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So which is it, is he a RINO or a faithful Republican foot soldier? Legolas Send a noteboard - 27/07/2017 08:08:04 PM

If you want to claim that he talks big but his voting record doesn't show any particular independence, then that also means he can't be a RINO.


View original postYou see, he postures like he did today on the transsexual issue, but he wasn't called to actually vote on anything in connection with it. The Times loves these pompous self-aggrandizing statements of his because they point and say, "Oh, isn't he a maverick!"

I'm sure that sometimes, like any other politician, he votes in a way that doesn't seem to stroke with his prior rhetoric. And since his rhetoric tends to be more blunt and higher-profile than that of many others, it may be more noticeable when that happens. Like I said, yeah, I can see your point about the self-aggrandizing aspect and how that would be grating. It doesn't necessarily make him wrong, though, and I'm glad that there are still people around who can go against the grain like that.

And while I already said that his voting record on the whole is really still pretty conservative, it does have some actually substantial 'maverick' items in it. McCain-Feingold being probably the most obvious example, though if I recall correctly you're really not a fan of that. Another example, admittedly obscure but for some reason it really stuck with me, was the controversy back in 2006 when the Emirati state-owned company DP World took over P&O and in so doing gained ownership of a number of American port terminals. Most Democrats and Republicans in Congress teamed up against the deal and left president Bush mostly isolated with his position that to block the deal would insult the UAE and display either racism or blatant American protectionism. But McCain went out on a limb to leap to Bush' and DP World's defense. 'Bad blood' or no.

I guess maybe one of the reasons why I like McCain is that I have a pretty strong anti-bandwagon reflex myself - when I find myself in a group of people who are all strongly expressing the same view, I have a tendency of involuntarily starting to look for counter-arguments.

View original postIn reality, most of the times he's actually done something, it's been because he had some personal, petty grievance to settle. He stayed in the 2000 Presidential Race long after his chances of victory were slim to none to spite George W. Bush. Regardless of what you thought of Bush, he was clearly going to be the candidate, and continuing the race was just hurting the Party at the expense of McCain's own vanity.

I won't comment on that as I was too young at the time of the 2000 presidential race to follow it closely.
View original postThe same thing happened again when he wanted to pick Joe Lieberman as his running mate in 2008 and the Party refused (understandably so) on the grounds that Lieberman was not a Republican and had been on the 2000 Democratic ticket (again, I think there was some really bad blood between W and McCain and it was partially for that reason). When they didn't let him he picked Sarah Palin as something of a "fuck you then" pick. Again, hurting the Party to settle a petty score.

The first part, okay, I understand how that pissed a lot of people off. The second part though, that's your interpretation, and if you ask me a rather far-fetched one. What, you think he picked Palin with the purpose of losing the race? I think we can all agree that it was a terrible decision to pick her, but saying that he intentionally did it in other to hurt the party is a pretty extreme claim.
View original postI realize that you agree that he never met a war he didn't want to start, or get involved in, but it is worth mentioning that in this, too, it's more about his personal desire to settle scores than the good of the country. From Kosovo in 1999 to Syria in 2017, it's about proxy wars with Russia (or worse, not even by proxy) or China. I think he blames them rather than Vietnam for his captivity for some reason, but I can't prove that, obviously. There's no objective reason why he would hate Russia in the 1990s - no longer communist, not yet Putinist, democratic if imperfectly so - but he did hate Russia even then.

Here as well, that's your opinion and I will have to respectfully but strongly disagree. I don't say that the man is a saint, and yeah, I'm sure sometimes his positions or statements are driven in part by his ego. But I do think his foreign policy views, much as I may sometimes disagree with them, are based on his interpretation of how best to defend America's interests. For that matter, I think the same thing about various other politicians with whom I agree even less often.
View original postI realize that decorum says we shouldn't wish him ill, but I openly speculated it might be nice if he didn't survive the surgery he had before I knew about the cancer. I guess I'll just leave it at that.

Screw decorum. Being a decent human being says you shouldn't wish him to die of cancer.
View original postIt's probably the only time in my life I will be cheering for the cancer to win.

Subtle, that. Didn't notice it until replying...

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He's not a RINO. Just built his career on being independent-minded. - 26/07/2017 09:49:32 PM 475 Views
I really don't see the independence. Where is it? - 27/07/2017 01:33:27 AM 428 Views
So which is it, is he a RINO or a faithful Republican foot soldier? - 27/07/2017 08:08:04 PM 471 Views
RINOs are a pack. - 28/07/2017 12:46:44 AM 433 Views
Agreed with McCain - 27/07/2017 03:35:06 PM 436 Views
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I agree - 26/07/2017 07:59:18 PM 502 Views
Absolutely agree on all counts *NM* - 27/07/2017 06:40:03 AM 241 Views
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This is part of my point - 26/07/2017 09:47:39 PM 445 Views
The rate goes down significantly after transition. - 26/07/2017 11:24:50 PM 432 Views
Bullshit. - 27/07/2017 01:40:05 AM 547 Views
I also like that study because it uses correct terminology: transsexual, sex-reassigned. - 27/07/2017 01:42:19 AM 449 Views
Gender has had a non-grammatical meaning since the 1950s, and you know it. - 27/07/2017 03:05:09 AM 429 Views
And people misuse the subjunctive all the time. Your point? - 27/07/2017 04:57:19 AM 424 Views
Re: And people misuse the subjunctive all the time. Your point? - 27/07/2017 02:13:57 PM 437 Views
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or liposuction or laser fat removal too. *NM* - 27/07/2017 05:06:56 PM 262 Views
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which should then close the debate on the original question - 27/07/2017 05:07:34 AM 457 Views
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Reductio ad absurdum, Roland? - 28/07/2017 05:29:23 PM 420 Views
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Thanks - 29/07/2017 03:25:08 AM 388 Views
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