John McCain, swing senator?
If Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a Democrat, run against each other in 2016, the Arizona Republican’s vote is up for grabs.
“It’s gonna be a tough choice,” the Arizona Republican said with a laugh in a New Republic interview published Wednesday.
He went on: “Let me just clarify that. I think that Rand Paul represents a segment of the GOP, just like his father. And I think he is trying to expand that, intelligently, to make it larger.”
It's a bold remark from a senator who, faced with an increasingly extreme party, is foregoing party loyalties.
McCain first took on took on Paul and other Tea Party senators this Spring, when they began holding the budget process hostage, asking that the debt ceiling not be raised as ransom. McCain criticized the group as “wacko birds” who would “paralyze the process.”
On Clinton, McCain had more positive words: as secretary of state: She "did a fine job," he said. And as a person? "She’s a rock star. She has, maybe not glamour, but certainly the aura of someone widely regarded throughout the world."