John McCain

With voters across the country embracing "outsiders" — from "tea party" candidate Rand Paul in Kentucky on the right to Pennsylvania Rep. Joe Sestak on the left — incumbents in both parties face a long, hot summer of trying to save their jobs.

From Sen. John McCain of Arizona to Rep. Charles B. Rangel of New York, high-profile lawmakers in both parties are girding to fend off the anti-establishment anger voters displayed in Tuesday's hotly contested primaries.

Mr. McCain is polling comfortably ahead of GOP primary opponent J.D. Hayworth, but Mr. McCain's staff shake-ups and some rightward policy shifts on issues including immigration indicate unease nonetheless...

Arizona's two senators on Monday said violence has skyrocketed on the U.S.-Mexico border, and called on President Obama to deploy National Guard troops, finish building 700 miles of fence and add 3,000 new Border Patrol agents to the region by 2015.

Sens. John McCain and Jon Kyl, both Republicans, said the National Guard deployment -- which they said was effective four years ago when President George W. Bush ordered a similar deployment -- should last until the governor of Arizona certifies the government has operational control of the border.

"The situation has spiraled out of control," Mr. McCain said. Of those caught crossing the border illegally, he said, 17 percent are found to have committed crimes in Arizona previously...

Washington – Remember Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky?

Anyone over a certain age who follows politics does. She was the first-term Democratic congresswoman from Pennsylvania who cast the decisive 218th House vote for President Clinton’s budget reconciliation bill in 1993 – and then went on to lose reelection in 1994.

Today, as the Democrats work to lock down just enough votes to pass an unpopular healthcare reform bill, “MMM” isn’t far from thought. No one wants to be the MMM of 2010. But there are several who could suffer that fate.

One obvious place to look is the 49 Democrats elected in 2008 from districts that voted for Republican John McCain for president...

After coming within a few million votes of the presidency, John McCain is suddenly facing the toughest re-election fight of his nearly 24-year Senate career.

Former Rep. J.D. Hayworth is slated Monday to kick off his campaign for the U.S. Senate with a three-day, 10-city tour across Arizona. Mr. Hayworth, 51, a favorite of the insurgent "tea party" movement and a border-security hawk, is running as a younger, brasher, more conservative alternative to Mr. McCain, who turns 74 a few days after the Republican Party's Aug. 24 primary.

"I have a lot of respect for John McCain - he's served this nation admirably - but this is about policy," Mr. Hayworth said in a telephone interview. "Although he describes himself as a maverick, he's really a moderate. So many people have reached out to me and said, 'Please, we need a conservative senator.'"....

(CNSNews.com) – Two Republican members of the Senate Armed Services Committee told CNSNews.com that the “don’t ask, don’t tell” (DADT) policy concerning homosexuals serving in the military has worked and should not be repealed at this time. Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), however, said that his “intuition” told him that changing the policy would help military recruitment.

Under "don't ask, don't tell" the military does not ask new recruits (as it once did) to certify that they are not homosexual. However, it remains illegal and a cause for separation from the service to engage in homosexual activity while serving in the military.

At the U.S. Capitol last week, CNSNews.com asked Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, “Will officially allowing gays in the military affect recruitment?”

McCain said, “I’m not sure. I do know that the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy has worked very well.  read more »

WASHINGTON – Republicans threatened to delay Senate business with a health care read-a-thon this weekend as Democrats searched for 60 votes to advance President Barack Obama's signature issue. A forecast of heavy snow added to the list of complications.

At a news conference Friday in the Capitol, Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., accused Democrats of trying to ram the health care bill through with dozens of changes as yet unseen, and promised to do all they could to prevent it.

"I think we've made it rather clear we're not going to expedite consideration of the health care bill," McConnell said.

Added McCain: "I don't think it would be outrageous to ask for a bill that we haven't seen to be read"...

(Washington, D.C.) -- Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) predicted on Thursday that there will be a constitutional challenge to the provision in the health care bill under consideration in Congress that would require all Americans to buy health insurance. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the federal government has never before mandated that Americans purchase any good or service.

When asked by CNSNews.com on Thursday where in the Constitution is Congress given the authority to mandate that people buy health insurance, McCain said, “That is an excellent question and I’m sure that if they pass health care legislation, I think there would be a challenge”...

Washington (AP) - Sen. John McCain is pressing President Barack Obama to make a decision quickly on sending additional troops to Afghanistan, saying U.S allies are nervous and military commanders are frustrated.

McCain said in a nationally broadcast interview Wednesday that the war policy in Afghanistan "as been reviewed time and again" and that it's now time to act.

Interviewed on CBS's "The Early Show," the Arizona Republican said the drawn-out decision-making process on Afghanistan "is not helpful to our effort" in the wartorn nation...

Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, said the White House would be committing "an error of historic proportions" if it doesn't accede to Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal's request for tens of thousands more troops in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California upped the pressure for a major Afghanistan troop surge from the Democratic side, saying it makes no sense to stay in Afghanistan and not grant the general the forces he says are necessary.

Mr. McCain said he doesn't think the United States can win in Afghanistan unless President Obama sends at least 40,000 more troops to augment the 68,000 scheduled to be there by year's end - as suggested by Gen. McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan...

As they enter their final day of campaigning before Election Day, Sen. John
McCain is trying to swing undecided voters in key battleground states, while
Sen. Barack Obama is staying on the offensive by campaigning in territory that
is usually safely Republican.

In addition, both campaigns are ratcheting up their
get-out-the-vote efforts, as election officials predict record turnouts -- and
long lines -- on Tuesday.

McCain on Monday hopes he can shift enough voters in a
handful of critical states to give him enough votes to pull a come-from-behind
victory...