Sen. John McCain played 'VIP Poker' on his iPhone as colleagues debate bombing Syria

[Permalink]

1 Like

The Senate is sometimes called the ā€œworldā€™s greatest deliberative body.ā€ [citation needed]

3 Likes

Politicians! Theyā€™re just like us when weā€™re at our work meetingsā€¦except instead of ignoring debates about what kind of pens we should buy, they ignore debates about the future deaths of thousands of people.

12 Likes

Grist for the Photoshop millā€¦

1 Like

Manchild doesnā€™t take his job seriously unless heā€™s trying to win credibility for his desperate, insecure ego, thatā€™s McCain 24/7.

2 Likes

So, who wants to bet that the ā€œSUPPORT OUR TROOPS!!!ā€ brigade will not reach the obvious conclusion that fucking around on your phone during the process of deciding whether or not to commit said troops to meatgrinderstan is a failure to ā€˜supportā€™ them?

1 Like

They all gamble with our futures.

4 Likes

Nice to see that after wanting to suspend the 2008 campaign to deal with the financial crisis and being told by Obama that Presidents must be able to do more than one thing at a time, that McCain has finally embraced the idea of multitasking.

2 Likes

13 Likes

Besides some eyerolling, itā€™s not a giant deal. Whatā€™s annoying is that McCain can dismiss this with a ā€œOops, caught me!ā€ If it was John Kerry or Obama who did that, it would be HOW DARE THEY TAKE OUR TROOPS FOR GRANTED WITH THEIR COMMIE SOCIALISTS ELITE WEB APPS KSAJFCSKLFJSK etc.

4 Likes

Seeing him play on his phone at an important time is not a big deal to me, I would be doing the same thing in his shoes because thatā€™s how I pay attention to dry preachy speaking instead of letting my mind wonder. Itā€™s really not a big deal on par with doodling in the margins.

However, John McCain is the type that would instantly condemn anyone for the same thing as well as the type who tries to present himself as a picture perfect war hero and not the doddering old man he is. That is what aggravates me about this, and itā€™s such a pervasive hypocrisy that continues to drive me insane with politics. To be honest, the approach journalism has a habit of taking doesnā€™t help anything at all. Wow, you exposed our Senate as people instead of American mensches that deserve their over-bloated sense of self. This is the way anyone at any job acts, and itā€™s not even like John McCain is the type to be on the fence about Syria anyways.

2 Likes

Yeah, you know, I am NOT a zero tolerance kind of a guy by any stretch of the imagination, but in my slightly saner world this incident right here would result in a recall election or in the very least, some sort of serious censure. No Democrat, Republican or Pirate party voter should tolerate shit like that. Thatā€™s the thing that now disturbs me most about America - there no longer seems to be ANY area of convictions that transcends politics and is firmly planted in an inalienable Americanism. Of course I feel that the NSA thing should be a slam dunk for the glorious resurgence of this ostensible concept of liberty americanus but sadly I am mistaken on that front. But it seems like maybe, just maybe, something like this - a rotten old political careerist playing ipoker while a matter of utmost national gravity is afoot - would be obscene enough to jolt a critical mass into action and say, ā€œyeah, enoughā€™s enough. this shit has to change. NOW.ā€

Christ, what an asshole.

Didnā€™t know the Jitterbug phone had a poker game on it.

9 Likes

Iā€™m fairly sure that every phone has poker on it.

If you can provide a comparable corporate meeting agenda that wouldnā€™t get someone fired for doing that, then ill entertain your viewpoint.

And for what itā€™s worth his extreme bias isnā€™t a defence, thatā€™s just another problem area isnā€™t it?

Heā€™s supposed to be there representing his people. But heā€™s not. Heā€™s there representing himself and his friends, well at least he would be if he was paying attention.

His dismissive ā€œoh, wellā€ defence is also disgusting - this is not a man that works for the people, and heā€™s not even pretending he is. Thatā€™s a big issue when it comes to politics.

This man should be listening to different view points, balancing the numbers and pondering the facts. The fact that he made up his mind on day 1 and is now just sticking his fingers in his ears is a gross abuse of his position and is the exact opposite of how he should be doing his job.

6 Likes

His ā€œpeopleā€ are the State of Arizona, which unfortunately would probably support nuking Syria if the question was put to them directly. But only if there was an amendment to also nuke Mexico.

maybe. but i think crap poker app is significantly different than doodling, or even working on a crossword puzzle. these are fuzzy lines, of course. his brain is inside the room? vs. his brain is outside the room?

But Iā€™m sure you appreciate thatā€™s not the point.

If I asked my representative why he voted for something and his only reason was ā€˜because you told me toā€™ then heā€™d still not be doing his job. Representation doesnā€™t necessarily mean agreement, we vote for someone to make difficult, informed decisions on our behalf, something heā€™s clearly not doing.

(We, as in in democratic nations, Iā€™m not American)

1 Like

Does your job involve decisions about dropping massive amounts of explosives on people? Because if not, what you might do in a meeting vs. what these people might do in a meeting arenā€™t comparable in any sense. Do regular folk screw around during meetings? Of course. But regular folk arenā€™t part of the decision of what to do with the worldā€™s most powerful military force.

4 Likes