mr. mccain: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from arizona. mr. mccain: i ask unanimous consent to address the senate in a colloquy with my colleague from south carolina, senator graham. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mccain: mr. president, senator graham and i -- and i know that there's others who would like to join us -- join -- come to the floor on the issue of the almost unpress defen -- t unprecedented release of information which directly affect our national security, in fact, the most important programs that we are engaged in, including the use of drones in our counterterrorism activities and, of course, the highly classified cyber attacks that have been made on the iranians in order to prevent them from achieving their goal of building nuclear weapons. i can't think of any time that i have seen such breaches of ongoing national security programs as has been the case here. the damage to our national security has been articulated by many both in and outside of the administration, including the most damaging that we have seen, i

mr. mccain: thank the senator. o- mr. wyden: so the last amendment would allow us to advantages the institute of medicine. they have made a number of thoughtful proposals that i think are going to give us a chance of promote our national security and reduce obesity and we certainly should pursue them through this farm bill. the last comment i'd make, madam president, is i think oregonians got it right, and i think we ought to be building on the work done by nor stabenow and -- by senator stabenow and senator roberts. this bill, at a crucial time in american history, can help us grow more jobs. it can help us improve the health of the people of our country without spending additional money. it is an opportunity to protect our treasured land and air and water. and finally, it is a lifeline for these rural communities, these communities that i've described as walking on an economic tightrope. i intend to work with my colleagues on a bipartisan basis -- i've heard all this talk about how the legislative process is over. we ou

mr. mccain: mr. president you i ask unanimous consent that the senator from -- senator kyl be included in the colloquy. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. graham: well, one, i would hope that my colleagues would stay around for a minute, too, because this is an important topic to be talking about. let me put this in perspective of what we're trying to do and what we're trying to avoid. we're about $16 trillion in debt. there's probably no stronger defense supporters in the congress than jon kyl and john mccain. and he just spoke of war. john mccain has seen his fair share of war. i think he understands as well as anybody in this body -- probably better than most -- what happens in war. people get hurt and people get killed, and anybody -- he's been in the military, no fan of war. but the goal is sometimes to make sure that those who are asked to fight a particular war can fight it quickly, overwhelmingly win, and come home. and what we're doing here is trying to get out of debt. so the thr

mr. mccain: mr.president, will the senator yield? first of all, thank you for your eloquent statement on behalf of those who served and sacrificed, and since we will all be spread around in different places over the 4th of july, as we celebrate our independence, i think those are very appropriate and moving words. i'm reminded of the saying at the battlefield written, an age shall not mar them as those of us who are left behind at the going down of the sun and in the morning we shall remember them." but i also would like to discuss -- mr. chairman -- mr. president, i ask unanimous consent for a brief colloquy with the senator from south carolina. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mccain: we're also facing another crisis as far as the military is concerned, and that is the looming process expect of sequestration -- prospect of sequestration. the secretary of defense has stated that sequestration would have a -- quote -- "devastating impact on our national security." we're talking about lay

mr. mccain: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from arizona. mr. mccain: mr.ident, i note that the president residing the chair was paying close attention to the senator from new mexico. that i think's entirely appropriate for that to happen. i'm sure that it is, certainly has nothing to do with family allegiance. the senate is considering the farm bill, which we do every five years. during this debate, americans will hear speeches about spending reductions and cuts to farm subsidies. and i can see that there's some of that in this bill. unfortunately, so far we failed to have an open and fair amendment process. that should be the case in the united states senate. i have several amendments that i would like to have considered, and like my other colleagues, we've been prevented from doing so. i've been in this body for some years in consideration of previous farm bills and i've always been able to have a couple of amendments considered and voted on. unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case in this consideration of this farm bill. it's very regrettable. i

mr. mccain: i would finally add, a really disturbing aspect of this is that one could draw the conclusion from reading these articles that it is an attempt to further the president's political ambitions for the sake of his re-election at the expense of our national security. that's what's disturbing about this entire situation. i see our friend from oregon is waiting to illuminate us, so, mr. president, i yield the floor. i thank my friend from oregon for his patience. the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. wyden: i ask unanimous consent to speak as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. wyden: mr. president, yesterday, i joined with chairman bingaman to introduce legislation to address an urgent threat to america's national forests. the lack of resources to fight serious wildfires that at this very moment are burning on more than 300,000 acres in our country. to date -- and it is certainly early in the fire season -- more than 830,000 acres already have burned. the heart of the problem, mr. president, is as the fires have gotten bigger, the for

like say the two thousand and eight race where mr obama decided not to accept public dollars but mr mccaindid obama no it's not like anyone at all when you think it was because of that not because of a more attractive vision i think that that really well that's an interesting thing so here's a question speaking of suitcases of cash grover norquist is a multimillionaire and a lobbyist and. he's he's out there freaked out right now and how do you convince a republican to raise taxes tell him that it's for defense right six hundred billion dollars in cuts to the pentagon because of there were pushed by the republicans you know if you that if the supercommittee doesn't do its deal we're going to have these automatic cuts now there's going to be the automatic cuts grover norquist is all freaked out lindsey because lindsey graham is talking about raising taxes so what do we do how how how our why are republicans willing to raise taxes to keep the war machine going but not willing to raise taxes for food stamps i think it's a glimpse into their morality i would say here you have forty nine millio

obama's won four years ago over mrs. mccain. >> first lady michelle obama's are called mama key's white and chocolate. >> mama kay, i think. >> don't confuse me with your fancy talk. anne romney made her cookies, and they are m&m cookies. she says her grandchildren cannot resist. we'll try them. >> good. >> get in there. >> let me try again. >> all right. >> i'm eating so much sweets lately. i hate myself. >> we'll talk friday, there is a new thing coming out, new study that says sugar makes you stupid. >> give me more. >> all right. what do you say? >> i have to say i kind of like both of them. i'm not trying to be nonpartisan. but i like the crunchiness of that one, but i love the chunky chocolatey bits of this one. >> it's going to be a close election? >> i think it's going to be very close. >> i am a practicing independent, but i'm going with mrs. romney. >> of course you are. >> you can find the recipes -- >> you're not committing? >> honestly, i like this sometimes, i like that. i do, honestly. delicious. by the way, for

mr. mccain: i don't dispute that point i say to my friend from illinois.here was no comprehensive immigration reform proposal that came over from the white house or from the democrats as was promised by then-senator obama when running for the presidency. that's a fact. mr. durbin: i would say to the senator from arizona as part of this colloquy we thought that would be the first step. we couldn't get past the first step because of republican filibuster. mr. mccain: i wish then that maybe president obama or senator obama when running for president said but first i'm coming over with the dream act. he didn't. he said my first act will be comprehensive immigration reform. it was invited over to the white house in the year 2009. we talked about comprehensive immigration reform. i said i will await a proposal from the administration on comprehensive immigration reform. my phone never rang. mr. durbin: i say to the senator from arizona perhaps the day will come in our lifetime when we can see that and you and i can work on it again as we once good did before. i

mr. mccain. >> i want to thank you for having bill clinton on, he's the gift that keeps on giving. >> the gift that keeps on giving. ron, is president clinton the gift that keeps on giving for republicans right now? >> i don't think anything that bill clinton has said this week is going to have any impact on the election in november. look, bill clinton is actually a very effective surrogate for barack obama. he's been that during the three fund-raisers that they did together recently, pointing out that the republican fiscal policies are essentially the same that have been tried in europe now for some months and have failed, demonstrablely failed in europe. so he can be very effective but occasionally, as we know, bill clinton can be a tad undisciplined. and i think if you look at those two remarks that you played, what you see is really bill clinton sort of speaking not as a politician because he's not really a politician anymore butbut really as a private citizen and speaking in a way that you and i might speak with some nuance. he wasn't saying he favored the extension of the bush tax c

mr. mccain: mr.president? mr. kerry: mr. president, i have eight unanimous requests for committees to meet during today's session of the senate. they have the approval of the majority leader and the minority leader. i ask that these requests be agreed to. and that they be printed in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. cane mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from arizona. mr. mccain: mr. president, over the last two weeks several members of this body and i have raised serious concerns about a series of leaks that recently appeared in several publications concerning certain military and intelligence activities, activities that the authors themselves cite as among the nation's most highly classified and sensitive. these enormously troubling leaks have raised concerns amongst both democrats and republicans in congress, including leaders of our intelligence, armed services, foreign relations and homeland security committees. according to senator dianne feinstein, who chair

mr. mccain said who benefits the most from it? >> right. if you look at all the leaks, the recent one webs anyway, they tend to portray the president in a resolute, decisive way. they show him being directly involved in some of these counterterrorism successes. the republicans don't have a lot of evidence that it's coming from the white house, although in the case of one of these leaks about an al qaeda operation, it appears that a national security official may have inadvertenty confirmed some of the information. it's mostly a process of deduction that if the leaks benefit the president politically, they might be coming from the white house. there's one other bit of evidence, which is if you think back to the anniversary of the osama bin laden raid, there was a lot of effort by the white house to capitalize that. i don't know if you can say they released specific classified information, but there's no question they let crews from nbc into the situation room and the white house is clearly eager to generate as much publicity around that as t

mr. mccain: mr. president, i ask that further proceedings under the quorum call be suspended and i be recognized. the presiding officer: the snoer from arizona, without objection. mr. mccain: thank you, madam president. over the past few months, there's been a disturbing stream of articles in the media. in common among them is that they cite leaked classified or highly sensitive information in what appears to be a broader administration effort to paint a portrait of the president of the united states as a strong leader on national security issues. information for which there is no legitimate reason whatsoever to believe should be in the public domain. indeed, the release of this information in these articles harms our national security and puts in danger the lives of the men and women who are sworn to protect it. what price is paid by the administration to proliferate such a highly presidential persona, highly valued in an election year? access ash access to -- access to senior administration officia

mr. mccain, 4 or poverty does not come up onepoor or poverty doest come up one time in those debates. three presidential debates and no conversation about the poor or poverty in this country. fast-forward four years later and half of your citizenry is in or near poverty, we unapologetically assert that we cannot abide another campaign for the white house where the issue of the poor is not addressed. we can't go from here to november letting mr. obama and the presumptive republican nominee mr. romney get away with having another contest where the contestation of poor people's humanity is the order of the day. so we put this book out now. deliberately and unapologetically. we do our small part to remind the nation that we cannot render poor people invisible. we cannot treat them as an afterthought. in a presidential election season we cannot treat them as a political calculation. we argue in this book it is the telling of truth that allows suffering to speak. if nobody tells the truth about the suffering of everyday people and nobody highlights the poverty that is so rampant in this cou

mr. mccain: i know it's the only way we're going to sox sofl this. i ask unanimous consent the senator from new hampshire be included and i know the senator from tennessee, snore corker -- -- shall senator corker is waiting. the senator from south carolina has stated the problem and a solution here. the problem is we face devastating impact on our national security. the solution is for our leaders and the president, if possible, convene a group of senators, whether it includes us or not is immaterial on both sides of the aisle on both sides of the capitol to sit down and work out so we can avoid this sequester. i will take responsibility for a sequester if that's what's necessary. but i will also say without concrete, significant, and meaningful action to cause this sequester to be prevented, we are risking the lives of our young men and women serving in the military. i don't know of a greater responsibility that we have. i ask the senator from new hampshire if she --. the presiding officer: the senator from new hampshire is recognized. ms. ayotte: i

mr. mccain: mr.resident, i ask unanimous consent that further proceedings under the quorum call be suspend and i be recognized. the presiding officer: without objection, is noter from arizona is recognized. mr. mccain: mr. president, today i am pleased to be joined by senator reid of nevada -- our distinguished majority leader, to introduce the boxing act of 201. it is identical to a measure reported during the 111th congress, after being approved unanimously by the senate? 2005. simply put, this legislation would better protect professional boxing from the fraud, corruption, and ineffective regulation that has plagued the support for too many years. and that has devastated fiscally and financially many of our nation's professional boxers. my involvement with boxing goes back a long way, first as a fan in my youth and what many view as the golden age of boxing in america, in the days of joe louis and billy kahn, sugar ray robinson, probably the greatest boxer in history, and kid gavilon, and the name

mr. mccain said this. >> you know that there's been tremendous turmoil in our financial markets in wall streple are frightened by these events. our economy i think still the fundamentals of our economy are strong but these are very, very difficult times. jon: he went onto explain, by the fundamentals he meant the fundamental values of the american worker and so forth. but barack obama seized on that in that debate and said, which economy are you thinking about? why can't mitt romney say the same thing in. >> this is not the same thing. the president didn't say the economy is doing great, the president said, the private sector is really doing fairly well, given what he talked about. jon: why aren't they hiring? >> they are not hiring because the corporations are sit on the profitsment that's what the problem is. putting tax breakgiving tax rates and putting money in the hands of the rich doesn't work. trickle down economics doesn't work here. >> they said i blame big corporate america for not hiring people that would have been a stronger argument explaining away tense of millions of unemploye

mr. mccain: so we're asking the defense department to plan on what our force structure will be, what our mission will be, what our capabilities will be beginning the 1st of october, and all i can see so far is a total gridlock on this issue. now, if somebody wants to say that it's our fault because we refused to -- quote -- "raise revenues" -- or the other sides insistence on that and a resistance to spending cuts ... but i'd ask my colleague, i don't we owe it to them and their families to stop sothing taphacll ofsgreelde it dd nn? an it t w y agtht'imsawn an started having serious negotiations, because there's no greater respoibily that the prtase t and the people' nd sitfs on no t tenro soara, be ask him to answer, traveled arnd his state, which i intend to do, to the various military ldpeitsut esio wre inou-reki ssboo of we'll be in doing the month of july -- we'll be in during the lyndba mofost of the month of dftoeper ussk cagtay d. heuen tis v rt qioo colleague from south carolina. i have a recollection that during one of the hearings you specifically askedheecry ule, iale dtiese,

mr. mccain: i know my other colleagues are waiting to speak. but last month when we voted down this amendment to allow drug reimportation from pharmacies that are accredited by both the canadian and american government, my statement was, in a normal world, this would probably require a voice vote. what we're about to see is the incredible influence of the special interests, particularly phrma, here in washington. so what you're about to see as i predicted just before the vote is the reason for the cynicism of the american people have about the way we do business in washington. phrma, one of the most powerful lobbies in washington, will exert its influence again at the expense of average, low-income americans who have again have to choose between medication and eating and in response to the senator from new jersey said in opposition to my amendment, he said, it's not the special interests that have caused the senate countless times to reject this policy. this is about the health and security of the american people. that's why time after time the

about shirley ableson offering to spend unlimited amounts of money in the us elections here's john mccain. mr adelson who gave large amounts of money to the gingrich campaign and much of mr eight oceans casino profits that go to him come from his casino in macao. which says what which says that obviously maybe in a roundabout way foreign money is coming into an american campaign political campaigns we do we really want communist chinese money influence you know it's already losing our elections two thousand and ten was the first election after citizens united and center for american progress to a study on where the chamber of commerce got a lot of its money from that it was running these super pac ads against democrats and a lot of it was coming from foreign sources hundreds of million hundreds of thousands of dollars of the tens of millions of dollars spent by the chamber attacking democrats came from foreign is this is this any way to run a country well i think in fairness i think you have to look at this question which is how about if when apple makes money it's not just making money unite

mr. lieberman: madam president, i thank senator mccain. i think he -- he spoke with real clarity and strength. it's exactly what we need to continue to do. i want to just go to this point that he made. some people say we shouldn't get involved in syria because we don't know who the opposition is and therefore we should be cautious before helping them. we have had the opportunity to meet the opposition and their leadership, both the political opposition and the military opposition, and i would tell you to the best of my judgment, i believe it's our judgment, these aren't extremists. these are syrian patriots. as senator mccain said, this whole movement started peacefully. they went out into the squares in big cities in syria. they were asking for more freedom. they weren't actually at the beginning asking for an overthrow of the assad's government, but what was assad's response? he turned his guns on them and started to kill them wantonly. when they decided there was no peaceful course because he rejected every compromise alternative that i

obama won the presidency with 53% of the vote, a healthy 7 percentage points more than senator john mccain. mr. obama won a larger margin of the white vote than any democratic presidential candidate since jimmy carter. but an analysis of google searches shows race was a factor in the 2008 election. according to a "new york times" article written by a doctoral candidate in economics at harvard university. the author analyzes google searches to determine where racial anmis is most heavily concentrated in the united states. the highest searched rate showed up in west virginia, western pennsylvania, eastern ohio, upstate new york, and southern mississippi, for example. the voter compared that to areas candidate obama may have underperformed in, the actual election and found a direct correlation. in fact, he claims racial animus caused president obama 3% to 5% of the popular vote. let's turn to ari melber, correspondent your "the nation." with google we're revealing our trues or so the thinking goes. people are caught unaware, off guard and revealing their true selves. do you think there's somethin

mr. mccain. host: but good to the democratic line. who is on with us? hello? you're on the air.yland? caller: hello? host: go ahead. caller: i don't like the fact that every time mitt romney is on the tv or publically speaking that he always breakings up obama's downfalls. he's human. i understand some of the things are a rational and uncalled for, but why is he constantly bringing himself up with his downfall? and i do not it think it is a good quality to have in president. i would appreciate it if he would stop, not that he will listen to me, but you do not have to bring yourself lot by putting other people down. your calls.taking the reminder on later coverage on c-span. bromley is starting a six-day tour -- romney is starting a six-day tour on this "every city counts" tour. next up, robert in maryland. is tihis robert? caller: no. host: we're getting them mixed. caller: i adore tehe caller that mentioned that blacks wants to send children to better school. they want to shut down funding for kids to have opportunities to go to good schools whether they are public or charter s

mr. jovi. >> let's talk about john mccain's daughter, megan. interviewed her, right? >> she has a new book out and her father is not a fan of the title. party'se grand old child. a lot of old-school like acans treat me freak. i like being a freak. >> megan mccain detailing her trip in "amica, you sexy b." withicling her advantage complete opposite, michael n black. >> i hated him. why did i get myself into this? >> while they were finding out what was behind america's red state and blue state divide, they interviewed everyone, even strippers. they give me great advice on men.ulating have to say. what surprised you? >> very few people would say i am a republican. i am a democrat.t. >> she didn't watch the film about her father'r's withesident sarah palin. >> i am not your puppet. >> i watched literally 10 minutes of it. it was too creepy. >> what did his dad think of his book?er's >> he hates the title. thinks it's disrerespectful to america. >> did you tell him about the racy stuff in there? he doesn't want to hear it, like, please, don't get arrerested. being the dad

>> reporter: well, republican senator john mccain responded directly to mr. david axelrod saying he doesn't know what planet the president is living on. jamie? >> jamie: peter doocy, have a great day. >> reporter: thanks. >> eric: president obama continues to face a bit of a rough patch over these comments and the ongoing investigation into the intelligence leaks, there are new concern this is week, dealing with the re-election. let's take a look at the latest fox news poll that shows if the election were held now, the president would be neck and neck with governor mitt romney, a noticeable drop for mr. obama compared to last month. when asked who would do better on the economy, governor romney has the edge. but the president fairs better in matters of national security and foreign policy, with the majority of respondents saying they prefer the president over governor romney. what are we to make of this and what can break the log jam in the polls? we have the former communications director for republicans. and a member of the democratic national committee and

i think most of the speakers have been pretty much in favor of what senator mccain said earlier today with the exception of mr. fishman who used the word skeptical. i was wondering if you could just delineate your plan for what happened in syria and how that separates yourself from everyone else. >> you've got me. touche. i think there is a program as some of the questions indicated of stepped up sanctions. i think that we need to work -- reach out to as many factions as possible in lebanon and iraq to limit the spread of what's going on there. i think we need to establish programs now and plans now to try to secure as many of syria's dangerous weapons as possible. i think in those cases that could involve buyback programs, direct strikes against those particular sites. none of those are perfect answers. uh think we should explore, as lee said, a really dedicated program to try to understand the syrian opposition such that we can make good decisions if we do want to support some of them in a program like david was talking about. i suspect lee is right, that we do have -- have developed that kind of knowledge

mccain. those are the facts, mr. rather, and they are grim.f you believe the media should be fair and balanced. just today the web site politico ran a about how the "the washington post" is coack obmiand vett muranis has a new book out called barack obama the story. that book documents the president's drug use as a young man. it was extensive. the "the washington post" ran that story on page 6. but earlier this month the post ran a 5500 word story on page 1 detailing mitt romney's high school hazing resume. i mean, come on. fair-minded people know that much of the media is actively working to see that barack obama is reelected. dan rather would never admit that but it's absolutely true. so the question becomes how much will the liberal press influence the election? and by the way there was a press blackout of the gender abortion planned parenthood scandal this week. total blackout. we'll deal with that in just a few moments. talking points believes the media will deliver some votes to barack obama next november and in a tight race, that could

mr. trumpca. >> senator john mccain yesterday on "meet the press" expressing his disgust for the supremety groups. one man taking advantage of the new system, nevada billionaire sheldon adelson telling kwbs forbes" magazine he's willing to sends up to $100 million. he has donated $30 million to super pacs in this election cycle. the chief white house correspondent rejoining us for politi politico, mike allen. mike, good morning. >> good morning. >> so this adelson ramping up of funding, saying he's willing to spend $100 million to defeat president obama has now become a bit of a fund-raising pitch for the obama campaign. >> well, that's right. back in the george w. bush presidential campaigns, conservatives had had a lot of fun going after george soros, the big democratic liberal donor that made him their sort of bogeyman. they made him someone they could rile up their supporters with. now the obama campaign is doing it with the casino owner. and surprising, because it's one of those names that you don't normally hear. but they want to make sheldon adelson as famous among liberals as geo

mr. obama was quoting john mccain. >> if we keep talking about the economy, we're going to lose. >> campaigning in florida, romney resurrected a claim repeatedly challenged by fact-checkers. >> this president is the one that cut $500 billion out of medicare. my plan is to protect and save medicare, to make sure it's there not just for current seniors, but for future seniors. >> i need a pacemaker. >> as factcheck.org points out, this ad that $500 million comes out of future medicare spending. the obama campaign defends its ad on the debt in massachusetts during romney's time as governor noting it increased by 16%, although that fact is not mentioned in that ad. but that 16% number is smaller than the 50% increase in the national debt under president obama's watch. just some context to put this out of context campaign in focus. >> the problem -- i love the fact checkers and i love trying to keep them honest, all of these candidates. the fact of the matter is a lot more people will see those attack ads on television than will ever see the actual fact checking results reported. >> that's right. so

mr. romney this time around. maybe he has learned a lesson from senator john mccain who's bus was called the straight campaign. his is another falsehood to drive his campaign. every town counts. mr. romney should realize in a presidential campaign, every word counts. even the slogan on his bus. stay with us. the day's top headlines are coming up. >> we have to come to grips with how big the challenge is and does that mean there will be fewer teachers? the honest answer is yes. managing my diabetes is part of my life, between taking insulin and testing my blood sugar... is this part of your life? freestyle lite test strips? why, are they any... beep! wow, that hardly needs any blood! yeah... and the unique zipwik tab targets the blood and pulls it in. so easy. freestyle lite needs just a third the blood of onetouch ultra. really? yep, which is great for people who use insulin and test a lot. max and i are gonna run out and get them right now. or you can call or click today and get strips and a meter free. test easy. ♪ power surge, let it blow your mind. [ male announcer ] for fruits, veggies and natural green te