“... it’s always the wacko
birds on right and left that
get the media megaphone.”
AGING
BULL
TAKING ON ‘THE WACKO BIRDS’
While McCain has been a fierce
critic of the Obama administration, he has also tangled with
members of his own party, particularly the new crop of lawmakers
including Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.),
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and Rep.
Justin Amash (R-Mich.), darlings
of the conservative grassroots.
When I asked him if “these
guys” — having just mentioned
Amash, Cruz and Paul by name
— are a “positive force” in the
GOP, McCain paused for a full
six seconds.
“They were elected, nobody
believes that there was a corrupt
election, anything else,” McCain
said. “But I also think that when,
you know, it’s always the wacko
birds on right and left that get the
media megaphone.”
“I think it can be harmful if
there is a belief among the American people that those people are
reflective of the views of the majority of Republicans. They’re
not,” he continued.
I asked McCain to clarify who,
specifically, he was talking about.
“Rand Paul, Cruz, Amash, whoever,” McCain said.
When asked about Amash’s
recent accusation that a joke McCain made on Twitter about Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was “racist,” McCain had
a long belly laugh.
“Yeah he defended, he defended Ahmadinejad,” McCain said,
barely getting his words out. “I
thought, ‘Wow, wow! That’s interesting.’ I thought it was a pretty
funny line, and all of a sudden
this Amash, or whatever his name
is, is defending me making a joke
about Ahmadinejad.”
McCain also criticized Cruz
over his suggestion during Hagel’s confirmation hearing that
Hagel had accepted money from
terrorist groups. “He was making a presentation that said that
Chuck Hagel might have taken
money from Palestinian organizations, people connected with
all that,” McCain said. “Look,
you can’t, without any basis in
fact — you just don’t go around
saying that kind of stuff.”
A Cruz spokeswoman said in
an e-mail that the Texas senator
“has great respect for Sen. McCain and is honored to work with
HUFFINGTON
03.31.13