May 19, 2007 - Pensito

Meltdown: Word on the street has it that Sen. John McCain has a bad temper. He needs to keep it under wraps while he runs for president but that may be too difficult:

“[Expletive] you! I know more about this than anyone else in the room,” shouted McCain at Cornyn.

During a meeting Thursday on immigration legislation, McCain and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) got into a shouting match when Cornyn started voicing concerns about the number of judicial appeals that illegal immigrants could receive, according to multiple sources — both Democrats and Republicans — who heard firsthand accounts of the exchange from lawmakers who were in the room …

Things got really heated when Cornyn accused McCain of being too busy campaigning for president to take part in the negotiations, which have gone on for months behind closed doors. “Wait a second here,” Cornyn said to McCain. “I’ve been sitting in here for all of these negotiations and you just parachute in here on the last day. You’re out of line.”

McCain, a former Navy pilot, then used language more accustomed to sailors (not to mention the current vice president, who made news a few years back after a verbal encounter with Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont).

“[Expletive] you! I know more about this than anyone else in the room,” shouted McCain at Cornyn. McCain helped craft a bill in 2006 that passed the Senate but couldn’t be compromised with a House bill that was much tougher on illegal immigrants.

McCain’s staff denied that the senator said he knew more about immigration than anyone else.

GOP presidential candidate Rep. Duncan Hunter, the author of last year’s Secure Fence Act, which mandated extending the existing wall at California’s border with Mexico eastward to the borders of Arizona and New Mexico, is upset that the Bush administration and the Congress have cut “his” fence in half:

[CHRIS MATTHEWS, host of MSNBC’s Hardball]: Will this new bill the president presented today with his coalition of senators, including McCain and Kennedy, do the job of stopping illegal immigration?

HUNTER: Well, I donâ€˜t think it will, because the bill cuts my fence in half.

And … when we passed this bill, which I wrote in October, passed by the House, the Senate passed it 80-19. It provides for 854 miles of double fence across the smuggling corridors of Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas …

So, the Senate bill, off the bat, more than cuts the Hunter fence in half. I donâ€˜t like that.

Day: May 19, 2007

McCain Lost His Temper During Senate Negotiations

Duncan Hunter’s International Fence

Poetic Justice

Verbatim

“The man is afraid of the voice of the people and that the people understand and know what he’s doing. He’s trying to stifle the ability of journalists to let the people of America know what’s really going on with their government.”

— “Kamala Harris called President Donald Trump’s ban of CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House ‘absolutely abhorrent,’” The Wrap reports.

“Not one of them is trained in technical skills. Not one research PhD, as opposed to China, where half the cabinet is science and technology PhDs. We’re led by grifters and fools.”

— Columbia professor Jeffrey Sachs, on X, on President Trump’s 35-person cabinet.

“Mr. President, some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far… The same Hispanics who helped you get to the White House in 2024 feel betrayed today.”

— Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL), breaking with President Trump in a direct-to-camera video.

Numerati

1,000

10%

“The unprecedented spate of mid-decade redistricting for the U.S. House has changed the congressional districts for one-tenth of Americans and significantly altered the makeup of at least one-fifth of districts, according to a new study,” the Associated Press reports.

71%

A new Fox News Poll finds 71% of voters think the Trump administration lacks a clear strategy for ending the Iran War, including 95% of Democrats, 83% of independents, and 43% of Republicans. Sixty percent say U.S. military action against Iran was the wrong decision, while just 37% say it was right.

$9.5 billion

“The Trump administration last year spent $9.5 billion on paid administrative leave for federal workers as part of its plan to shrink the government and save taxpayers money, according to a new estimate by a congressional watchdog,” CNN reports.

470

Reuters has documented at least 470 targets of retribution under Trump’s leadership – from federal employees and prosecutors to universities and media outlets. The list illuminates the sweeping effort by the president and his administration to punish dissent and reshape the government.