WASHINGTON — One of the Senate’s leading hawks, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), took to the Senate floor Thursday to fire back at Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), saying the Kentuckian’s rant against extrajudicial drone killings was “simply false.”
Quoting extensively from a Wall Street Journal editorial that mocked Paul, McCain also argued that Paul had belittled the growing use of drones to kill terrorism suspects by invoking the name of Jane Fonda and suggesting a drone could have killed her when she was a Vietnam War protester.
Paul took to the floor Wednesday for nearly 13 hours, hoping to pressure the White House to declare whether or not it might use a drone to strike an American citizen in the United States.
McCain, a former Vietnam prisoner of war, was not impressed.
“I watched some of that, quote, debate, unquote, yesterday,” McCain said. “I saw colleagues who know better come to the floor and voice some of this same concern, which is totally unfounded.
This bi-polar reaction from Graham and McCain baffles me. One minute both are obsessing over Benghazi and the next week they are both chiding one of their own over the criticism of President Obama and the use of drones.
I tend to side with McCain and Graham at this point. I see little difference in a Apache helicopter, a Patriot missile or a drone. All are weapons or have weapons that can take out city blocks. All can kill. At what point does killing become killing?
