U.S. Senate

The AZ GOP ‘targets’ Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick with bullet hole-ridden poster

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Here we go again, Republicans “targeting” Democrats with violent imagery. First it was the halfling governor of Alaska, the Quitta from Wasilla Sarah Palin, putting crosshairs on Rep. Gabby Giffords, among others, and now it is the Arizona Republican Party putting a bullet hole in Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick’s chest. Nothing suggestive there, oh no. What could possibly go wrong?

The Arizona Republic reports, Ann Kirkpatrick’s Senate campaign decries Arizona GOP ‘Wanted’ poster:

U.S. Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick’s Senate campaign is objecting to an Arizona Republican Party “Wanted” poster that features her photo with mock bullet holes.

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(Photo: Arizona Republican Party)

Kirkpatrick’s campaign issued a statement calling it a “gross political attack” that recalls the Jan. 8, 2011, assassination attempt on then-U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., who suffered a near-fatal gunshot wound to the head in a mass shooting near Tucson.

“Arizonans have witnessed, firsthand, how inciteful rhetoric and imagery can influence acts of aggression and violence towards elected officials,” Arizona Democratic Party Chairwoman Alexis Tameron added in a written statement. “Today’s political stunt by the Arizona Republican Party illustrates not only a lack of judgment, but a complete disregard of the tragedy that traumatized so many Arizonans on January 8, 2011.”

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The ‘morally tainted’ John McCain

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Journalist Cokie Roberts didn’t mince words Tuesday in describing GOP politicians who continue supporting Donald Trump despite having serious misgivings. “They’re morally tainted” she said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe.

“I mean there’s just no question about that. You can’t say, ‘He’s a racist and what he says is textbook racism, but I support him because he’s the nominee of my party.’”

Cokie Roberts was lookin’ at you, John McCain.

E.J. Montini of The Republic writes, McCain is sticking with Trump. Period. End of story:

McCainTimeVeterans delivered petitions to John McCain’s office this week asking the senator to drop his support for Donald Trump. There were more than 100,000 signatures. They did the same thing earlier this month at his office in Washington, D.C. At that time a Muslim veteran from Arizona called McCain “courageous” and a “man of honor” and was among those who asked him to dump Trump.

It didn’t happen.

It is NOT going to happen.

At a gathering with veterans in Phoenix this week McCain again was asked to rescind his endorsement of Trump.

He refused.

He said in part, “I certainly do not want Hillary Clinton as president of the United States and four more years of a failed national security policy.”

When pressed a little more McCain said, “I have covered that issue completely and I have nothing more to say about it. I am supporting the nominee of the party and I will continue to run my own campaign. I certainly do not want Hillary Clinton as president of the United States and four more years of a failed national security policy.”

We’re done now.

The senator has made things clear.

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McCain attack ad relies on debunked conspiracy theory about ransom to Iran

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The Arizona “McMedia” continually push the myth that Senator John McCain is some kind of expert in foreign policy. One of the great wonders of our time is why the mainstream media so often takes John McCain seriously on matters of foreign policy.

mccain-boots-on-the-ground-sargentIt’s not just “liberal media” who question McCain’s knowledge and judgment. The American Conservative reported McCain’s Horrible Foreign Policy Judgment: “McCain hasn’t just been wrong about Iraq. He has been stubbornly, willfully deluded about both of the biggest foreign policy blunders of the last fifty years.”

And there is McCain’s ever-present puppet boy, Little Lindsey Graham, who simply mouths the words that his puppet master puts into his mouth. Foreign Policy concludes, Lindsey Graham: Wrong on Everything (subscription required).

With this preface, John McCain is airing a new attack ad against his Democratic opponent, Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, regarding the Iran deal negotiated last year. The ad uses the most recent right-wing talking point du jour from Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal claiming a recent payment to Iran is under the terms of the Iran deal and is “ransom.” Here is what McNasty says on his web site. New Ad: Kirkpatrick’s Dangerous Iran Policies:

The McCain campaign released a new television ad exposing Democrat Congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick’s reckless support for the Iran Nuclear Deal. The ad will begin airing today on markets statewide and on cable.

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Last week, the Wall Street Journal exposed that the Obama administration paid a cash ransom to Iran for the release of four Americans detained in Tehran on the same weekend the Iran Nuclear Deal– a deal that Democrat Congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick wholeheartedly supports — was formally implemented.

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John McCain and his penchant to ‘blame America first’

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McCain buttonLast week, a mentally unstable Tunisian man took a refrigerator truck down a beachfront street in Nice, France, killing 84 innocent people, including many children, and wounding 200 others. It was a horrific, gut-wrenching scene, though French investigators said today no links have emerged tying the killer to terrorist networks.

Cue Arizona’s angry old man, John McCain, and his penchant to “blame America first” — or more accurately for this resentful old man still bitter about losing to barack Obama in 2008,  to “blame Obama first.”

Steve Benen reports John McCain blames U.S. for international violence (again):

[A]s BuzzFeed reports, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) wants people to hold President Obama responsible for the actions of the madman [in Nice]

Arizona Sen. John McCain says President Obama “allowed” the Bastille Day attack in Nice that left at least 84 people dead to happen, blaming his policies towards ISIS for failing “America and the world.”

“As far as the tragedy in France is concerned, obviously this is an act of mayhem and despicable,” the Arizona senator told KTAR’s 92.3FM’s Bruce St. James and Pamela Hughes on Friday. “I also have to tell you — our prayers are with the families, obviously, and the French people — but I also have to tell you, that as long as we have a leadership in this country — the president of the United States — who allowed this to happen, his policies are directly responsible for ISIS and ISIS is responsible for these attacks.”

The French would tell you that you are full of it, Johnny.

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SCOTUS declines to review Connecticut assault weapons ban

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As the U.S. Senate prepares to  debate two gun regulations and two amendments today that is largely an effort to get senators on the record, Senate heads for gun control showdown likely to go nowhere, the U.S. Supreme Court this morning once again upheld an assault weapon ban, despite the fantasy that Second Amendment absolutists cling to that guns may not be regulated. Justices decline to review Connecticut’s ‘assault weapons’ ban:

The Supreme Court declined Monday to review bans on a lengthy list of firearms that Connecticut classified as “assault weapons,” the latest example of the court’s reluctance to be drawn into an emotional national debate on gun control.

The justices decided without comment not to review a lower court decision that upheld the laws; Connecticut’s was enacted shortly after a gunman used one of the military-style semiautomatic weapons on the list to kill 20 students and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown in 2012.

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Like other laws, Connecticut’s ban includes semiautomatic guns and high-capacity magazines, and covers popular weapons such as AR-­15s and AK-­47s.

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