John McCain - Please shut up

Can you tell I have a problem with the senator from Arizona?

I'm not sure what it is about him that gets to me, honest, but he does get to me more times than he doesn't.

His most recent getting of me had to do with his sincerely stupid Rumsfeld remarks made nearly a week ago:

U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said Monday that he has "no confidence" in Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, citing Rumsfeld's handling of the war in Iraq and the failure to send more troops.

McCain said his comments were not a call for Rumsfeld's resignation, explaining that President George W. Bush "can have the team that he wants around him."

Asked about his confidence in the secretary's leadership, McCain recalled fielding a similar question a couple of weeks ago.

"I said no. My answer is still no. No confidence," McCain said.

This was of course fallout from the alleged armor-gate scandal or more specifically, Rumsfeld's handling of 'the question'.

But as more information comes out, from bloggers no less, we find that perhaps Senator McCain ought to look in the mirror a tad more closely before pointing the fat finger of 'no confidence' at Secretary Rumsfeld.

From Reverend Sensing:

My long-term readers may recall that I am no member of the Donald Rumsfeld fan club myself, but the calls for his head from US Senators over the phony armor shortage is absurd - especially from Republican Sen. John McCain; I increasingly wonder whether he knows he often seems to disconnect brain from tongue when making the talk shows. McCain's Senate duties have included direct oversight of DOD expenditures since the years of the Clinton administration.

Yet the Tennessean reported,

The Pentagon is spending $4.1 billion over the next year to add armor to vehicles in Iraq. [Army Brig. Gen. Jeffrey] Sorenson said 35,000 of them need armored protection, of which 29,000 have been funded by Congress.

Got that? The Army's funding for armor is 6,000 vehicles short because John McCain won't choke up the money.

All of which is to say that it's business as usual on Capitol Hill: to seem rather than to be.

Might someone have a followup question or two for the Senator from Arizona?

Anyone?

And then, to add a twist or two to the armor-gate shenanigans, Power Line gives us a take on the story I'm sure few of us have come across, pointing us in the direction of a press conference held by Major General Stephen Speakes and several others. A snippet of the transcript below:

The first point is that you'll recollect that one of the questions was the status of the 278 ACR; in other words, the date that we had the visit by the secretary of Defense, we had a question about their up-armoring status. When the question was asked, 20 vehicles remained to be up-armored at that point. We completed those 20 vehicles in the next day. And so over 800 vehicles from the 278 ACR were up-armored, and they are a part now of their total force that is operating up in Iraq.

Q On the 278th, can you repeat this? At the time the question was asked, the planted question, the unit had 784 of its 804 vehicles armored?

GEN. SPEAKES: Here is the overall solution that you see. And what we've had to do is -- the theater had to take care of 830 total vehicles. So this shows you the calculus that was used. Up north in Iraq, they drew 119 up-armored humvees from what we call stay-behind equipment. That is equipment from a force that was already up there. We went ahead and applied 38 add-on armor kits to piece of equipment they deployed over on a ship. They also had down in Kuwait 214 stay- behind equipment pieces that were add-on armor kits. And then over here they had 459 pieces of equipment that were given level-three protection. And so when you put all this together, that comes up with 830.

Q At the time of the question -- summarize this, now -- that unit that the kid was complaining about was mostly armored?

GEN. SPEAKES: Yes. In other words, we completed all the armoring within 24 hours of the time the question was asked.

Q If he hadn't asked that question, would the up-armoring have been accomplished within 24 hours?

GEN. SPEAKES: Yes. This was already an existing program.

How many of us were in the know as to that aspect of the story?

Not many I'd guess.

UPDATE:  Cox and Forkum weigh in:

Comments

[Frank Villon]

Hear, hear! As a conservative and an Arizona native from 3 generations of Arizona natives, I wish to apologize to the entire country for that walking talking hemorrhoid known as John McCain. In my own defense, let me say that I didn't vote for him. He has only been re-elected for the same reason that Ted Kennedy gets re-elected time and again. Like Ted Kennedy he just gets more bloated and more revolting each day, but he's a lifetime professional politician. He doesn't represent me or any other conservative Arizonan any longer and he hasn't done so for years.

If it's any consolation to the rest of you outside of Arizona, at least you don't have to put up with the shame and embarrassment of him being a senator from your state. How would you like your family's own mongoloid idiot as the representative for your entire family? That's how conservative Arizonans feel about John McCain. I refuse to give him the honorific of "Senator" for he is not honorable. There may have been a time when he was, but that is ancient history. Sad, sad, sad.

[Jesse]

OK, I just stumbled upon this blog, read what was said and have a few simple remarks to make. I am a member of the WI based national guard unit (1-128th Infantry) that was attached to the 278th ACR. I was at camp Buerhing when that question was asked, however I was not personally present at that "meet n greet"

What I can tell you, if you look on my site there are pictures of vehicles we took (i personally convoyed into Iraq) that were nowhere near armored.. ALL we had, was scrap pieces of old, shot up armored steel that we "ghetto rigged" onto SOME of the vehicles. And, as for the 24 hours after that question was asked.. we left Buerhing approx. 5 days after that question was asked.. and as of that time, MOST of our vehicles had little or no armor protection. The level 1-3 kits they are refering to, well... Our vehicles weren't completed untill about a month before we left Iraq. so, it was more like 12 months after that question was asked that vehicles were indeed completed and armored with "official" level 1-3 kits (which offer very limited protection anyhow) there are pictures I personally have of us on missions in Iraq (most are on my site) showing the vehicles that were mixed within our platoons.. anyhow, I am rambling.. but what I basically wanted to say is that statement is BS.. complete BS.. but, I guess I'm not suprised :-) have a nice day all.. if you want to check out the pictures I am refering to my web site is http://www.redarrowsiniraq.com

take care

[Billy B]

John McCain is the worst senator ever to represent the State of Arizona. He has done absolutely nothing for us. Our freeways are choked and way undersized while we can't keep the sucker off the TV. He has to run his mouth off about every issue. He is a worthless US Senator. I wish we could fire him or impeach him.