McCain Doesn't Vote on Immigration Bill to Start Debate When He is a Co-Sponsor

Sometimes 2+2 don't add up to 4 which describes John McCain today.  

This is the information on the vote that took place today in the Senate to proceed to debate on the Senate Immigration bill which passed handly with 82 yes votes when only 60 were needed.  Still have a hard time with the new way of fiibuster because it wastes so much time and money.  Taking a vote to proceed to debate is ludicrous.  Majority Leader Reid should NEVER have agreed with McConnell whose word is worth zero, zip, nada as Reid found out shortly after the agreement. McConnell has been thumbing his nose at Reid ever since.  

Must be an election year as McConnell voted to proceed on this Immigration Bill.  Would bet he is planning on it being killed in the House where all good bills go to die with the Republicans in charge of the House.  The vast majority of Republicans only know one thing -- vote against anything Obama is for which is petty and mean spirited.  It also gives us a look into why the GOP is incapable of being in charge of the House with the hard right calling the shots.

When I looked at one of the three who didn't vote/abstained, one name jumped out at me - John McCain is a co-sponsor of this legislation who didn't vote to begin debate.  What am I missing?  How can you co-sponsor a bill and not vote for that bill?  McCain is all over the place.  Used to him being a maverick but this goes well past that into never, never land and have to wonder about McCain.  Having your picture taken in Syria with kidnappers is not something most Senators would have done.  Think McCain and Inhofe should have both retired in the last election as a lot of what they do and say makes no sense.  So should have Reagan in 1984 instead of running for a second term.  Sometimes ages catches up with some people more rapidly then others.  

Also noted today that Ted Cruz (R-TX), most hated man in Senate who wants to run for President believes this bill will pass but be killed in the House.  Can only imagine what off the wall things he will have to say about this bill in the debate.  Pants on Fire, Fact Checkers better get some good sleep tonight as they are going to need it with Inhofe and Cruz debating for the anti-everything group of Senators.

S.744 Latest Title: Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act
Sponsor: Sen Schumer, Charles E. [NY] (introduced 4/16/2013)      Cosponsors (7)
Related Bills: H.R.490, S.223, S.616 Latest Major Action: 6/10/2013 Motion to proceed to measure considered in Senate.
Senate Reports: 113-40

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COSPONSORS(7), ALPHABETICAL [followed by Cosponsors withdrawn]:     (Sort: by date)Sen Bennet, Michael F. [CO] - 4/17/2013
Sen Durbin, Richard [IL] - 4/17/2013
Sen Flake, Jeff [AZ] - 4/17/2013
Sen Graham, Lindsey [SC] - 4/17/2013
Sen McCain, John [AZ] - 4/17/2013
Sen Menendez, Robert [NJ] - 4/17/2013
Sen Rubio, Marco [FL] - 4/17/2013

Grouped By Vote Position

YEAs ---82
Alexander (R-TN) Ayotte (R-NH) Baldwin (D-WI) Baucus (D-MT) Begich (D-AK) Bennet (D-CO) Blumenthal (D-CT) Blunt (R-MO) Boxer (D-CA) Brown (D-OH) Burr (R-NC) Cantwell (D-WA) Cardin (D-MD) Carper (D-DE) Casey (D-PA) Chambliss (R-GA) Chiesa (R-NJ) Coats (R-IN) Cochran (R-MS) Collins (R-ME) Coons (D-DE) Corker (R-TN) Cornyn (R-TX) Cowan (D-MA) Donnelly (D-IN) Durbin (D-IL) Feinstein (D-CA) Fischer (R-NE)	Flake (R-AZ) Franken (D-MN) Gillibrand (D-NY) Graham (R-SC) Hagan (D-NC) Harkin (D-IA) Hatch (R-UT) Heinrich (D-NM) Heitkamp (D-ND) Heller (R-NV) Hirono (D-HI) Hoeven (R-ND) Isakson (R-GA) Johanns (R-NE) Johnson (D-SD) Johnson (R-WI) Kaine (D-VA) King (I-ME) Klobuchar (D-MN) Landrieu (D-LA) Leahy (D-VT) Levin (D-MI) Manchin (D-WV) McCaskill (D-MO) McConnell (R-KY) Menendez (D-NJ) Merkley (D-OR) Mikulski (D-MD)	Moran (R-KS) Murphy (D-CT) Murray (D-WA) Nelson (D-FL) Paul (R-KY) Portman (R-OH) Pryor (D-AR) Reed (D-RI) Reid (D-NV) Rockefeller (D-WV) Rubio (R-FL) Sanders (I-VT) Schatz (D-HI) Schumer (D-NY) Shaheen (D-NH) Stabenow (D-MI) Tester (D-MT) Thune (R-SD) Toomey (R-PA) Udall (D-CO) Udall (D-NM) Warner (D-VA) Warren (D-MA) Whitehouse (D-RI) Wicker (R-MS) Wyden (D-OR)

NAYs ---15
Barrasso (R-WY) Boozman (R-AR) Crapo (R-ID) Cruz (R-TX) Enzi (R-WY)	Grassley (R-IA) Inhofe (R-OK) Kirk (R-IL) Lee (R-UT) Risch (R-ID)	Roberts (R-KS) Scott (R-SC) Sessions (R-AL) Shelby (R-AL) Vitter (R-LA)

Not Voting - 3
Coburn (R-OK)	McCain (R-AZ)	Murkowski (R-AK)

Senator Rubio Splits with Best Friend Former Senator DeMint on Immigration

Heritage study ignores immigrants’ gains in wages and education after legalization, preferring to categorize all immigrants as “takers” who will be permanently dependent on the government. (Rubio)

Is Marco Rubio discovering that former Senator Jim DeMint is a little too far hard right for him?  That should have been obvious at the beginning before Rubio morphed into the hard right and alienated a whole group of people who had previously supported him.  Not sure he will be trusted again, but excuse me if I laugh at this report.

Now I wish I had bet that it wouldn't take DeMint a year at the Heritage Foundation before he turned out a report that would be denounced for lacking facts.  DeMint has been about speaking out with no facts to back up his side for years.  He is kind of like Ted Cruz but probably not as bad.  Cruz is a solo loose canon while DeMint was more along the lines of lining up others to support his views.  Then he would hold a press conference with those behind him that were supporting what he was doing.  Cruz goes all in with his lies all by himself.

Did Romney get the 'takers' comments from DeMint or was it vice versa?  Republicans pounced on 'takers' and are still using it today it seems with the Heritage Report from DeMint.  Everything about DeMint screams untrustworthy, spin not facts, and lack of ethics in the Senate which shocked a lot of us that Rubio went into his camp.  Made no sense except if he (Rubio) was pandering to the hard right in a run-up to running for President in 2016.

Rubio's started lose the facade he had built over the years when he had to redo his website because his story of his family coming to America on his website turned out not to be true.  He said his parents "came to America following Fidel Castro's takeover" of Cuba except his parents came to the United States in 1956 and Castro took over power in 1959.  That meant his parents were not only not exiles which he touted heavily in his 2010 Senate campaign, but the 'exile parents' made trips back to Cuba after Castro was in power.  OOPS!

Now DeMint has gone too far even for Rubio which cracks me up - didn't see that one coming:

Marco Rubio Denounces Heritage Immigration Study: ‘The Folks Described In That Report Are My Family’  

By Aviva Shen on May 7, 2013 at 2:14 pm

Senators Rubio and DeMint (Credit CNN)

On Tuesday, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) joined the growing chorus of conservative criticism of the Heritage Foundation’s new anti-immigrant report, which claims the Senate’s immigration bill would cost the economy $6.3 trillion. Rubio denounced the report’s assumption that all immigrants will forever be poor and uneducated, pointing to how his own family flourished after entering the U.S.: 

“Their argument is based on a single premise, which I think is flawed,” Rubio told reporters. 

“That is these people are disproportionately poor because they have no education and they will be poor for the rest of their lives in the U.S. Quite frankly that’s not the immigration experience in the U.S. That’s certainly not my family’s experience in the U.S. The folks described in that report are my family. My mother and dad didn’t graduate high school and I would not say they were a burden on the United States…My parents were a lot better off 25 years after they emigrated here than they were when they first got here. And their children certainly have been. I still think we’re that country. And I still think we can be that country and even more in the future, so I guess I just have a lot more belief in the future of the country than some of the folks that helped prepare [the report].”

Indeed, the Heritage study ignores immigrants’ gains in wages and education after legalization, preferring to categorize all immigrants as “takers” who will be permanently dependent on the government. 

Rubio’s heated critique of the Heritage study highlights widening divides in the GOP over immigration. In the past, Rubio has called Heritage president and former Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) his best friend, according to the New York Times. But now, DeMint has vowed to work against Rubio’s pet cause. Rubio has stated before that their disagreement over immigration “is never going to change how I feel about Jim DeMint, and hopefully doesn’t change how he feels about me.” Today, he pointedly added, “Anyone who opposes this bill but fails to offer a real and specific alternative is in favor of the status quo.”

Think Progress nailed the story on Rubio/DeMint on Immigration.  I almost fell off my chair laughing when Rubio stated that his disagreement with DeMint over immigration:

 “is never going to change how I feel about Jim DeMint, and hopefully doesn’t change how he feels about me.” (Rubio)

Does that mean Rubio is in lockstep with the hard right DeMint on everything but immigration?  Sounds like it to me.  This could be the hard right Presidential primary with Rubio, Rand Paul, and Ted Cruz all trying to gain support of the hard right.  IMHO, you also cannot count out Rick Santorum and even Mitt Romney who is going farther to the right every day.

Must admit I was wrong -- thought Romney was pandering to the hard right and was actually that moderate he was as Governor of MA.  After his commencement address, you can put him in the hard right category because no moderate would ever give an address like his.  Massachusetts got scammed by Romney pretending to be a moderate IMHO.  Washington Post blog had me chuckling that Romney could be so far out of touch with young people:

People who wait until their 30s — or, gasp — their 40s to get hitched? They’re doing it wrong, the failed GOP presidential candidate said during a commencement speech Saturday at Southern Virginia University, where most of the student body is, like Romney, Mormon. 

His address has somehow managed to fly relatively under the radar, which surprises us, since these are words of wisdom not to be missed. 

“They’re going to miss so much of living, I’m afraid,” Romney said of the sad, single losers who opt to spend their 20s without a ring (he says, unsurprisingly, nothing of those who might want to get hitched but can’t.). 

Of the Bible, he tells the young folks: “When it says ‘marry,’ listen!” 

He then devoted much of his talk to the graduating class talking up the benefits of having kids (and scoffing at people who’d rather pass on the life-enriching experience of raising them).
He concludes with a bit of Biblically inspired advice. “Have a quiver full of kids if you can.” 

Is that like a binder full of women? We can’t imagine why this guy had trouble connecting with the youth vote.

What I take from Romney's speech is that women are supposed to be barefoot and pregnant while the husband brings home the paycheck.  He really is not facing reality of today.  I think it is great when a Mom can stay home but in most instances it is not practical as it takes two incomes for families.  To give this commencement speech in 2013 is simply amazing out of any politician.  I keep thinking the GOP is going back in time not forward.  Started using the word Neanderthal some time ago to describe some GOP of today.  I was joking but maybe it is not a joke with comments like Romney and others from hard right.

Pass the popcorn and sit back to watch the Republican Party fireworks as we get closer to 2014 and then 2016.  All you can do with these hard right candidates is shake your head and laugh at some of the most ridiculous statements you have ever heard.  After you quit laughing, get to work to get out to vote to send the hard right GOP packing up their offices and to the unemployment line.