McCain’s Obfuscation Express keeps on rolling along.

John McCain considered Benchmarks in Iraq as early as January of 2007. McCain is becoming the flip flopper that was John Kerry in 2004. Problem is that McCain doesn’t claim to be for them before he was against them. McCain just lies about his previous statements.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., one of the most stalwart supporters of the war in Iraq, said Thursday that he might propose that the Iraqi government meet certain benchmarks for the United States to continue its engagement.

Fellow senators and independent political scientists said McCain’s thinking reflected growing concerns within the Republican Party about the course of the war, and also might mark a turning point for the likely 2008 presidential contender, whose previous unconditional backing of the war may have hurt his prospects.

McCain said Thursday that he hadn’t yet decided on precise benchmarks. “They’d have to be specific, and they (Iraqi government officials) would have to meet them,” he said.
Asked what penalty would be imposed if Iraq failed to meet his benchmarks, he said: “I think everybody knows the consequences. Haven’t met the benchmarks? Obviously, then, we’re not able to complete the mission. Then you have to examine your options.”

…

Even Joe Biden was surprised about McCain’s Statements:

… several Senate Demo-crats who oppose the troop buildup and also may seek the presidency said they were struck by McCain’s comments.

“We Catholics call that an epiphany,” said Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Joseph Biden, D-Del., who is sponsoring the main Democratic resolution opposing the troop buildup.

John McCain… What will he lie about the next time? Immigration? Oh wait he already has…

McCain on immigration

Voted on Senate floor in favor of guestworker-amnesty bill by voting in favor of cloture motion to end debate and bring bill to a vote in 2007
Sen. McCain voted in favor of a motion to invoke cloture and limit debate on S. 1639, thereby preventing it from moving toward a final vote. S. 1639 is the “corrected and updated” version of S. 1348, the guestworker-amnesty bill that would: grant an amnesty; authorize the importation of millions of new foreign workers; and do little to curb our illegal immigration crisis. Two days prior to this vote, the Senate had voted to invoke cloture and move forward with the debate on S. 1639, outside normal channels and bypassing the committee process. Two weeks prior to this vote, the Senate rejected cloture on the “grand bargain” substitute amendment to S. 1348 by a 45-50 margin, thus halting – for the time being – the bill’s progress toward final passage. President Bush then stepped in to plead with Senate Republicans to give the “compromise” another look. Senate Majority Leader Reid chose to bring the proposal back to the Senate as a new bill, S. 1369. This motion to invoke cloture on S. 1639 (the second motion) failed by a vote of 46 to 53.

Voted on Senate floor in favor of guestworker-amnesty bill by voting in favor of a motion to bring bill to the Senate floor for a debate and a vote in 2007
Sen. McCain voted in favor of a motion to invoke cloture and bring S. 1639, the “corrected and updated” version of S. 1348, the guestworker-amnesty bill that would grant an amnesty, would authorize the importation of millions of new foreign workers, and would do little to curb our illegal immigration crisis, to the Senate floor. Two weeks prior to this vote, the Senate rejected cloture on the “grand bargain” substitute amendment to S. 1348 by a 45-50 margin, thus halting – for the time being – the bill’s progress toward final passage. President Bush then stepped in to plead with Senate Republicans to give the “compromise” another look and Senate Majority Leader Reid then brought the proposal back to the Senate as a new bill, S. 1369. The motion to invoke cloture passed by a vote of 64 to 35.

Voted on Senate floor in favor of guestworker-amnesty bill by voting in favor of motion to limit debate and move to vote in 2007
Sen. McCain voted in favor of the second cloture motion on the “grand bargain” substitute amendment (SA 1150) to S. 1348, the guestworker-amnesty bill that would grant an amnesty, would authorize the importation of millions of new foreign workers, and would do little to curb our illegal immigration crisis. The motion to invoke cloture would have ended the debate on the “compromise” proposal and limited further discussion of amendments to a previously-agreed upon set of proposals — thus a vote against cloture was effectively a vote in favor of killing the amnesty-guestworker bill. The motion to invoke cloture failed by a vote of 45 to 50.

Voted on Senate floor in favor of amendment to kill border fence in 2006
Sen. McCain voted in favor of the Manager’s Amendment (SA 4188), offered by Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), to S. 2611, the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006. The Manager’s Amendment made many minor changes to S. 2611, none of have significant numeric impacts on the overall bill. However, the Manager’s Amendment included a provision that requires consultation with the government of Mexico concerning the construction of additional fencing and related border security structures along the international border between the United States and Mexico. This would virtually guarantee that the fence along the U.S.-Mexico border would never be completed. The Manager’s Amendment passed by a vote of 56 to 41 to 1 (the 1 denotes a “present” vote).

Voted in favor of bill to increase immigration and grant amnesty to illegal aliens in 2006
Sen. McCain voted in favor of final passage of S. 2611, the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006. S. 2611 would dramatically change most occupations and communities in America with the largest movement of foreign workers in world history. Specifically, S. 2611 would: reward approximately 10.2 million illegal aliens with an amnesty allowing them to permanently take American jobs and become U.S. citizens; entice millions more foreign workers to illegally enter our communities, crowd the housing and schools, take the jobs and depress the wages because they reasonably can believe they eventually will be given an amnesty, too; double legal immigration from 1 million to 2 million a year; give out permanent green cards to up to 66 million foreign workers and dependents over the next 20 years. The main difference in terms of numbers between the final version of S. 2611 and the version of the bill when the cloture motion was invoked was that the Bingaman Amendment to cap the number of employment-based visas for workers, spouses and children at 650,000 was adopted after cloture but before final passage. Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation estimates that the Bingaman Amendment would reduce employment-based visas available under S. 2611 by about 150,000 a year. S. 2611 passed by a vote of 62 to 36.

t/b: Captain’s Quarters, Stop The ACLU, Michelle Malkin

h/t: Hot Air, Ace of Spades

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