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.

Full Story Here:
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.

« Read the rest of this post HERE! »

GOP sweep: Big governor victories in Virginia, NJ

WASHINGTON (AP) - Independents who swept Barack Obama to a historic 2008 victory broke big for Republicans on Tuesday as the GOP wrested political control from Democrats in Virginia and New Jersey, a troubling sign for the president and his party heading into an important midterm election year.

Conservative Republican Bob McDonnell’s victory in the Virginia governor’s race over Democrat R. Creigh Deeds and moderate Republican Chris Christie’s ouster of unpopular New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine was a double-barreled triumph for a party looking to rebuild after being booted from power in national elections in 2006 and 2008.

Elsewhere on Tuesday, Maine voters rejected a state law that would allow same-sex couples to wed. If supporters had prevailed, it would have marked the first time that the electorate in any state endorsed gay marriage.

And Democrat Bill Owens captured a GOP-held vacant 23rd Congressional District seat in New York in a race that highlighted fissures in the Republican Party and illustrated hurdles the GOP could face in capitalizing on any voter discontent with Obama and Democrats next fall.

Full Story Here:
GOP sweep: Big governor victories in Virginia, NJ

I want to congratulate ALL of the Republican winners from yesterdays election. I hope ALL of you are the Conservatives we need to have in positions of power in this nation. If not, 4 years is ALL you get.

Conservatives all over America are happy about the message that this election sent. I am pretty happy too, but I am not ecstatic. There is a lot of work that still needs to be done. Yesterday was primarily a battle of 2 Governors races, and as important as it is to have Republican Governors, it’s even more important that those Governors are Conservatives that are going to take care of the people and their state and not toe some specific party line. Especially when that party line has little, if anything to do with conservatism.

In other words, NO MORE RINOs.

Folks, I don’t mean to be a killjoy here, but this battle is just beginning, and as one of my great comment makers said in the thread just below this one, he was reminded of Sir Winston Churchill’s great quote: “This is not the end, it is not the beginning of the end, but it is the end of the beginning.�?

I want to congratulate the voters of Maine for rejecting a state law that would allow same-sex couples to wed. I was NOT sure that one was going to fly given the choices of Senators that Mainers exhibit. I honestly wasn’t sure that the people of Maine had a Conservative bone among them.

As important as the Governor wins in New Jersey and Virginia were, the real battle will come when we have congressional and senatorial elections. The defeat of Doug Hoffman for the New York seat was a loss for ALL Conservatives. I hope it’s not indicative of the political climate of New York, but I’m afraid it is. Look at New York City, they re-elected Michael Bloomberg to a 3rd term as Mayor. Bloomberg is an anti-gun RINO moonbat that is as libber as it gets. I once thought it was just NYC, now I have doubts regarding conservatism in upstate New York as well.

If these victories in Virginia and New Jersey are to have ANY real meaning, the Conservative wave will have to sweep through this nation like a tsunami. We have to have true Conservatives running for office everywhere. NO MORE RINOs! We can’t accept another RINO, and if that’s all the GOP has to offer, then Conservatives have to reject that offering and reject the GOP and RNC.

« Read the rest of this post HERE! »