They are the future MT @bungdan: "McCain is planning hearings with Kissinger, 91, Scowcroft, 89, and Brzezinski, 86." http://t.co/3bOtz63pvl
— Steve Saideman (@smsaideman) January 13, 2015
Sheryl Gay Stolberg, in the NYTimes:
… [S]ix years after losing the presidential election to Barack Obama, Mr. McCain finally has the only job in Washington, other than being president, that he ever wanted: chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, overseer of the American military and the nation’s defense policy. The question is whether he will use his new clout (and ability to subpoena) to make war or some accommodation with the White House.
“McCain now has the power either to destroy the president’s national security policy or shape it constructively,” said Leslie H. Gelb, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations. “This is the first step to see whether he is going to use his new power to clobber Obama as he has for the past six years, or whether he will use it to try to shape and improve Obama’s policy.”
For now, despite hints that he is trying to reinvent himself from cantankerous Obama critic to elder statesman, Mr. McCain still seems to be in clobber mode. In an early assertion of his new authority, he said on Tuesday that he would push legislation to block Mr. Obama from sending detainees at the Guantánamo Bay military prison to Yemen.
He said in an interview last Thursday that Mr. Obama’s decision not to send more American troops to Iraq to thwart the Islamic State had put America at risk. “That attack you saw in Paris? You’ll see an attack in the United States,” Mr. McCain said. He repeated his frequent assessment that the president’s foreign policy is “a disaster” and “delusional.” He said “of course” he would have made a better commander in chief….
Denis McDonough, the White House chief of staff, said the president sees Mr. McCain as possessing “a very important viewpoint to consult with,” even if Mr. Obama rejects Mr. McCain’s interventionist stance. Mr. McDonough said Mr. McCain had influenced the Obama administration’s foreign policy, although when he was asked how, he paused.
“The reason I’m pausing,” he finally said, “is I’m trying to give you a concrete example.”…
In Gulliver’s Travels, Jonathan Swift spoke of the Struldbrugs, born immortal but not ageless:
As soon as they have completed the term of eighty years, they are looked on as dead in law… After that period, they are held incapable of any employment of trust or profit; they cannot purchase lands, or take leases; neither are they allowed to be witnesses in any cause, either civil or criminal, not even for the decision of meers (metes) and bounds… Otherwise, as avarice is the necessary consequence of old age, those immortals would in time become proprietors of the whole nation, and engross the civil power, which, for want of abilities to manage, must end in the ruin of the public…
Three hundred years of improvements in medical science don’t seem to have had much effect on the “necessary consequences” of angry, self-centered old men.
Elizabelle
You know the NYTimes reporter was barely typing for laughing with McCain’s plans to hold hearings with even older elderly statesmen.
He better hold ’em quick.
Elizabelle
So weird to have seen “Breaking News” on CBS and ABC networks, re bomb plot against US Capitol arrest.
And nothing up yet on NYTimes and WaPost, at least not prominently …
Bartenders wanting to poison Boehner. ISIS (?) wanting to bomb the Capitol? Maybe we’d be safer under Democratic congressional control.
Violet
Two words: Sarah Palin. No redemption for McCain. Ever.
Citizen Scientist
I, for one, can’t wait to hear all of the new ideas that come out of these hearings.
dmsilev
Heh.
Also, “other than being president” is very much an “other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?” moment. It pleases me to know that John McCain wakes up every day to the knowledge that Barack Obama is living in the White House.
kindness
Whereas John McCain makes use of his new post as Senate Armed Services Committee Chair to yell and tell Obama to get off his lawn.
Elizabelle
@Violet:
Agreed!
OT: Tom Hanks wrote a really terrific op ed for today’s NYTimes, in praise of Obama’s free community college plan. I Owe it All to Community College.
Specifically, Chabot (Community) College in Hayward, CA.
Citizen_X
What, McCain couldn’t find some WWII veterans to hold hearings with? Impeach!
chopper
mr. last-in-his-class-at-annapolis? this is just great. this is the guy who has been on the wrong side of every foreign policy for the last 20 years. fuck us.
Ripley
So is McCain to the right or left of Nixon? So confused; help us out, Bob in Portland.
Mustang Bobby
This is his last chance to be called “young man.”
JPL
@Elizabelle: When Clinton was President he was mocked when the FBI thwarted attacks against us. Now Obama will be mocked for not preventing thought to take down the Capitol.
also I know the statement makes little sense, but the republicans will somehow use this against the President.
Gosh I wish the President would come out and make the announcement himself.
Violet
@Elizabelle: He’s only 20 years old. Have the feeling this plot wasn’t very well thought out.
JPL
This is my favorite McCain clip http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/njmn0d/word-war-ii
at 7:34 into the video you can see McCain looking for Mr. Puddles. I know you have seen it before but one can never see it enough.
Hal
I shudder to think of how many wars the US would be involved in if McCain had won.
J R in WV
@Elizabelle:
Of course, employees reporting up a chain of command to President Obama are who arrested this nutcase (no,no, not McCain, the mad bomber who wanted to blow up the US Capitol)!
But of course the RWNJs of Congress won’t acknowledge the President’s management of the Federal security agencies who have prevented any attack on America comparable to the Charlie Hebdo attacks in France.
And again, McCain wa wrong, we won’t see an attack, we will see wanna-be terrorists arrested before they can strike against us. Unlike recent Republican administrations!
Mike in NC
This sore loser will rattle his rusty saber for the next two years, and will go to his grave a bitter old man.
Elizabelle
@Violet: @J R in WV:
Thank y’all for keeping me posted. I see the WaPost put an item up at 5:18 p that I’d missed.
The guy was from Ohio? What is it with people from Ohio losing their sh*t this week? (Ducks)
Hungry Joe
“That attack you saw in Paris? You’ll see an attack in the United States.”
Right. Just like that series of 9/11-style attacks we suffered after Obama was elected. You know, because he took away our guns, enacted Sharia law, set up death panels, and put all the patriots in FEMA camps.
All of which really happened. Or will happen soon, anyway. Same thing.
Bobby Thomson
@Elizabelle: I see what you did there, even if unintentional.
Bobby Thomson
@Hungry Joe: well there was that 9/11 attack on 9/11.
beltane
Fashions come and go but Henry Kissenger will be with us forever.
SatanicPanic
@beltane: WTF? He’s STILL ALIVE?
Elizabelle
@Bobby Thomson: Oh noes! What have I done now …?
beltane
@SatanicPanic: Henry Kissenger may not be alive but he is also not dead, like a vampire he has existed for centuries.
Hungry Joe
@Bobby Thomson: After Obama was elected? I must have missed that one — I guess I got it mixed up with all the other 9/11-style attacks we’ve had since then. Let me check with Rudy “9/11” G. and get back to you. He knows all about this stuff.
Villago Delenda Est
I swear, there are three year olds protesting bed time that have more mature ways of reacting to bed time than John McCain does when it comes to that one in the White House.
divF
@Elizabelle: Re: Tom Hanks column. A great and touching piece. I’m seeing it happen for another generation with my nephew as we put him through the Peralta community colleges (the ones just north of Chabot).
dedc79
Oh no, now we’re going to have to see him on Meet the Press every Sunday.
Oh wait…
Hungry Joe
@SatanicPanic: Re Kissinger: I refer you to the Billy Joel song. Not the one about a piano player.
PsiFighter37
The answer to any question about John McCain’s judgment is this: he picked Sarah Palin to be his running mate.
Everyone can shut the fuck after that please, thank you very much.
Elizabelle
@divF: The reader comments are wonderful.
Lots of people who started at community college, loved the education they got there, went on to 4-year degrees and up. (And I think a lot of people need a few more years to buckle down to college work. It’s great to have an alternative. Wish we had a “gap” year in the US.)
A very, very few people against the idea of free community college. The usual suspects, and they must not know much about college costs today.
Mike in NC
@beltane: Kissinger, like Dick Cheney, sleeps in a coffin filled with dirt from his native country.
SatanicPanic
@Hungry Joe: I’m drawing a blank Hungry Joe… Uptown Girl?
Peale
@Hungry Joe: I agree with someone above. The fact that ISIS is even thinking about hitting us is too much to bear. Plotting crosses the line, but we will hold Obambi accountable for not preventing thinking.
Jeebus. I think henceforthwith, all attacks anywhere in the world should be signs of Obama’s failure.
Bobby Thomson
@SatanicPanic: good night Saigon?
Calouste
@SatanicPanic: Goodnight Saigon.
liberal
@Hal: not too many after he started WWIII with Russia over Georgia.
Mike G
“How the fuck do more troops in Iraq stop an attack in the US? Hell if I know, but I’ve got a boner to send troops everywhere, so shut up.”
liberal
@beltane: sadly, he has a better take on the whole Ukraine thing than a lot of liberal bloggers and comets, IIRC.
liberal
Comet ==> commenters
Villago Delenda Est
@Mike G: I think you’ve nailed it.
Sending troops directly to fight ISIL/ISIS is more likely to result in an attack on US soil. This is how asymmetrical warfare works, after all.
Bobby Thomson
@Hungry Joe: no, the one on 9/11/01.
SatanicPanic
@Calouste: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Redshift
This bit is pretty mystifying:
Destroy the president’s national security policy? How, exactly? He can be a pain in the ass, like every other Republican committee chair. He can try to force the administration’s hand through the appropriations process, which is not actually very easy. Or… What?
The Obama administration had been pretty successful at making Republicans who try to “destroy” them look like fools (assisted by the fact that they usually are folks.) What’s different here, except that the Beltway media have the bizarre idea that McCain is some kind of elder statesman?
Cervantes
@SatanicPanic:
“Honesty.”
Not to mention “Only the Good Die Young.”
But you knew that.
catclub
@Mike G: also, in 2009 we still DID have troops in Iraq, and ther was an attack at Ft Hood.
Also, no Love for Don Rumsfeld. He is 82.
Elizabelle
The Yosemite climbers succeeded their El Capitan free climb.
Elizabelle
@Redshift:
Bingo.
Redshift
@Mike G: Sending ground troops somewhere in response to terrorist attacks worked out great before! Everybody thinks so; that’s why McCain won in a landslide in 2008!
catclub
@Bobby Thomson: So they say being strong and forceful on foreign policy will prevent attacks.
But we were attacked on 9/11/2001 when George Bush was president. I guess that means he was not strong and forceful on foreign policy. I will keep that in mind. Weak GOP presidents bring on attacks.
Villago Delenda Est
@Redshift:
The Villagers have a lot of bizarre ideas, this is just one of those that stands out because it is so incredibly stupid.
Anyone who picks Sarah Palin, of all people, to be his running mate, has demonstrated that they are far, far too stupid to be allowed anywhere near the levers of power.
SatanicPanic
@Cervantes: I didn’t know he wrote those songs. I thought “only the good die young” was Bob Seger or something- I don’t know classic rock all that well. HJ must have been talking about that one.
Villago Delenda Est
@SatanicPanic:
clutches chest; keels over
JPL
@Elizabelle: NBC was streaming the last several hours. Staring at granite for hours, was quite exciting. NYTimes has an interactive with Dawn Wall which shows just how amazing the climb was. NBC is covering it now on network news.
raven
@Hungry Joe: We were soul mates, in an asylum.
Villago Delenda Est
What? Can’t get any of the old China hands to rise from their graves to chime in on this?
Cervantes
@SatanicPanic:
I’m sure there are hundreds of songs you know (if not more) that I’ve never heard of.
What would you sing for Kissinger?
raven
@Cervantes: Seeger, Leanin on my Dream
raven
@Cervantes: Sky Pilot
Mike E
@Cervantes:
Henry Kissinger
How I’m missing yer
You’re the Doctor of my dreams
With your crinkly hair and your glassy stare
And your machiavellian schemes
I know they say that you are very vain
And short and fat and pushy but at least you’re not insane
Henry Kissinger
How I’m missing yer
And wishing you were here
Henry Kissinger
How I’m missing yer
You’re so chubby and so neat
With your funny clothes and your squishy nose
You’re like a German parakeet
All right so people say that you don’t care
But you’ve got nicer legs than Hitler
And bigger tits than Cher
Henry Kissinger
How I’m missing yer
And wishing you were here
raven
@Cervantes: Or Killing Floor
Nice intro my my pal, LBJ!
raven
This nice song with and intro from LBJ!
SatanicPanic
@Cervantes: I don’t know, maybe Holiday in Cambodia
raven
Lyndon Baines Johnson intro for Henry.
raven
what the fuck
jl
@Peale:
” I think henceforthwith, all
attacksany thing whatever anywhere in the world should be signs of Obama’s failure. “raven
Moderation for mentioning the Electric Flag???
El Cruzado
@Bobby Thomson: Yup, back when Clinton was president.
jl
Let McCain have his hearings. I will worry when he starts calling people like Bolton. The younger RWNJs are the dangerous ones.
Personally, I hope McCain decides to follow Mitt and run for president. Then the GOP primaries could a kind of reunion Olden GOP Goldies tour. Could have advertisements on late night TV selling CD ROMs by mail. It would be cool, and might draw in younger demo.
Would be nice to have Bobdole too, but I think he is just a little too old, and even at his age, his wisecracks would go over the heads of the GOP primary voters and the media hacks. So, hate to say it, but Bobdole probably shouldn’t join in. And he’d be way too liberal.
Villago Delenda Est
@raven: Who knows what FYWP finds objectionable? I think a mention of Dead or Alive would probably qualify.
Or not…
Villago Delenda Est
@jl:
Well, he agreed to be that fucking commie Ford’s running mate, so yeah, way too liberal.
Elizabelle
@Mike E: Monty Python, eh? Never heard this. Funny, though. German parakeet.
Howard Beale IV
I would wish that McCain would vapor lock soon.
jl
@Hungry Joe:
“That attack you saw in Paris? You’ll see an attack in the United States.”
“That attack you saw in Oklahoma City? You’ll see an attack in the United States.”
Horrible to say it, but the US would be lucky to only have attacks as bad as the recent one in Paris. Deranged nutjubs, usually white, usually kill and maim more in their nutjob mass shootings. But, those are just the price of (gun nut) freedom, right? Right.
Elizabelle
Andy Borowitz:
jl
@Villago Delenda Est: I saw the typos in time. Whew… that was close. Thanks.
Hungry Joe
@raven: Ah, the asylum. I remember you well. Good times.
And yeah, I was thinking of “Only the Good Die Young.”
Mike E
@Elizabelle: It’s from their Contractual Obligation album. We A/V nerds at my high school got a few of the tracks broadcast during morning announcements over the classroom intercoms, virtually without notice. Booyah!
pluege
Ha! mccinsane hasn’t the personality or character to pull that off…or even want to.
Villago Delenda Est
@jl: As they say, this is a full service family oriented blog.
Elizabelle
@Mike E: Go geeks!
NBC has a late afternoon pic of Yosemite, with the shadows lengthening. Beautiful. Love Yosemite.
Wonder how long until the film about the free climbers will hit theatres? Did not realize they’d been planning and preparing for 7 years.
raven
@Hungry Joe: Ft Campbell wasn’t PI but it was “rigorous”.
JPL
@Elizabelle: Spiderman IV
srv
Talk about old men:
NotMax
“The chair welcomes you and we are ready to hear your opening statement.”
“What?”
“The committee awaits your opening statement.”
“What?”
“THE COMMITTEE HAS BEEN BROUGHT TO ORDER AND -.”
“Thank you for asking. I’ll have tuna on whole wheat, hold the mayo.”
raven
Killing Floor
eta Must have been the youtube link to the Electric Flag song.
Bobby Thomson
@Villago Delenda Est: Actually, I’d be kind of interested in what a Bob Seger cover would sound like.
Bobby Thomson
@Mike E:
Nah. Tom Baker ftw.
Bobby Thomson
@El Cruzado: Heh.
Splitting Image
@Cervantes:
Elvis Costello, “Tramp the Dirt Down“.
Elizabelle
@Splitting Image: Ah yes. That was aimed at Margaret Thatcher.
Beautiful tune and vicious words (deserved, deserved).
Cacti
@jl:
I mean, it’s not like we have mentally unstable citizens with access to private arsenals, who might go and let’s say, shoot up a movie theatre or a class full of kindergartners.
Tommy
@Violet:
Amen to that. But his pick of Palin did do one “good” thing. As I’ve said a number of times my mother was in her late 60s. Life long Republican. Never voted for a Democrat in a Presidental election, and she voted in everyone. She is a pretty informed voter. Watches CNN daily (couldn’t pay her to watch Fox Noise). Reads the local paper daily as well. Gets Time and Newsweek (when it was still published — is there even a print edition these days?).
Mom is a smart lady. Maybe the smartest person in my entire family of men. Once she was introduced to Palin she said to me, “Tommy that women is shit all stupid. She is an affront to smart women the worldwide.” I should note my mom cusses like once a decade so she was really mad about the whole things that Palin was remotely qualified to be VP, much less POTUS.
She voted for Obama and hasn’t looked back on her party, at least in national elections. Voted for Obama last elelction as well.
So McCain did do that “good” thing:)!
fuckwit
@jl: Not only would Bobdole be too liberal, so would Nixon, and so would (as Obama continually and gleefully loves to remind people) Reagan. And Bobdole knows this, and has said it, out loud, on national TV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUfvOSmLwZ8 (and I do believe Cole FP’ed that clip back when it came out)
jayboat
@Hungry Joe:
My first thought was We Didn’t Start The Fire .
Fuck that old bag of shit with a rusty spike.
JPL
Am I the only one that thought besides water at the hearing, they’d have depends?
Mike in NC
Caught an ad tonight about the latest attempt to make Palin a reality TV star. She gets a bow hunting lesson from Ted Nugent in the first episode.
Picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue…
Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)
@jl:
IIRC, the Navy yard shooting last (?) year had 12 victims. But Islamist terrorists are scarier than disgruntled employees.
Sherparick
@SatanicPanic: Satan can never die. He is immortal, although some day he will take on another form. As for ‘terrorist” events, McCain is confusing “correlation” with “causation.” ISIS is mostly focused on fighting Shia Muslims (or Shia splinter sects like the Alawites and Druze) and Kurds in Syria and Iraq. As for terrorist events, we have plenty of non-Muslim, white Christians who perpetrate them here like the Aurora shooting in 2012 that killed 12 and wounded 46 others (something that puts Paris to shame) or Sandy Hook (28 killed, one wounded). http://shootingtracker.com/wiki/Mass_Shootings_in_2014#cite_note-439
By the way, someone should ask McCain how many American casualties would result from an Iraqi War III? McCain has indicated that he would have occupied Iraq for 100 years if he could.