Something to keep an eye on...

@senjohnmccain again feels compelled to remind Sun Lakes crowd "we can't send them all back." #immigration
— BrahmResnik (@brahmresnik) February 19, 2013

TPM has more on the story, but if you're a Republican, you are sweating bullets right now.

Think about it.  If you are a GOP Pol, you know your future, in fact the entire future of the party comes down to how well you behave on Immigration reform.  With more and more Latinos coming of age, and more and more of your own base dying off, the trend appears that starting with the 2016 Presidential Election, the old Republican Party will not see power for a generation.

Yeah, that bad.

The solution is simple, come up with a massive Immigration Reform plan.  Behave well.  Show the Latino/Hispanic population of this country that you don't hate them.  And for a majority of the GOP Caucus in the House and Senate, that's absolutely true.  They don't hate Latinos/Hispanics.

Problem is, the base of the Party does.  They genuinely hate Latinos and Hispanics, and want to see the lot of them,  legal or no, bounced from the country.  Heck, they probably want to see speaking Spanish turned into some kind of felony.

This Town Hall was on a border state, which has been reliably Republican.  It has a massively unpopular (and massively unconstitutional) Immigration Bill that's unpopular everywhere...except among the people of that Town Hall.

The people of Arizona, moreso the Republicans of Arizona know that they're staring into the eyes of death (of their party).  They know that young Latinos will not rest until the white, racist, anti-Immigrant GOP is burned to the ground, and yet this is how they react??

I want to see how McCain reacts when he gets back to town, but in my mind, knowing how ultimately spineless McCain is, the odds of us getting comprehensive Immigration reform this year or any time before 2014 just took a hit.

Bad news for our friends and neighbors, but very good news if you're a Democrat.  The Republicans are going to destroy themselves and hand you power as they do it.

TPM: Remembering McCain and Clinton, slamming then Senator Obama over trying to kill OBL... (VIDEO)

Hell, somebody got it right. Any guesses as to who?



I guess he meant what he said.

Then again, one of the people that should be labeled as "wrong" in this video is, errr...ummm...the current Secretary of State. She'd be the one gasping in that famous photo.

Juan Cole explains how things are going better than you think in Libya...

..and that a political solution may be coming...from inside Libya:

...the significance of [Libyan Foreign Minister] Kussa’s defection lies in its being a sign of the winds shifting against Qaddafi with his inner circle, which will affect the loyalty of his outer circle of tribal leaders. Many key members of the powerful Warfalla and Megarha tribes have already declared against Qaddafi, and Firjan and others are wavering. Tribes as loose systems of kinship politics, are volatile and fluid, and their allegiances can change rapidly. (Americans might remember that many members of the Dulaim tribe in Iraq fought tooth and nail against US troops in 2004-2005 but by 2006-2007 many were joining pro-American militias, the ‘Sons of Iraq.’) The tribes could turn on Qaddafi in a second, aside from his own and a few loyalists.

In announcing the end of US bombing raids in Libya, Gates “noted that the air attacks are a central feature of the overall military strategy; over time they could degrade Gadhafi’s firepower to a point that he would be unable to put down a renewed uprising by opposition forces…”

That is, Gates hopes that over time, Col. Muammar Qaddafi will simply have fewer and fewer tanks, artillery pieces, and armored vehicles. He has already lost the ability to bomb Benghazi and other cities from the air.

Gates’s premise seems to be that most Libyans don’t want to be under Qaddafi’s rule, and that the only way he subdued Zuara, Zawiya, Tajoura, Ra’s Lanuf, and other cities that had thrown him off was by main force. When his main force is subjected to sufficient attrition, his advantage will suddenly disappear and the opposition to him of the liberation movement will suddenly cascade. I don’t personally think that this cascade requires military means. It happened once largely peacefully, as in Egypt in Tunisia, and can happen again if Qaddafi’s heavy weapons can be neutralized.

People who want the attrition of Qaddafi’s forces to be visited in only a week or two are just being unrealistic. It would happen over weeks and maybe months.

In the meantime, the UN allies (NATO and the Arab League) have as their most urgent mission the protection of Benghazi from any major attack, which can be done aerially.

What bad thing would happen if NATO and the Arab League just proceed deliberately and with patience?

Impatience makes for bad policy. Those who urge Western military troops the ground are making a huge error– that development would never be acceptable to most of the Libyan people nor to the Arab League, nor to the majority on the UN Security Council.

Others of the tribe of the impatient want to put sophisticated weapons in rebel hands. Those who think the US or NATO should arm the rebels, however, are simply paving the way for a civil war and for a long-term cycle of violence. Having a rebel army conquer reluctant cities like Sirt, which still support Qaddafi in the main, is undesirable. Let pro-Qaddafi cities alone. The main task should be to protect the anti-Qaddafi populace from his attacks.

NATO agrees. NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Thursday that his organization differs with those who have suggested that UNSC Resolution 1973 allows the arming of the rebels.

Like with Tunisia, Egypt and Iran (eventually), the lack of hands-on American involvement is actually a good thing. Give the Rebels a fighting chance to do it themselves. Don't arm the rebels...why? Because once you hand one of your allies a gun, that gun don't magically disappear when the mission is over. Guns don't melt into the sand by force of will. Guns, history has shown, tend to stick around. Anyone can pick up that thing, and possibly use it against you (see: Bin-Laden, Usama).

Keep Qaddafi weak. Give the Rebels their chance. Let the tribes finish him off. It won't happen overnight oh ye of convenient short-term memory loss, but it will happen.

UPDATE: 11:10am Pacific: Thomas Ricks has a quick column on why the U.S. arming the rebels is a bad idea, and I'd like to post a reminder that the Administration hasn't made up its mind yet, and it's pretty unlikely to do so as of this morning.

Tax Cuts Extended. START approved...and we have to depend on John McCain to do it?!?!?

Yeah, because he's trustworthy!

Democrats also are under pressure from Republicans to agree to a long-term resolution to continue funding the federal government into next year. Richard J. Durbin (Ill.), the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, who attended the meeting, said of the tax-cut issue: "We've got a path forward." And he said of the treaty: "We have not ruled it out. We're trying to figure out how to work it into the schedule, after we deal with taxes and spending."

One key player in the treaty negotiations is Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who has been the target of heavy White House lobbying in recent days, including from Vice President Biden, sources close to the discussions said. McCain didn't attend the White House meeting but told "Good Morning America" on Tuesday: "What I hope that we could do is agree to the extensions of tax cuts at all levels and also reach some agreement on moving forward with the START treaty as well. I think that is a serious result that could ensue from the meeting today."

Jon Stewart and Rachel Maddow are telling you the same thing America, John McCain is a flake! (VIDEO)

Of course, both of these clips of video got a fair amount of airplay in the Blogosphere. I just thought it'd be useful to have them in the same place for once.

For the record, Jon's funnier.

Then again, he's not trying to be news.



And finally, the Daily Show (which I saw first):

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
It Gets Worse PSA
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Rally to Restore Sanity

I don't want to forget this special moment of Daily Show goodness, discussion the static nature of our contemporary political discourse...

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Republicans Miss Bill Clinton
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Rally to Restore Sanity

And, your moment of Zen...

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Moment of Zen - John McCain Questions Homosexual Conduct
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Rally to Restore Sanity

The Daily Show on my hometown of Washington, D.C. (VIDEO)

For the record, the in-jokes about my Hometown (especially K Street S.E.) are 100% funny and unfortunately 100% accurate.

Except for the Metro. I'm sorry, that's excellent. Suck on it, New York City!

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Indecision 2010 - Extreme Makeover DC Edition
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Rally to Restore Sanity

Did John McCain just violate McCain Feingold??

A new post from the Daily Kos makes a pretty convincing case that Senator John McCain (R-AZ), he of the 2008 Presidential Campaign and co-author of the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Law, may have just broken...you guessed it...the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Law.

You think he'd know a little something about how the law works.

No joke.  The DCCC has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission.

Hypocrisy? Priceless.

Senator John McCain (R-AZ), you know, the guy who thought withdrawing from Iraq was a mistake, thinks that George Bush hasn't been getting enough credit for the ending of the Combat mission in Iraq.

This is why I hate on the media...

It’s a nothing story, but it shows how the media bends over backwards to twist things into whatever shape they want to, or care to.

The Hill has a story on its website today: McCain creams Obama — in NCAA picks.

McCain’s bracket has 14 teams picked correctly headed into the Sweet Sixteen, placing him in the 94th percentile after the first weekend of play.

Okay. Fine. Congratulations to the Senior (and I mean, Senior) Senator from Arizona.

One problem. There's this little piece in the Politico, an article called Obama's bracket looking up, which says:

The president's NCAA tournament bracket looked a lot better Sunday when he correctly picked 14 of the 16 teams to reach the regional semifinals.

So…ummm…you want to run this by me again?!?

Media: McCain "defends" Obama...

The Media loves themselves a narrative...whether supported by the facts or not.

Now, I'm not going to say that McCain didn't "mildly rebuke" his Party Leadership over the Blagojevich Scandal, but saying it was anything other than that is overboard.

You tell me. This is McCain's quote from this morning:

I think that the Obama campaign should and will give all information necessary. You know, in all due respect to the Republican National Committee and anybody -- right now, I think we should try to be working constructively together, not only on an issue such as this, but on the economy stimulus package, reforms that are necessary. And so, I don't know all the details of the relationship between President-elect Obama's campaign or his people and the governor of Illinois, but I have some confidence that all the information will come out. It always does, it seems to me.

Of course, I'm going to let the fact that he called it the Obama "Campaign" slide.

McCain came out and said, what is by any fair measure, a reasonable and fair statement. (One might even call it...mavericky). He doesn't see the need for the RNC to go after Obama on this. Let's all work together. The truth's coming out sooner or later, so relax.

Fair.

It's not just Huffington Post, which has been overblowing a lot of stuff lately.  Politico gets into the act as well.  Even George Stephanopoulos had a better handle on it than HuffPo.

A "defense" of Obama it ain't.

This is not to place blame on McCain.  It's not his job to defend Obama in this, or any other matter.  This is about the Media fanning the flames of somethin' that ain't really there...

CNN: The Sit Down...

"I know you won and all, but..."

According to Murdoch (fka as the Wall Street Journal), McCain is expected to press the President-Elect on Iraq:

One senior McCain adviser said he suspects Sen. McCain will use Monday's meeting to press Mr. Obama not to withdraw U.S. forces precipitously from Iraq. The adviser added it would be "very damaging" to Mr. Obama to have Sen. McCain "out there as a critic" on national security and foreign policy.

Damaging?  Really?  Well, I got 66 Million reasons why the President-Elect isn't going to sweat it too much.

Change.gov: Obama to meet with McCain on Monday...

The President-Elect has invited his former rival, Senator John McCain (R-AZ) to a sit down in Chicago this Monday.

The incoming Chief of Staff and Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) will be joining them.

I can't claim credit for noticing this first, but...have you noticed who's missing from this get-together??