Q&A: John McCain unfiltered

In an a news conference in LeMars Saturday with Iowa Independent and print and television media, U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., passionately defended an immigration compromise now before Congress and called for more nuclear power to be added to the nation’s energy mix to help break dependence on foreign oil.

McCain, a leading GOP candidate for the presidency, dismissed the notion that rural Americans are doing a disproportionate share of the fighting and Iraq.

He also spoke briefly about his friend and rival for the GOP nomination, former U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn.

The following is text of McCain’s responses to questions from Iowa Independent and the Associated Press.

Iowa Independent: Senator, on gas prices, that’s a big topic around western Iowa. Our congressman, Steve King, has sent out a statement and made comments saying he thinks its liberal environmentalists who are blocking the development of new refineries. If you talk to people at the pump, they think it is local people gouging them or oil companies with their record profits not taking any of the profits and investing in new refineries. Who should people be angry with when they are at the pump?

McCain: I think they should be upset about the entire situation which exists today, our dependency on foreign oil, our failure to move much more quickly on nuclear power and other alternative energy sources. I think it’s very obvious when there is a scarce commodity people will take advantage of that. But I don’t think that’s the root of the problem.

I think the root of the problem is we continue to have an increasing demand for a finite resource. India and China are now obviously taking more of that and other improving economies but we have to move toward reducing dependence on foreign oil and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Nuclear power, solar, wind, biofuels, ethanol, all kinds of ethanol, not just corn-based, but also sugar cane, switchgrass, etc. There’s a compelling national interest both from a national security standpoint but also from a climate standpoint. It hits hard on people who are on fixed incomes. I think it lends urgency for us to do it.

I hate to keep coming back to nuclear power. But the technology is there. The ability is there. Eighty percent of the French electricity is generated by nuclear power. We can do it. It’s a psychological problem more than anything else in my view and it’s a shame that we’re not moving more quickly in that direction. Is that the only answer? No. But it’s got the advantage of a large injection of energy and it reduces greenhouse gas emissions.

Iowa Independent: On Iraq, a disproportionate number of the people serving are from rural areas, from small population counties, from cities under a certain population size. What are your thoughts on the burden rural America is shouldering in this war? In many ways it’s rural America’s foreign war. We just have so many people from our small towns and small counties serving in Iraq and the military today.

 McCain: I don’t think the numbers bear out that assertion. I think they’re from all over America. They’re not from the wealthiest Americans. I will admit that. I have no statistic that indicates they’re mostly from rural America.

 Associated Press: Other people in this race have criticized your immigration plan. How much of their criticism do you think is motivated by political opportunism?

McCain: All of it. As you well know, all other of the nine announced Republican candidates, including Senator (Fred) Thompson, have opposed this plan. My response to that is I respect your disagreement but what is your proposal?

What is your proposal that will be supported by the president, that will have a majority in both houses so we can sign it into law?

Otherwise, if you don’t have a proposal that means you are satisfied with the status quo and the status quo is unacceptable. Fort Dix just proved that. Three people who crossed our southern border wanted to attack Fort Dix and kill Americans. So what is your proposal?

I’m not questioning anyone’s motives. I can’t divine any of those. But what I am saying it seems you have an obligation if you oppose our president, the leader of our Republican party, and those of us conservative and liberal Republicans, with Democrats, to do what the American people expect us to do and that’s to come up with a solution.

Is anything short of deporting 12 million amnesty? It’s a pretty tough regimen that we are putting people through if they want to have the ability to attain citizenship over a 13-year period. I do think that it’s not really appropriate to call what we’re trying to do amnesty and I do hope that when people examine our proposal they would agree with that.

Can’t we have a respectable dialogue on this?

 Associated Press: What do you think of former Senator Fred Thompson’s affect on the GOP presidential field?

McCain: He’s certainly qualified. He’s already been president two or three times. (Thompson is an actor).

 Iowa Independent: Just about every profile I’ve read on him says he’s lazy. That’s the knock on him. Is he lazy?

McCain: No. We’re very close friends. You know we sat next to other in the Senate. No, I certainly would not say that.