October 2003 (S.Amdt 1817 - Provided an additional $322 million in safety equipment for soldiers and marines in Iraq) http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=108&session=1&vote=00376
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April 2003 (S.Amdt 452 - Provided $1 billion-plus to update the equipment for National Guard and Reserve troops headed into combat in Iraq) http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=108&session=1&vote=00116
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(NOTE: Excepting the first example, the preceding reflect the entirety of actual votes cast by Senator McCain concerning benefits, safety equipment and otherwise, effecting active combat military and veterans. Senator McCain, far more than any other senator, has missed 59.2% of all votes during the 110th Congress!)
Earlier this year, when the US Senate overwhelmingly sought to right the Lilly Ledbetter vs Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. Supreme Court travesty (Ledbetter, a 19-year supervisor in Goodyear's Alabama plant, had been paid considerably less than her male counterparts, a strict violation of the Fair Employment Act that Goodyear did not contest. Goodyear argued, and the Court found, that, unlike every previous case where the 180-day tolling time in which to file a complaint commenced, the tolling for Ledbetter was 19 years earlier, 19 years before she became aware how Goodyear had violated the law!), McCain spoke against the proposed legislation and iterated that "If women want to get ahead, they need to get more education and training;" not even an issue in the case!
McCain also referred to the Court's recent Guantanamo habeas corpus ruling as "one of the worst in the country's history," overlooking, or not familiar with the Dred Scott or Plessey vs Ferguson or the WWII concentration camp incarceration of US citizens decisions! Indeed, McCain referred to the habeas corpus finding as a "Miranda case." Miranda, as most Americans know, via the oft repeated "You have the right to remain silent . . ." airings on almost every crime drama on television for the past decades, is a 5th Amendment issue, not an Article I, Section 9 habeas corpus matter!
With Connecticut's US Senator Joe Lieberman by his side, McCain demonstrated how he did not know Shiite from Sunni, or which was dominant in Iran and where in Iraq, or the relationship, if any, of either to al Qaeda, until the overseeing Lieberman whispered the correct answer in his ear. But then, the very next day! the Arizona senator repeated the gaffe! But that not being sufficient, John McCain remarked on the boundary between Iraq and Pakistan???
Concerning the economy, John McCain has said "[its] fundamentals are strong," and that he would "Increase revenues by cutting taxes." David Walker, previously the Comptroller General, head of the Government Accountability Office, and first nominated to his position in the government by President Reagan, has since 2002 been arguing, using charts and Power Point demonstrations, before House and Senate committees and private seminars and gatherings how upwards of 60% of the federal budget deficit is attributable exclusively to the revenue shortfalls caused by the 2002 and 2003 tax cuts. He has further argued that eliminating entirely all discretionary spending by the federal government would have "virtually no impact on the looming fiscal disaster facing the United States!"
It is a quite basic economic principle that the relationship between taxation and spending is a fragile balancing act wherein inadequate tax revenues will be as devastating as overly excessive spending; a fundamental that John McCain misses absolutely in his unswerving devotion to a trickle-down/supply-side orthodoxy that has never been shown to have economic legitimacy.
And as to temperament, the following quotes from McCain's Republican colleagues, those one would presume would most support him are particularly illuminating:
"The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He is erratic. He is hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me." - Senator Thad Cochran, R-MS (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
"I decided I didn't want this guy anywhere near a trigger." - Senator Pete Domenici, R-NM
"There's nothing redeeming about John McCain...he's a hypocrite." - Former House GOP Whip Tom DeLay
"He is a vicious person. Nearly all the Republican Senators endorsed Bush because they knew McCain from serving with him in the Senate. They so disliked him that they wouldn't support him. They have been on the hard end of his behavior." - Former Representative Charles LeBoutillier, R-NY
"John was very rough in the sandbox. Everybody has a McCain story. If you work in the Senate for a while, you have a McCain story. He hasn't built up a lot of goodwill." - Former Senator Rick Santorum, R-PA
