'Past His Prime' McCain Makes a Good Case for Term Limits The row between Sens. John McCain (R – AZ) and Rand Paul (R – KY) over a vote on Montenegro’s NATO membership bid continued into its second day, with Sen. Paul today suggesting the 80-year-old Senate Armed Services chairman is “past his prime” and that his “unhinged” behavior makes a strong case for having term limits in the Senate.
Sen. McCain was seeking a unanimous consent vote on Montenegro joining NATO yesterday, and failed to get it when Sen. Paul expressed his objection to the measure and walked out. A furious McCain railed against Paul, declaring that he “is now working for Vladimir Putin,” and insisting there was no good reason to deny Montenegro membership.
Sen. Paul issued a statement yesterday following the incident arguing that with the US so deeply in debt and already involved in so many places overseas, it would be irresponsible to take on more military obligations, and a new NATO member would be another nation the US is obliged to defend.
Sen. Paul noted in his comments today that the Montenegrins are not even strongly supportive of the government’s NATO bid, with polling showing them split on the matter, saying that like Ukraine they appear to be in a transitional stage between ties with Europe and Asia, and that there was nothing wrong with them remaining neutral.