McCain Forum.

After Dean Heller blathered on for several minutes about he was honored to have John McCain here, and noting how much more important Nevada was becoming in the selection process of both political parties, Senator McCain came to the raised stage.

Yeah, I know that bad joke about raising McCain, but whatever...

It was good the stage was raised, for that made it much easier to take pictures than it was at the Clinton town hall meeting of last Sunday.

McCain, despite having a reputation for a rotten temper, actually has a good sense of humor. He started off the event telling of what happened in California the other day. Apparently McCain ran into some protester there, who remarked that he (McCain) looked a lot like Senator McCain. The protester said, "Doesn't that make you mad has heck" That got a few laughs from the audience. He added he was glad to be here in "Nevada, Nevada, Nevada, Nevada," making sure he pronounced the state name correctly. He thanked the local GOP for sponsoring this event.

McCain thanked the veterans for being there. He told another military anecdote about a monkey who got "retired as an admiral," which generated a lot of laughs.

One of the issues of the day was why we, meaning Republicans, lost the 2006 elections. McCain claimed it wasn't because of Iraq but instead it was because of fiscal irresponsibility. "It was about spending." McCain is using the pork barrel issue as one of his signature issues. Republicans began to value power over principle, and the party lost sight over fiscal responsibility. He made note of a study about some $3 million dollars being spent on bears and DNA. McCain wasn't sure whether the study was for finding criminals or for paternity, but it was a waste of money in his view. Ronald Reagan used to say Congress spent money like a drunken sailor, but McCain said he never met a sailor, drunk or sober, who had the imagination of some of his colleagues. Then he repeated the line about the email he got from a former drunken sailor who took offense at the comparison to Congress.

McCain talked about Reagan's veto in 1987 of a highway bill and how the president hated the outrageous amount of money being spent. McCain then went on to talk about the "bridge to nowhere," not referring to his campaign but to a project in Alaska that cost millions of dollars for a road to an island which only had about 50 people living there. McCain called it "disgraceful" and noted other things that could have been better spent than that. He promised that the first "pork barrel bill that comes on my desk I am going to veto it."

McCain then looked up at some woman who said she was trying to open the door to let some of the warm air out. Not missing a beat, McCain said, "I think she thinks there's a lot of hot air in this room."

More later...