POLITICO

Durbin disses Ariz., angering McCain

By MARIN COGAN | 5/26/10 7:30 PM EDT
Comments 18


Sen. John McCain is upset by a colleague's remarks towards Arizona. AP

John McCain really doesn't like it when his colleagues talk smack on Arizona.

As Sens. Dick Durbin and Bob Menendez were on the Senate floor criticizing McCain's amendment to send 6,000 National Guardsmen to the border — and to deploy troops within 72 hours — Durbin wondered if the Arizona delegation didn't need some time to cool off and re-think their positions on immigration.

"I wonder if we shouldn't declare a time-out in Arizona for at least some thoughtful reflection about what works and what doesn't. It seems that there's no end to ideas that are being propounded down there to respond to situations, real and imagined. And these amendments are clear evidence," Durbin said.

Then he turned up the heat. "The McCain amendment calls for deployment within 72 hours?" Durbin said. "I'd ask the senator if he's dealt with these guard families and has any idea what impact this might have on their lives?"

The senators then yielded the floor for John Barrasso to speak, but McCain was having none of it. While Barrasso was mid-sentence, McCain came onto the floor and cut him off to ask Durbin a simple question.

"I understand the senator from Illinois was talking about Arizona and the border. I wonder if the senator from Illinois has ever been to the Arizona border?"

Durbin seemed surprised, but not cowed. "Is that a question to me?" he asked. "I don't know if it's proper, but yes, I've been to Nogales and I've seen both sides of the border."

"It's pronounced 'Nogalis,'" McCain snarked.

"I've been there," Durbin said, "And you're welcome in Illinois, too."

"I've been there any times," McCain said. "It's obvious that the senator from Illinois, even though he may have been there, has no conception of what the people who live in southern Arizona are suffering under with hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants and human smugglers and drug smuggling going on through our state. But I'm glad he's such an expert, he and the senator from New Jersey, on the terrible problems that afflict our state and our need to try to get our borders secure, which every citizen has the right to expect."

And with that, the senators let Barrasso get back to the important business: thanking his departing chief of staff for his hard work.

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