"John McCain goes to bat for Hillary"

[Clio the Leo]

(yall starting to get why this whole olive branch extention actually HELPS us yet? )

John McCain goes to bat for Hillary

John McCain dug deep and found his clichéd maverick side on the Senate floor today, taking the microphone (so to speak) to call for Hillary Clinton to be confirmed this afternoon by unanimous consent rather than by a time-consuming roll call vote. He had, reportedly, spoken to Texas Sen. John Cornyn (the architect of today's vote, which is designed to embarrass Hillary -- and, by extension -- Bill Clinton).

This isn't the first time that John McCain has praised Hillary. During the primaries last year, they were rarely seen trading barbs, and he famously said of her:

Sen. Clinton has earned great respect for her tenacity and courage. The media often overlooked how compassionately she spoke to the concerns and dreams of millions of Americans, and she deserves a lot more appreciation than she sometimes received. "As the father of three daughters, I owe her a debt for inspiring millions of women to believe there is no opportunity in this great country beyond their reach. I am proud to call her my friend."
When she conceded the primary to Obama, McCain's top blogger wrote a paean to her and, after Sarah Palin joined the ticket, there were many, many references to Hillary (and her greatness) from the Republican side of the race. So, maybe it's not that maverick-y after all... but what about McCain ever really was?

http://hillary.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/01/21/john_...

[BeyondGeography]

1. Good that Barack has been reaching out

[Lucky 13]

3. Exactly. Like it or not, we will need at least 1-2 reasonable Rethugs to work with us.

Otherwise complete gridlock is almost inevitable.

[Chulanowa]

2. I'll say it again...

As far as Republicans go, I rather like McCain. I think he's a decent guy at heart, with his head in the right place (As far as Republicans go, anyway). The Primary brings out the shitty side of everyone... But I also think picking Palin was a calculated failure move on his part - I got the definite impression that he did not want to be president, and so picked the worst possible running mate and spent the entire runup to the election acting like a douche just for the fun of seeing how far the media would be willing to cover for him.

[Dulcinea]

22. Agreed.

I also like McCain as far as Repubs go, and I wholeheartedly agree w/ his statement about Hillary inspiring girls & women:

I owe her a debt for inspiring millions of women to believe there is no opportunity in this great country beyond their reach.

Thanks to her presidential run, my daughters now believe they can be president one day!

[nc4bo]

4. I just heard him on MSNBC. He's still whistliing.

He also sounded a bit uncomfortable to my untrained ear.

Hmmmmmmmm.....

[Patsy Stone]

5. The confirmation discussion/vote is on C-SPAN 2 right now. nt

[Cha]

13. It's on my local New York News

channel, too

[footinmouth]

6. Senator Spector was also very kind

He just finished giving her a glowing endorsement for the position and criticized the outgoing administration for their lack of diplomacy. Senators Snowe & Collins both gave her a big thumbs up earlier today. I think you will find plenty of Republicans in her corner. She deserves it.

[Flying Dream Blues]

7. He and the Big Dawg were talking animatedly yesterday right before the

luncheon...maybe about this? Anyway, good that he's taking this stand against this partisan crap early, and I think even sincerely.

[Phx_Dem]

8. Obama's smoozing paid off. Thanks John McCain.

[Beacool]

20. Not really, Hillary and McCain have been friends for years.

Ditto Bill.

[alwysdrunk]

9. I expect more of this from McCain over the next 4 years

Disagree with him or not, McCain has way more class and sense than he showed in his campaign. I think he will endeavor to shape his legacy as a anti-dirty politics politician by calling out his own party on tactical bullshit.

[rufus dog]

19. I think McCain puts Country in front of Party

The same can't be said of too many other Republicans. He will be a thorn in the side to both parties for the next four years partially due to the fact that the Democrats know that he is one that can be persuaded. Sometimes he will piss us off, sometimes he will be a great help.

[Cha]

10. I got it before but good to

see some returns. It only makes logic sense anyway when you think about life.

[jberryhill]

11. Apparently some R's want their "I voted against Hillary" street cred /nt

[ErinBerin84]

12. good

McCain needs to redeem himself after that joke of a campaign.

[CTyankee]

16. He's seen the light, I think. After losing all those formerly R states in the election

he waw the Repubs era fading away. The man is old and wants to redeem his legacy. He sees that what Cornyn is doing is spiteful and destructive to the country. I don't think he gives a shit what Cornyn thinks of him. He just wants this crap to STOP.

[ErinBerin84]

17. as the poster said below

McCain and Hillary are friends, so this doesn't exactly surprise me. He voted against releasing the rest of the TARP money to Obama the other day, I'll be interested to see what else he will help Obama on...I love that Rahm sat next to cindy McCain yesterday at the lunch, heh.

[Ino]

14. McCain & Hillary are long-time buddies.

She went to bat for him during the primaries ("John McCain has a lifetime of experience to be commander in chief") and he's returning the favor. It has little to do with Obama or his olive branches IMO.

[LostinVA]

15. Hillary and McCain have been friendly opposition for years

By all accounts, they both respect and like each other.

[Okie4Obama]

18. Cornyn is proving to be a bigger ass than my own senator, Dr. Coburn.

...and that's hard to do. First Secretary of State Clinton, now he's trying to hold up future AG Holder.

[Beacool]

21. I heard him and he was quite passionate about it.

Nice speeches also from Sens. Graham, Kerry, Snow and a particularly warm speech from Sen. Collins who traveled with Hillary to the Middle East. It was a bipartisan defense of Hillary. She's well liked and respected in the senate and has worked well with her colleagues from both sides of the aisle. In some respects I hate seeing her leave the senate.

[dcindian]

23. So now you are going to prove torture McCain did this because of Warren?

Didn't think so.

[bunnies]

24. "Friend goes to bat for friend"

Duh.

[karynnj]

25. Reading many of the comments - I think that FAR too much credit is given here to McCain

The fact is that HRC is likely as acceptable a SOS nominee as Obama could name for McCain. On foreign policy, she is one of these most conservative Democrats - http://blog.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2007/03/mirror_mi... In addition, his own standing is enhanced by being a moderate and working with Obama. It is things like this and the media that have already gone a huge way to repairing his reputation after his awful campaign. In addition, HRC is a Senator and it is very rare for the Senate not to confirm one of their own. Throw in that HRC and McCain have been on committees - and even Armed Services trips together - and are really friends - this is a no brainer. (Also remember that HRC spent weeks saying "McCain was qualified to be CIC on the first day" - a nice present from the opposite party.)

Once Cornyn set out to have a roll call vote - it created time to speak on this. What I wonder is whether it was Kerry, who as chair of SFRC managed the time on the "AYE" side, who reached out to McCain, Specter and Cochran (!!) to get them to speak - or whether they independently came to him. (My guess is that given that there were at least those 3 Republicans - speaking on our time - that it was likely the chair that sought out Republicans to turn Cornyn's action into an opportunity to get a very nice show of bipartisan - from Republicans who liked HRC.)

Back to McCain. Before Bush, he did very often work with Democrats. What I hope this is a signal for is that he will vote more as he did in the 1990s than the 2000s. This will still make him a conservative on many issues - but it won't be the lockstep voting of the last 8 years - when he most assuredly did NOT put country over party. A bigger signal than these speeches - for a nomination which really had NO chance of failing, was the 72 and 74 votes last week.

[ErinBerin84]

26. yep

Call me when a McCain vote actually comes in handy.

[Jennicut]

27. Finally Mac is back to being himself. Please try not to sell out your soul again John.

It was rather disturbing last time. He is a schmuck but at least he is one we can work with.