I wonder if John McCain has been reading this blog. He took to the Senate floor this morning to mock his colleague, the junior Senator from Kentucky Rand Paul, who blabbered for 13 hours yesterday about drone strikes on grandmothers in cafes. See if you see any resemblance to my post Rand Paul is Stupid.
“Calm down, Senator,” McCain said, in an apostrophe to Paul. “The U.S. government cannot randomly target U.S. citizens.”
In his filibuster Wednesday, Paul criticized the White House over its drone policies, and for refusing to rule out military strikes against U.S. citizens on American soil.
McCain, a staunch foreign policy hawk, said Thursday that Paul’s warnings that the U.S. could target “Jane Fonda” or “people in cafes” bring the debate into the “realm of the ridiculous.”
“If Mr. Paul wants to be taken seriously he needs to do more than pull political stunts that fire up impressionable libertarian kids,” McCain said, adding: “I don’t think what happened yesterday is helpful to the American people.”
“Jane Fonda.” Check. “Ridiculous.” Check.
In any case, that’s quite the dressing down. The Republicans seem to be experiencing an unusual degree of internecine combat recently. Of course, Rand Paul totally deserved this slap down, fool that he is. But it’s possible that Lindsey Graham is an even bigger buffoon.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) echoed these criticisms, adding that he was “disappointed” in the 13 Republican Senators who supported Paul’s filibuster last night. Graham later told reporters that he will vote to confirm Brennan as a result of the filibuster.
Because nothing shows your seriousness more than changing your mind on a confirmation vote because a colleague on your side of the aisle is a dunce.