Rand Paul and John McCain Go to War Over ISIS Vote
How a "nice little water bill" sparked a battle between a 2016 White House hopeful and the GOP's top hawk.
BY ALEX BROWN
December 4, 2014
A high-profile clash of Republican senators erupted Thursday after Sen. Rand Paul made a surprise, last-minute effort to force a vote on a declaration of war against the Islamic State.
The battle pitted Paul, a likely presidential contender who is wary of foreign entanglements, against Sen. John McCain, a past Republican White House nominee who remains his party's highest-profile defense hawk. The dispute between the upstart and the Old Bull was as much about respect for Senate procedure and tradition as it was about the deep foreign policy differences that divide the two men.
Paul's plan was to tie his proposal to an obscure water bill during a procedural lame-duck meeting of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Republicans on the committee were outraged, saying the move was a hasty and ill-conceived method to addressing a weighty issue.
"It was the most bizarre meeting of the Foreign Relations Committee that I have ever attended in my life or ever expected to attend," McCain said. "A water bill, a nice little water bill, uncontroversial. … It was ludicrous. It's a living, breathing argument against lame-duck sessions."
For Paul, the unusual move was one of necessity. He believes it's imperative for Congress to weigh in on the ISIS conflict before it leaves town—even if it takes a rushed vote on an unrelated bill to get it done. The Kentucky Republican has cultivated a reputation for absolute fealty to the Constitution, and he believes the White House currently lacks the authority to engage the terrorist state without congressional go-ahead. Failing to act, he said, is to be complicit in executive overreach if and when the administration puts American forces into the fight.
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