{"id":6560,"date":"2006-02-08T09:42:17","date_gmt":"2006-02-08T14:42:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=6560"},"modified":"2006-02-08T09:42:17","modified_gmt":"2006-02-08T14:42:17","slug":"clash-of-the-senate-titans-day-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/clash-of-the-senate-titans-day-two\/","title":{"rendered":"Clash of the Senate Titans — Day Two"},"content":{"rendered":"

I had hoped that the Obama v McCain dust-up would be a one-day story, but alas, there was some follow-up yesterday. Apparently, the two senators had a brief telephone conversation<\/a> yesterday, which went far better than the unpleasant written correspondence.<\/p>\n

“We’re moving on,” McCain said a few hours after speaking to Obama. “We’re still colleagues. We’re still friends. I mean, this isn’t war.”<\/p>\n

It was, according to both men, a polite exchange. Yet the prospects of achieving a bipartisan solution on one of the most contentious issues of the election year — ethics reform — remained uncertain in light of the fissures exposed in the unusually abrasive back-and-forth between McCain and Obama.<\/p>\n

“The tone of the letter, I think, was a little over the top,” Obama said. “But John McCain’s been an American hero and has served here in Washington for 20 years, so if he wants to get cranky once in awhile that’s his prerogative.”<\/p>\n

When asked by a reporter if the freshman senator had indeed called McCain “cranky,” Obama said: “You got my quote the first time<\/b>.” (emphasis added)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Exactly. Obama has been gracious and classy throughout this little mess, but he’s not going to be pushed around, especially for a mistake he did not make.<\/p>\n

McCain, alas, still thinks his sarcastic diatribe was justified. Asked whether he regretted using such pointed language about another senator, McCain said without hesitation, “Of course not. Of course not.”<\/p>\n

In fact, McCain visited the friendly confines of MSNBC’s Chris Matthews’ Hardball to stoke the fires<\/a> a little more. Watching the interview, it’s hard to say who was more offensive, though my money is on Matthews.
\n<\/p>\n

MATTHEWS: Thank you for joining us. What was your original relationship with Senator Obama on congressional reform?<\/p>\n

McCAIN: Well, my relationship is fine with him. We had a difference of viewpoints because he sent me a letter that basically said that he wasn’t, as I read it, wasn’t going to be — we weren’t going to work together, and he’d been at a meeting with me and the chairman and ranking member, Senator [Susan] Collins [R-ME], Senator [Joseph I.] Lieberman [D-CT], as we worked towards lobbying reform, which we have to do, and then I received a letter that basically said that he wasn’t going to do that. Actually, I didn’t receive the letter before I got press reports, and so I responded with a little straight talk.<\/p>\n

MATTHEWS: Did he, well, welsh on the deal?<\/p>\n

McCAIN: Say that again.<\/p>\n

MATTHEWS: Did he welsh on the deal? Did he double-cross you by going partisan after promising to go bipartisan with you, senator?<\/p>\n

McCAIN: […]Well, I had a conversation with Senator Obama, and he said that was not his intention, but the way I read the letter, after I heard from the press that it was on its way, that indeed that was the case, including touting Senator [Harry] Reid’s [D-NV] proposal, which has no Republican sponsors and will not, and we all know that we have to work together and so I responded and Senator Obama and I had a conversation, and we agreed to move on.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

McCain’s comments don’t make a lot of sense in light of what Obama actually said<\/a>. And Matthews’ comments? Well, they can be called many things, but “journalism” isn’t one of them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had hoped that the Obama v McCain dust-up would be a one-day story, but alas, there was some follow-up yesterday. Apparently, the two senators had a brief telephone conversation yesterday, which went far better than the unpleasant written correspondence. “We’re moving on,” McCain said a few hours after speaking to Obama. “We’re still colleagues. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6560\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}