McCain to Aides on Palin Book: This Will Pass

ABC News' Kate Snow reports:

So what does John McCain really think of Palin's book?

Sources tell ABC that there was a conference call on Friday between McCain and many of his top former aides.

On the call, McCain essentially told them that he would prefer that they stay out of the Palin book coverage and not engage in a public debate with Palin. But he told also them he understood if they needed to refute factual errors or protect their own reputations.

Says one aide in the know: “He apologized to everyone on the call for people having to go through this. Said something like ‘You are all my dear friends. This will pass. It’ll pass faster if everyone will just stay out of it.’”

He talked about being proud of the campaign they ran and said he’s moved on, they’ve moved on and he was sorry that the aides were having to go through this.

McCain himself received a signed copy of Palin’s book on Friday. Aides say the Senator hasn’t actually spoken with Palin in months.

McCain Feels ‘Sympathy’ for Obama on Afghanistan

ABC News' Teddy Davis reports:

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is stepping up pressure on President Obama to go forward with a planned troop build-up in Afghanistan despite rising opposition to the move from some members of the president's own party.

“I have some sympathy for the president but I think the president was right during the campaign and I think he was right in March when he said we have to prevent Afghanistan from becoming a terrorist haven,” said McCain.

McCain stepped up pressure on his 2008 rival while participating in a conversation with Rober Kagan which was sponsored by the conservative Foreign Policy Initiative at the W Hotel in Washington, D.C.

McCain's remarks came one day after
the Washington Post reported that Gen. McChrystal has sent Defense Secretary Robert Gates a confidential assessment which states that he needs more forces in Afghanistan within the next year and that without them, the eight-year conflict “will likely result in failure.”

During his Tuesday foreign policy talk, McCain repeatedly said that he has “sympathy” for his 2008 rival because opposition to “further engagement in Afghanistan” runs high on the Left, which McCain characterized as President Obama's political base.

“I have some sympathy . . . But it's a tough job,” said McCain. “Throughout history leaders have gone against the majority of public opinion either in their party or in the country.”

McCain portrayed the US challenge in Afghanistan as being similar to the US decision to pursue a “surge” strategy in Iraq.

“If you try to win a conflict on the cheap . . . then you most likely fail,” said McCain.

McCain is not alone among high-profile Republicans pressuring Obama on Afghanistan.

In an interview with FORTUNE magazine which was released on Tuesday, former Bush Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said: “The last time we left Afghanistan, and we abandoned Pakistan…that territory became the very territory on which Al Qaeda trained and attacked us on September 11th…It’s that simple. If you want another terrorist attack in the U.S., abandon Afghanistan.”

ABC News' Rick Klein contributed to this report.

Palin Hasn’t Spoken to McCain in ‘Weeks’; Says ‘Department of Law’ Would Protect Her in White House

ABC News’ Kate Snow and Rick Klein report:

A few more tidbits from ABC News’ interview with Gov. Sarah Palin, R-Alaska, shed light on her thinking surrounding her decision to announce her resignation — and on her relationship with her former running mate.

Palin told Kate Snow that she didn’t give Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a head’s up about her bombshell announcement to leave her seat early.

Asked about the last time she spoke with him, she responded only that she “left him a message a couple of weeks ago” when Exxon announced June 11 that it would work to build a natural gas pipeline in Alaska.

Asked about whether she touched base with him in advance of Friday’s resignation announcement, Palin responded:

“Didn’t tell him I was going to do this, but he is very astute, he is very sharp, he knew too that the distractions in the state — he knows me well enough to know that I am wired to not want to waste any time or any kind of resource. I want to get the job done.”

Asked if McCain would have had an inkling about her intentions, she responded, “don’t know if he could sense [that she was going to resign], but I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that he knows why I did it, and he knows how much I love Alaska. He and probably everybody else gets sick and tired of hearing how much I love Alaska.”

McCain didn’t put out a statement until the day after her Friday announcement. The statement read: “I have the greatest respect and affection for Sarah, Todd, and their family. I was deeply honored to have her as my running mate and believe she will continue to play an important leadership role in the Republican Party and our nation.”

Palin thanked McCain for his support in a Facebook posting over the weekend, and again in yesterday’s interview.

Snow also asked Palin whether, if she runs for president, she could avoid the “political blood sport” she cited as among the reasons she wanted to leave office.

“I don’t think it will be the day after day after day of ethics violation charges that are frivolous, that are ridiculous. I think on a national level your department of law there in the White House would look at this, the things we have been charged with, and automatically throw them out, not make somebody hire their own personal attorney to get out there and fight.”

There is no “department of law” at the White House, though Palin appears to have been referring to the White House counsel’s office.

–Kate Snow and Rick Klein

McCain: “Scrap” Health Care Bill And Start Over

ABC News' Z. Byron Wolf reports:

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz, called on President Obama and Democrats in Congress to “scrap the current [healthcare] bill and start over.”

McCain pointed to a nonpartisan cost estimate of $1 trillion over ten years for the major portion of healthcare reform suggested in a bill floated by Sen. Edward Kennedy's Health Committee and said the cost was too high for American taxpayers, especially since the nonpartisan review foresaw $23 million would lose their current insurance plans under the proposal.

“How we going to pay for that, Mr. President.,” asked McCain on the senate floor. “How are we going to pay for that?”

The cost estimate for the Kennedy committee bill was prepared by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), which is also preparing a separate cost estimate for a different healthcare reform proposal being prepared by the Senate Finance Committee.

“The CBO letter should be a wakeup call for all of us to scrap the current bill and start over,” said McCain. “Start over in a true bipartisan fashion,” said McCain, although his idea for healthcare reform would not find much support among Democrats.

McCain also addressed Jake Tapper's report that stiff cost estimate – which McCain thinks is low-ball – has the White House distancing itself from Kennedy's health committee plan.

“Well where is the administration's bill?” asked a frustrated McCain. “We're supposed to be enacting legislation before the end of July. Where is the administration's bill?”

McCain called for giving all Americans a $5,000 tax credit to purchase insurance on the open market. And he suggested lifting bans intended to protect some state health insurance quality requirements that keep people in one state from buying health insurance sponsored in other states.

CBO's $1 trillion estimate for the health committee plan does not include the implementation of a public health insurance option that seems likely to be a part of Democrats' ultimate healthcare plan. Most of the Republican opposition to the healthcare reform proposed by Democrats has centered around that public plan.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has given daily speeches on the Senate floor blasting the public option for weeks.

Meanwhile, Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin gave a spirited defense of creating a public insurance option to go alongside private plans operating in the marketplace. He and other Democrats have been trying out a new line of argument – that Republicans, in attacking the creation of a public health care option are endorsing the status quo.

“So if we do nothing,” Durbin said. “If we ignore this reality, we are doomed to face a situation where more and more of the dollars that we earn as employees will go toward health care protection and health care insurance and the protection there was diminish each year because that's the other reality. as the cost of health insurance goes up each year, the coverage goes down. people know what I'm talking about. when the health insurance company say, oh, we've got a great plan for you, but incidentally, you remember that cancer test you had last year? we won't cover anything related to cancer in the future.”

McCain Working on Alternative Stimulus Plan

ABC News? Rick Klein Reports: According to a Reuters report out this afternoon, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is working with his fellow GOP senators to develop an alternative to President Obama?s stimulus package.

?A group of us Republican senators are working on coming up with an alternative package that I would hope would have some elements to it that Americans would support,? McCain tells Reuters? Steve Holland.

?One, we have to have an alternative and two, we still hope that the administration — although time is running out — that the administration will sit down and do some serious negotiating, which they have not done,? he said.

This is not a shock. House Republicans also came up with an alternative proposal, before voting unanimously against the Democrats? proposal on Wednesday.

But McCain?s involvement in crafting the package is going to make this effort far more high-profile than it would otherwise be. And to a president who has vowed bipartisanship, this is a direct challenge to come to the negotiating table — issued by a former rival.

Said McCain: ?I have to tell you I’m disappointed so far in the administration’s lack of consultation or efforts to work with Republicans on the stimulus package.?

DNC Counters RNC on McCain-Feingold

ABC News’ Teddy Davis Reports:

The Democratic National Committee (D.N.C.) announced on Thursday that it has filed a motion to intervene in the case of the Republican National Committee (R.N.C.) v. FEC, in which the RNC is seeking to dismantle the soft money provisions of the McCain-Feingold campaign reform act of 2002.

Following a 2008 electoral drubbing in which John McCain, the co-author of the campaign finance law, was its presidential nominee, the RNC filed suit challenging the constitutionality of the central tenet of McCain-Feingold: the ban on large, unregulated contributions to national political parties.

As a national party committee that would be directly impacted by any changes to McCain-Feingold, and as the RNC’s chief competitor, the DNC says that the party filed the motion to ensure its interests are adequately represented in the government’s defense of the law.

You can read the DNC’s complaint here: http://www.democrats.org/page/-/pdf/20090129_dnc_motion.pdf

ABC News’ Ferdous Al-Faruque contributed to this report.