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James P. Rubin: Talking with Our Enemies: McCain Should Admit The Truth and Stop Attacking the Messenger
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ jamie-rubin/ talking-with-our-enemies_b_102205.html
There they go again. The old John McCain would just admit he changed his position and move on. But the new John McCain campaign is incapable of that. Instead, they are reverting to an attack on the messenger. The question and answer I released yesterday was a full question and a full answer. Nothing was left out of the question or the answer. Nothing is taken out of context. But in order to avoid further controversy and distraction, I have dug out what I believe to be all of the discussion on Hamas during our interview. The full interview is in a DVD being shipped to me.
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Was Rubin Distorting?
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/05...The McCain campaign has been pushing back on the Rubin argument that McCain once supported talking to Hamas and now says such a position is "unacceptable." Here's the full quote that allegedly exposes Rubin: Rubin: "Do you think that
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Falling in a Hamas ditch, the McCain campaign keeps digging
http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15574.htmlWhen evidence surfaced yesterday that John McCain advocated at least some kind of diplomatic relationship between the United States and Hamas, I assumed the McCain campaign would just say the senator has since changed his mind. After all, the
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CNN Reports: Jamie Rubin Lied
http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/2008/05/cnn_repo...Here's the transcript: CNN'S DANA BASH: "You remember these interviews were done shortly after Hamas won the Palestinian elections. Lou, the McCain campaign just in the past couple of hours, found a link to more of Jamie Rubin's interview from back
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Jamie Rubin Lied About John McCain (Video)
http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2008/05/jamie-rubin-lied-a...This is disgusting. The mainstream news is already reporting dishonest stories about John McCain. Todays piece by Jamie Rubin was just evil. His article was a lie and he knew it. Here is the whole video (1 minute 13 seconds) that was not reported
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Other nations, as seen by one on the right
http://the-reaction.blogspot.com/2008/05/other-nations-as-se...By Carol Gee On every foreign policy question, it will be important to chronicle the pronouncements of Senator John McCain during the ensuing months of the presidential campaign. We can look to people whose judgments we trust to explain how Senator John McCain is to the political right along the spectrum on many issues. For example, this does not mean that he is right, Gary Hart says, regarding al Qaeda in Iraq. From these stances, his capacity, or more likely, incapacity to be president will become more apparent, due to an overly militarized view for one thing, says colleague Senator Tom Harkin. McCain's Latest Judgments on other nations -- Let's begin with just a little digest of current stories about Senator McCain's views on Africa and several regarding the Middle East. Colonialism in Africa -- We would wish he felt the same principles apply in the Middle East. Here is what the Senator said on the question of whether we should intervene in Zimbabwe, courtesy of The Atlantic (Andrew Sullivan -- Matt Yglesias quote): "If you send in Western military forces, then you risk the backlash from the people, from the legacy that was left in Africa because of the era of colonialism." Colonialism in the Middle East -- It would seem that contemplating the U.S. staying in Iraq for a hundred years has a faintly colonial ring to it. The current administration, of which McCain will be a mere extension, erroneously believed that setting up free elections was a panacea for troubled Middle East countries -- in contemporary Shiite Iraq, and in Iran (in the 1980's), and in Hamas' rise to power in Lebanon and Palestine, as examples. In all cases Republican administrations (namely Reagan's and G.W. Bush's) then had the dilemma of how to try to make the election outcomes match with their fantasies beforehand."McCain's idea of victory in Iraq is highly unlikely to be fulfilled" says Juan Cole at Informed Comment. His stated positions change weekly, as a result. To quote: Remember how Tom Friedman and Bush administration spokesmen kept saying that "the next six months" would be crucial for Iraq? They said it in 2003, 2004, 2005, etc., etc. Atrios finally called them on it, terming it the "Friedman unit". . . . Now we have the new, improved, "McCain unit"-- which is apparently that the next four years will be crucial in Iraq. Indeed, McCain predicted "victory" by 2013, four years after he hopes to take office as the new president. Of course if victory does not come by 2013, then the next McCain unit would kick in, with the years leading up to 2017 being "crucial" for Iraq.The "McCain unit" is already a public relations bust. . . The beauty of the Friedman unit was that it seemed relatively near, but people could be depended to forget about its last use before it was invoked again. . . . The "McCain unit" will tax the public's patience too much, not to mention their pocket books. His unit probably has a $1 trillion tax bill attached to it all at once. And his unit is too specific, calling for "victory." The Friedman unit was deliberately vague about what exactly would happen in the next six months that was "crucial" for Iraq. "Falling in a Hamas ditch, the McCain campaign keeps on digging," is how Steve Benen sees it at The Carpetbagger Report. Too quickly jumping on the Bush "appeasement" bandwagon, he was caught in a bit of military vs. diplomacy hypocrisy. He has been scrambling since. To quote: When evidence surfaced yesterday that John McCain advocated at least some kind of diplomatic relationship between the United States and Hamas, I assumed the McCain campaign would just say the senator has since changed his mind. After all, the Presidential Candidate McCain frequently bears no resemblance to Senator McCain, and the two routinely take the opposite position on key policy disputes. . . . The first spin out of the McCain campaign is that there is no contradiction here. . . . Even with the additional context, McCain said just two years ago that engagement with Hamas was a distinct possibility. . . . The meaning of McCain’s words were pretty transparent — we may not like Hamas, but if they’re the government, we’ll have to engage them diplomatically. We had “antipathy” towards Hamas before, but now everything’s different. . . . The McCain campaign settled on blaming Jamie Rubin, a former assistant secretary of state, the State Department’s chief spokesman during the Clinton administration, and an active supporter of Hillary Clinton’s campaign, for manufacturing this mess. Rubin explained very well why this is McCain’s mess, not his. "MCCain Lies Away the Iran-Contra Scandal" is Phoenix Woman's headline at Firedoglake. This post is a very well done refresher on the nasty details of the scandal, which have a tendency to fade in the hands of the current media with the passage of time. Here's her NYT nugget quote: "Yes, there have been appeasers in the past, and the president is exactly right, and one of them is Neville Chamberlain,'’ Mr. McCain told reporters on his campaign bus after a speech in Columbus, Ohio. “I believe that it’s not an accident that our hostages came home from Iran when President Reagan was president of the United States. He didn’t sit down in a negotiation with the religious extremists in Iran, he made it very clear that those hostages were coming home.'’ If you are left with a sense of chaos from all of this you must trust your gut. Because that is what it will be if McCain is elected. If you are left with the feeling that all this has a familiar ring to it, you again must trust your gut. Because it is the kind of head-spinning news that has been coming out of the George Bush administration for nearly eight years. The players would change but the news would not. (Cross-posted at South by Southwest.)
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John McCain: Lies, Hypocrisy, Fantasy And Confusion
http://journals.aol.com/sazzylilsmartazz/TheConscientiousObj...This week, John McCain and the truth parted ways again, this time citing irreconcilable differences - i.e. the fact that the truth regularly exposes the dissembling, say-anything-to-get-elected hack McCain has become. His attacks on Barack Obama's willingness to confront the leaders of Iran at the negotiating table, and his piling on agreement with President Bush's loathsome attempt to link Obama to Nazi appeasers, were shown to be nothing more than hypocritical political posturing by Jamie Rubin. The McCain camp's response was to attack the messenger (hmm, where have I seen that before?) and attempt to confuse the issue. So here's what we can expect from now until November from McCain: attack the truth tellers and pretend it's 2013. Arianna Huffington: Sunday Roundup - Politics on The Huffington Post Tags: War In Iraq, The Republican Party, Election Polls, Hillary For President NOT, National Politics, Obama, John McCain, John McCain For President NOT, Barack Obama, Barack Obama For President, Hillary Clinton, US Politics, Super Delegates, Elections, Democratic National Party, Republicans For Obama, Election 2008, Super Delegates, Politics, Democrats Against War, Republicans Against John McCain, The Republican National Committee
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Will McCain Talk to Terrorists?
http://americanpowerblog.blogspot.com/2008/05/will-mccain-ta...Did you see Jamie Rubin's piece over at the Huffington Post, "Talking with Our Enemies: McCain Should Admit The Truth and Stop Attacking the Messenger"? Rubin argues that McCain's open to political dialog with terrorists, and the Arizona Senator's backing of President Bush language of appeasement, offered in his Knesset speech, was political opportunism. Here's Rubin: There is a war going on in Iraq. This fall's election will be a virtual referendum on the war. That is a real issue. Instead of debating that, President Bush and Senator McCain are determined to attack the character of their political opponents. As a Democrat, I am tired of having our patriotism attacked. Yesterday, the Democratic Party leaders were unified in denouncing these kinds of attacks. Senator Hillary Clinton, Senator Joe Biden and the Majority Leader Harry Reid all spoke in unison to defend Senator Obama. So I say to the McCain campaign, just admit the truth, either he made a mistake or he changed his mind, then let us return to debating the issues as Americans.That sounds pretty tough. But there's a problem. Rubin also said this, earlier in the entry: The question and answer I released yesterday was a full question and a full answer. Nothing was left out of the question or the answer. Nothing is taken out of context.... I have dug out what I believe to be all of the discussion on Hamas during our interview.... As you can see, there is no conditionality in any of his answers. Nowhere does he say what Senator Clinton and Senator Obama say: that is, Hamas has to renounce terrorism, recognize Israel and accept the previous agreements of the Palestinian authority before we could deal with them. Instead, Senator McCain is talking about engagement with Hamas and how it could come about. Nothing was taken out of context? No conditionality? Jonathan Martin has the video from the interview (also cited by Rubin): So what's the problem here? How do we interpret this passage on McCain's position on Hamas? I think the United States should take a step back, see what they do when they form their government, see what their policies are, and see the ways that we can engage with them, and if there aren’t any, there may be a hiatus," McCain said. "But I think part of the relationship is going to be dictated by how Hamas acts, not how the United States acts.McCain clearly says let's "see what their policies are..." In other words, don't enter into relations until we see if Hamas renounces killing and terror. That sounds like a precondition to me. See also, Gateway Pundit, "Obama Repeats Jamie Rubin's Lie On McCain (Video)."
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James P. Rubin: Talking with Our Enemies: McCain Should Admit The Truth and Stop Attacking the Messenger
http://mccombover.wordpress.com/2008/05/17/james-p-rubin-tal...Talking with Our Enemies: McCain Should Admit The Truth and Stop Attacking the Messenger
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Other Nations, as seen by One on the Right
http://carol-sandy1.blogspot.com/2008/05/other-nations-as-se...On every foreign policy question, it will be important to chronicle the pronouncements of Senator John McCain during the ensuing months of the presidential campaign. We can look to people whose judgments we trust to explain how Senator John McCain is to the political right along the spectrum on many issues. For example, this does not mean that he is right, Gary Hart says, regarding al Qaeda in Iraq. From these stances his capacity, or more likely, incapacity to be President will become more apparent, due to an overly militarized view for one thing, says colleague Senator Tom Harkin. McCain's Latest Judgments on other nations -- Let's begin with just a little digest of current stories about Senator McCain's views on Africa and several regarding the Middle East. Colonialism in Africa -- We would wish he felt the same principles apply in the Middle East. Here is what the Senator said on the question of whether we should intervene in Zimbabwe, courtesy of The Atlantic (Andrew Sullivan's (Matt Yglesias quote): "If you send in Western military forces, then you risk the backlash from the people, from the legacy that was left in Africa because of the era of colonialism." Colonialism in the Middle East -- It would seem that contemplating the U.S. staying in Iraq for a hundred years has a faintly colonial ring to it. The current administration, of which McCain will be a mere extension, erroneously believed that setting up free elections was a panacea for troubled Middle East countries -- in contemporary Shiite Iraq, and in Iran (in the 1980's), and in Hamas' rise to power in Lebanon and Palestine, as examples. In all cases Republican administrations (namely Reagan's and G.W. Bush's) then had the dilemma of how to try to make the election outcomes match with their fantasies beforehand."McCain's idea of victory in Iraq is highly unlikely to be fulfilled" says Juan Cole at Informed Comment. His stated positions change weekly, as a result. To quote: Remember how Tom Friedman and Bush administration spokesmen kept saying that "the next six months" would be crucial for Iraq? They said it in 2003, 2004, 2005, etc., etc. Atrios finally called them on it, terming it the "Friedman unit". . . . Now we have the new, improved, "McCain unit"-- which is apparently that the next four years will be crucial in Iraq. Indeed, McCain predicted "victory" by 2013, four years after he hopes to take office as the new president. Of course if victory does not come by 2013, then the next McCain unit would kick in, with the years leading up to 2017 being "crucial" for Iraq.The "McCain unit" is already a public relations bust. . . The beauty of the Friedman unit was that it seemed relatively near, but people could be depended to forget about its last use before it was invoked again. . . . The "McCain unit" will tax the public's patience too much, not to mention their pocket books. His unit probably has a $1 trillion tax bill attached to it all at once. And his unit is too specific, calling for "victory." The Friedman unit was deliberately vague about what exactly would happen in the next six months that was "crucial" for Iraq. "Falling in a Hamas ditch, the McCain campaign keeps on digging," is how Steve Benen sees it at The Carpetbagger Report. Too quickly jumping on the Bush "appeasement" bandwagon, he was caught in a bit of military vs. diplomacy hypocrisy. He has been scrambling since. To quote: When evidence surfaced yesterday that John McCain advocated at least some kind of diplomatic relationship between the United States and Hamas, I assumed the McCain campaign would just say the senator has since changed his mind. After all, the Presidential Candidate McCain frequently bears no resemblance to Senator McCain, and the two routinely take the opposite position on key policy disputes. . . . The first spin out of the McCain campaign is that there is no contradiction here. . . . Even with the additional context, McCain said just two years ago that engagement with Hamas was a distinct possibility. . . . The meaning of McCain’s words were pretty transparent — we may not like Hamas, but if they’re the government, we’ll have to engage them diplomatically. We had “antipathy” towards Hamas before, but now everything’s different. . . . The McCain campaign settled on blaming Jamie Rubin, a former assistant secretary of state, the State Department’s chief spokesman during the Clinton administration, and an active supporter of Hillary Clinton’s campaign, for manufacturing this mess. Rubin explained very well why this is McCain’s mess, not his. "MCCain Lies Away the Iran-Contra Scandal" is Phoenix Woman's headline at Firedoglake. This post is a very well done refresher on the nasty details of the scandal, which have a tendency to fade in the hands of the current media with the passage of time. Here's her (NYT) nugget quote: "Yes, there have been appeasers in the past, and the president is exactly right, and one of them is Neville Chamberlain,'’ Mr. McCain told reporters on his campaign bus after a speech in Columbus, Ohio. “I believe that it’s not an accident that our hostages came home from Iran when President Reagan was president of the United States. He didn’t sit down in a negotiation with the religious extremists in Iran, he made it very clear that those hostages were coming home.'’ If you are left with a sense of chaos from all of this you must trust your gut. Because that is what it will be if McCain is elected. If you are left with the feeling that all this has a familiar ring to it, you again must trust your gut. Because it is the kind of head-spinning news that has been coming out of the George Bush administration for nearly eight years. The players would change but the news would not. View my current slide show about the Bush years -- "Millennium" -- at the bottom of this column. (Cross-posted at The Reaction.) My “creativity and dreaming” post today is at Making Good Mondays. Technorati tags: news news and politics politics mccain middle east foreign policy 2008 campaign republicansSouth by Southwest
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John McCain On Hamas: The Truth
http://top-video.quinews.com/2008/05/john-mccain-on-hamas-th...“John McCain On Hamas: The Truth CNN: January 28, 2006″ What others are saying: www.americablog.com In today’s Washington Post, Jamie Rubin destroys the George Bush/John… www.nelsonguirado.com Every one of your news organizations put him on the… truthfeeds.com John McCain expressed a willingness to negotiate with the terrorist… www.desertconservative.com WATERTOWN, SD - Barack Obama rebuked Republican rival John McCain… blog.takepoliticalaction.org But email spam can’t change the fact that McCain was… journals.aol.com WASHINGTON - Barack Obama and John McCain escalated their war… finepolitics.blogspot.com WATERTOWN, SD Barack Obama laid into John McCain… www.huffingtonpost.com So I say to the McCain campaign, just admit the… www.jedreport.com Jamie Rubin argued that John McCain had flip-flopped on Hamas,… obamanotosama.com “If George Bush and John McCain want to have a…
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