PHOENIX - The "danged fence" ad is giving John McCain some danged problems. Senator McCain made the ad to tout his border security plan but instead, it has forced him to defend himself against accusations of flip-flopping on the issue.
Seeking a 5th term in the U.S. Senate, McCain has made immigration the core of his re-election campaign.
"The whole issue can be resolved by securing the border and then moving forward with comprehensive immigration reform. But if you don't secure the border then you just have continuous flow," McCain told FOX 10.
But in 2006, McCain took a much different approach. That's when he partnered with the late Senator Ted Kennedy on an immigration reform bill. It did call for stepped-up border security, but it focused more on providing a path to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants.
"Are we a nation that is nativists? Are we a nation that refuses to allow people who come here, for the most legitimate of reasons the same reason our forefathers came here?" McCain has said.
You see other congressional incumbents across the country, both Democrat and Republicans alike, that are modifying or "flip-flopping" on some of their previous stances.
Fast forward to 2010 -- what has turned out to be McCain's toughest re-election bid -- the battle against former Congressman JD Hayworth.
On his campaign website, Hayworth attacks McCain's border plan. Hayworth says, "Here's the problem. John McCain is part of the federal government he's been part of the federal government for the past 28 years. He was supposed to have been protecting us and the protecting the border."
McCain counters by saying, "The fact is that in 2007 I said we had to secure the borders first. I ran for president specifically saying we had to secure the borders first."
On Monday, Senators McCain and Jon Kyl sent a letter to President Obama, asking that National Guard troops be deployed to the border.
Read the letter
"When President Felipe Calderón visits the White House on Wednesday, he will likely share with you the grim details of his valiant fight against the powerful Mexican drug cartels. At least 22,000 Mexican citizens have been killed since 2006 due to the violent activities of the cartels.
"It is not just the citizens of Mexico who fear for their safety. The violence has crossed the border and escalated to a point where many Arizonans do not feel safe within their own homes or on their own property. They feel that they live in a lawless area of the country and have been abandoned by the federal government, which has a duty to protect its citizens by securing the nations borders. The violence along the border has greatly escalated since President Bush deployed the National Guard to the border in 2006 and has now taken the lives of innocent Americans.
"The governors of Arizona and Texas have requested the deployment of the National Guard, and the governor of New Mexico has deployed his states National Guard to the border. We again urge you to deploy at least 6,000 National Guardsmen to protect our southern border, with 3,000 of these troops focused on the Arizona/Mexico border.
"We believe this would immediately improve the safety of Americans and help secure our border. As we have detailed to your administration over the last month, we also strongly urge you to work with us to provide funding for our 10-point plan to secure the Arizona-Mexico border. It would be irresponsible not to do everything we can to stop the escalating violence along the border with Mexico."
McCain has been in office (House of Representatives/Govenor/Senator) for 28 incompetent years, he has lied, weazled, flip-floped, waffled and made every excuse in the book why our borders are not secure, now what in the hell could this traitor do, or say, to change anything?
It took a WOMAN with more balls and guts, less talk and more action, to do what he was elected to, but didn't in all those wasted 28yrs!
Fk McCain!
Goldi: "He is so offensive, he makes me dislike all people of his color."
