McCain, Kelly Both On NBC's Meet the Press On Sunday

Arizona continues its over-sized presence on national Sunday news shows - and, on the national political scene in general - this weekend, as senior Senator John McCain (R-AZ) and ret. Space Shuttle Commander - and husband of ret. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) - both are interviewed on NBC's Meet the Press.

McCain will primarily be questioned about the ongoing drama surrounding the nomination of former friend and GOP colleague Chuck Hagel for Secretary of Defense.  McCain joined his fellow Republican Senators in opposing the nomination in the Armed Services Committee and in opposing bringing it to a vote in the full Senate, but he did defend Hagel's integrity when Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) was questioning whether Hagel had received speaking fees from "radical and extreme groups".

McCain was among the Republican Senators at the forefront of refusing to allow the nomination to be brought to the floor for a vote this week, stating that he and others still had questions about the President's knowledge and actions during the Benghazi attack.  McCain has signaled that - even though the Administration did not appear to further answer any of the questions - he would support voting on the nomination after the Senate returns from its week-long recess.  (Expect David Gregory to question him about this apparent gamesmanship.)

Mark Kelly has become one of the most prominent voices in the front-and-center debate on reducing gun violence.  Kelly and Giffords formed Americans for Responsible Solutions to support elected officials/candidates who support measures such as universal background checks.  Here is the ad that Kelly and Giffords planned to air earlier this week surrounding President Obama's State of the Union address.

While Kelly and McCain have been Arizona's* two most prominent voices on Sunday morning news shows so far this year, several other Grand Canyon Staters have taken part in the Beltway tradition, easily outpacing what would be Arizona's per-capita representation on the national stage.  (I will do the numbers if challenged on this, but I am Nate Silver-confident in this statement.)


* Kelly is probably spending more living time in Arizona since Giffords retired and moved back to Tucson to continue rehab, and McCain is probably spending less since spending every Sunday in D.C. studios.



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WATCH: Arizona Rep. Franks Brings Back PreNDA, Restores Controversial "Race-Selection Abortion", Criminalization Provisions

If a watered-down version of your bill gets voted down, what do you do in the next Congressional session?  If you are Arizona Rep. Trent Franks (R-CD8), you go back to the original, much more controversial version of the bill.

Ahead of speaking at this weekend's "Endangered Genders Symposium", Franks has reintroduced his bill to criminalize abortions performed on the basis of race-selection or sex-selection.  Franks has been the primary sponsor of this controversial measure since 2008.

Last year, he was able to get the House of Representatives to debate and vote on the Prenatal Non-Discrimination Act ("PreNDA"), and it fell short of the 2/3 majority it needed (290), 246-168.  However, to get that it to a vote, it was stripped of the portion that dealt with "race-selection abortions" , and provisions that criminalized the performance of "sex-selection abortions".  It permitted civil actions against providers, required loss of federal funding and reporting requirements.

The stripped provisions are back in the newly-introduced version.  And, likely for a variety of reasons, the 2013 version has four fewer co-sponsors than the 2012 bill.  (For example, Arizona's Jeff Flake moved from the House to the Senate; he has not co-sponsored the Senate version of the bill.)  In fact, the Senate version has lost 23 co-sponsors between 2012 and 2013.

Notwithstanding Arizona's Politics requests, Franks' office last year declined to comment on whether the Congressman agreed to the pared-down version, and how it came to be that PreNDA and other abortion bills last year were set up to require a 2/3 majority vote to move on to the Senate.

Arizona's Politics compared (available upon e-mail request) the texts of the initial 2012 H.R. 3541 and this year's H.R. 447 (introduced Feb. 1, 2013): it makes some minor changes and adds some new, controversial supporting material for the resolution.  Without naming Planned Parenthood by name, it states:

(D) A thorough review of the history of the American population control movement and its close affiliation with the American Eugenics Society reveals a history of targeting certain racial or ethnic groups for `family planning'. This history likely contributes to the current statistic that a Black baby is five times as likely to be aborted as a White baby, often in a federally subsidized clinic.

Franks and other like-minded individuals have been trying to connect Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger's with the early 20th century eugenics movement, and bring that forward to the organization's current efforts.

To that end, Franks continues to speak out every opportunity he gets.  "We are besieged by a racist abortion policy, and the whole abortion industry came out of the eugenics movement where they were deliberately trying to decimate the Black population." (from the 2009 interview where he said it might be time for a second Civil War).

Planned Parenthood has a page devoted to refuting many of the claims about Sanger and racial motivations.

Here is video of Franks' opening statement last May on the stripped-down bill, where he states that now, "the three deadliest words in the English language are 'it's a girl!":


(*When Franks first introduced this bill in 2008, he only had 5 cosponsors.  The next year, he had 49, and in 2011-12, he gathered 98 co-sponsors.  To date, the 2013 version has 94 co-sponsors.)

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WATCH: Rep. Schweikert and His Wife Play Funky Game, On Valentine's Day?!?; Minority Youth Don't Need Higher Minimum Wage, Need Training Wage

Arizona Rep. David Schweikert (R-CD6) was a guest this morning on C-Span's Morning Journal program.  The first question out of the box was about his reaction to President Obama's call to raise the federal minimum wage over the next two years to $9/hour.

Schweikert responded by talking about a game he and his wife like to play.  On Valentine's Day, that sounded like a dangerous opening.

"My wife and I have a little game we play.  It's called 'Think Like An Economist.'  If the President really, really is concerned about, you know, urban unemployment of youth, particularly minority youth, which is just astronomical numbers, you would have thought the proposal would have been for this population, for these urban areas, I'm going to do a training wage, those things necessary to expand employment.  Because we know in the economics models, you know, think like an economist, raising the minimum wage, what, almost 20%, is going to raise their unemployment.  So, look, it's great pandering to the political base, but it's really bad economics."



As noted in this Los Angeles Times article, there ARE a number of economists who are not certain that this is the right time to raise the minimum wage.  The article also points out that the average hourly wage in this country is currently close to $20/hour.

In the 45-minute interview, Schweikert weighed in on many issues, including the gun violence debate ("Time to do policy by facts, not feelings") and the GOP's lack of hoped-for success in last year's elections ("Actually, I lay it out as somewhat of a failure of telling our story").






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WATCH: McCain Questions Military Leaders On "Orwellian Experience" Of Sequestration Defense Cuts

Arizona Senator John McCain (R-AZ) questioned the military leaders before the Senate Armed Services Committee today, and drew them out on their fears of the fast-approaching sequestration cuts on defense spending.  He opened with a statement/question which he barely gave them a moment to answer:

"It's kind of, would you say, an Orwellian experience?  Here we are, looking at these draconian cuts, already some of the manifestations of, the requirements of which are taking place.  Meanwhile, it's a day after North Korea tests another nuclear weapon, Iraq is unraveling, the Iranians just rejected  the Vice President's proposal last weekend for one on one talks concerning nuclear weapons, Libya is obvious, Mali, Egypt in a state of unrest,  now Tunisia.  We're probably in a more unsettled period since the end of the Cold War than certainly I have ever seen. Would you agree with that assessment?  Meanwhile, we are now the signal we are sending, frankly, to the Iranians,is don't worry, this aircraft carrier is not coming.  This is really a disconnect the likes of which I have never seen before."


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WATCH: McCain Defends Hagel's Integrity, "No One...Should Impugn His Integrity"

The Senate Armed Services Committee meeting this afternoon considering the nomination of former Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) as Secretary of Defense was considerably lengthened after the statement by new Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX).  Cruz claimed that it is unclear whether Hagel had received speaking fees from "radical and extreme groups."

Committee Chair Carl Levin (D-MI) engaged in a lengthy discussion with Cruz about the calls for more time and more information.  Florida Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) then criticized Cruz for "over the line" attacks on Hagel's patriotism.

Arizona Senator and former Hagel friend John McCain (R-AZ) then got a big thank you smile from Nelson when he decided to enter - and end - the tense debate:  "I just want to make it clear, Senator Hagel is a honorable man.  He has served his country, and no one on this Committee, at any time, should impugn his character or his integrity."



That got the statements back on track, and McCain voted "no", along with the rest of Hagel's former GOP colleagues.  However, the nomination was passed along to the rest of the Senate.



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WATCH: McCain Statement On Hagel, Senate Armed Services Committee: "Worst" Performance Ever

Arizona Senator John McCain (R-AZ) said that Secretary of Defense nominee Chuck Hagel's appearance two weeks ago in front of the Senate Armed Services committee was "the worst that I've seen from any nominee for office. He refused to answer a simple, straightforward question as to whether the surge was a success or not, and whether he supported it or not.  That was a key moment in the history of this country"

McCain, who used to be friends with Hagel and touted him as a possible Secretary of Defense during McCain's 2000 run for the Presidency, did later briefly defend Hagel's honor when it was under attack by other GOP Senators.  However, the McCain-Hagel showdown on January 31 still weighed heavily on McCain today: "He did not want to be forthcoming to this Committee."



McCain joined his fellow Republicans in voting against the nominee, who was a Republican Senator from Nebraska.  The nomination was passed on to the entire Senate, and McCain has indicated that he would not try to filibuster the nomination.



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Sheriff Arpaio Campaign Re-"Calls Out" Recall Committee To Publish Donors; Silent As To Releasing Own Results

(UPDATE, 3:33p.m.: Sheriff Arpaio's Campaign Manager Chad Willems responded to Arizona's Politics, declining to "go into details about fundraising at this point."  He notes that Arpaio's donors "are very engaged in this effort".)

The campaign manager for Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio renewed his call today for the committee collecting signatures to recall Arpaio to release their donors.  Chad Willems was responding to an Arizona Republic Opinion page piece by the chair of the Respect Arizona campaign, William Fisher.

Fisher disputed the Republic's previous editorial claiming that the committee had already raised $1.3 Million, and stated that it is "a little less than $100,00", and that it is funded by "mostly small donations."

In a news release, Willems claims that "(i)f Mr. Fisher and the committee truly 'respect' Arizona voters, they should immediately release the names and the amounts of those that have given to the effort thus far."  (The complete text of Willems' news release is below the jump.)

Neither Arpaio nor his attempted recallers are required to file campaign finance reports until after the recall is certified for the ballot.  Arpaio's last finance report indicated that he had more than $388,000 cash on hand following November's successful re-election bid.  (Arpaio is now serving his sixth four-year term.)

Arizona's Politics has asked Willems on more than one occasion for an update on how much the Arpaio campaign has raised from last week's hard-edged fundraising e-mail, and whether his campaign would be releasing information similar to what he is calling for from the recall committee.  Willems has not addressed those requests.

Both the Republic's editorial - by the entire Editorial Board - and Willems (in last week's news release) incorrectly claimed that the recall organizers had raised or claimed to have raised $1.3 Million.  As Arizona's Politics first reported, that $1.3 Million figure was a back of the envelope calculation by a petition circulating company who was NOT working with the recall committee.

Respect Arizona apparently has big groups of both volunteer petition circulators and paid petition gatherers out of the streets.  (Arizona's Politics has been approached twice already to sign the petition.)

WATCH: "Take It From Me: Congress Must Act....": Gabby Giffords' First TV Ad

Retired Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, Ret. Cpt. Mark Kelly, have released the first television ad for their new anti-gun violence Super PAC, Americans For Responsible Solutions.

In it, Giffords, who is recovering from her near-assassination two years ago, is the only voice heard on the ad, though Kelly is standing by her side when the two are on camera at the end of the ad.

The ad finishes with Giffords saying, "Take it from me.  Congress must act!  Let's get this done!"  The  ad asks viewers to join us, and the body of the ad addresses the proposed partial solution of universal background checks.

Arizona's Politics is seeking information on when and where the ad is running, and how much is being spent on it.  We will update when we receive an answer.  (However, Politico is reporting that they are hoping to bookend tomorrow's State of the Union address with the ad, and that they are planning another fundraiser for tomorrow.)




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