McCain is taking a lot of heat and the pressure is going to be turned up even more… but who would not want a guy who does this…
McCain’s battles with colleagues have often gone beyond the ins and outs of policy, taking on a fierce personal tone that other senators do not often engage in, at least not in public.
Stevens, for example, has long stuffed the annual Pentagon spending bill with earmarked provisions for his home state that draw the ire of McCain, who has crusaded against such pet projects. In 2002, Stevens inserted an unusual provision in the defense appropriations bill that allowed Boeing Corp. to lease fuel tankers to the Air Force for $21 billion.
McCain regularly took to the floor to criticize the provision and tried to steal jurisdiction from Stevens’s subcommittee so he could kill the deal. “This is the same kind of egregious behavior we often rail against here on the Senate floor when it comes to corporate scandals,” he said.
While he has lost almost every earmark fight with Stevens, McCain won the Boeing battle by using his perch atop the Commerce Committee in 2003 and 2004 to investigate the lease deal, uncovering corruption inside the Air Force procurement office.
Sounds like he looking out for my money that I am forced to gracefully contribute every year to the Federal coffers. We need a President who will do what is right for Americans and not always tow the party line.
Filed under: 2008 Elections, Congress, Tax Dollars Wasted
