Obama administration.

The Senate seat currently held by John McCain is ripe for the picking, all J.D. Hayworth has got to do is NOT lose this election himself, thus handing McCain a shew in victory.

McCain said Bush called him in off the campaign trail, saying a worldwide economic catastrophe was imminent and that he needed his help. “I don’t know of any American, when the president of the United States calls you and tells you something like that, who wouldn’t respond,” McCain said. “And I came back and tried to sit down and work with Republicans and say, ‘What can we do?’ “

Well, there you have it. The REAL side of John McCain finally comes out for all to see. In true libber fashion he is going to do what ALL libbers are doing right now, BLAME BUSH!

I don’t disparage John McCain for his service to this nation, his MILITARY service. Past that, McCain long ago outlived any usefulness to the GOP he may have had. John McCain IS a RINO! That’s not said in jest, it’s said as hard accusation against McCain and IS meant to disparage him and his political career.

Arizona, John McCain has got to go. Do what’s right for Arizona and America. Retire that old RINO and put a real Conservative in Washington.

No more RINOs, no more excuses, no more settling for the lesser of anything.

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Sen. McCain faces toughest re-election challenge

PHOENIX (AP) - Defeated just two years ago as the Republican presidential candidate and with his bonafides as a true conservative again being challenged, John McCain finds himself in a struggle to get even his party’s nomination for another term in the Senate.

Conservatives, independents and Tea Party activists are lining up behind Republican challenger and former talk radio host J.D. Hayworth, reflecting a rising tide of voter frustration with incumbent politicians. Only 40 percent of Arizonans have a favorable view of McCain’s job performance.

Faced with his toughest re-election battle ever, McCain has moved to the right on several hot-button issues, like gays in the military and climate change, and has built a campaign war chest of more than $5 million. Former running mate Sarah Palin and newly elected Republican Sen. Scott Brown, both popular with conservatives, are pitching in.

Hayworth, who will officially launch his campaign Monday, began using his talk show on conservative radio station KFYI to drum up opposition to McCain.

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Sen. McCain faces toughest re-election challenge

Sarah Palin and Scott Brown are supporting the biggest RINO in the Senate. Isn’t that special?

I think it speaks quite well of both of them, and it gives the American voter a chance to see the Conservative bonafides that neither have! Supporting McCain is NOT sitting well with many on the REAL Conservative side of the equation.

“You have a consistent conservative challenger and an incumbent who calls himself a maverick but in fact is a moderate,” Hayworth said, outlining what he views as the central choice for conservative GOP primary voters in August.

I would have to disagree with Mr. Hayworth on one minor point here, calling John McCain a moderate is a bit of a misnomer. John McCain is a RINO, and when I say RINO I am referring to Republican In Name Only. And even that is a bit of a misnomer itself. John McCain is what I call a Republican when it’s convenient. John McCain is a Republican when it suits HIS purposes. I am convinced that he can’t even spell the word Conservative.

The four-term senator and his allies also are taking aim at Hayworth. In December, they filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission arguing that the talk show host was a de facto candidate and his radio station was providing a corporate gift by allowing him to campaign on the air. And they’re attacking Hayworth’s 12-year record as a congressman representing the eastern suburbs of Phoenix.

In other words, McCain and Crew are scared.

“When Arizona voters are reminded of Mr. Hayworth’s long record in Washington of liberal spending and questionable ethics, he will be defeated again just as he was in 2006,” said McCain campaign spokesman Brian Rogers.

C’mon Mr. Rogers, surely you don’t really want to go there? Accuse someone of having a liberal record? Your man McCain has never met a libber he didn’t side with. That ploy is going to take a lot of spinning to make viable, and could very well blow up in your face.

Democrat Harry Mitchell defeated Hayworth four years ago, winning the GOP-dominated district amid a rough national climate for Republicans and questions about Hayworth’s dealings with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Hayworth ran a conservative campaign emphasizing his opposition to illegal immigration, but he was dogged by a reputation for being an angry and combative partisan, highlighted by an editorial in the state’s largest newspaper recommending “Mitchell over the bully.”

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