Senator John McCain caught playing poker on his iPhone during crucial senate hearing on Syria

Call him Arizona Slim. Or just the Maverick.

While America's most senior foreign policy and military officials made President Obama's case for using military force against the regime of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday, Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain was busy playing poker on his iPhone.

A Washington Post photographer snapped an over-the-shoulder picture of McCain casually betting play money on his electronic cards, while Syria's fate was the subject of passionate statements and often carefully manicured rhetoric.







Minutes after the Post published the photo online, McCain cracked a joke in the hope of limiting what is bound to be an embarrassing news cycle.

'Scandal!' read his sardonic tweet. 'Caught playing iPhone game at 3+ hour Senate hearing - worst of all I lost!'

As the news broke, McCain was waiting to appear on CNN to discuss the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.

'Occasionally I get a little bored,' he admitted on the air, 'and so I resorted.'

CNN associate producer Ashley Killough tweeted afterward that McCain 'said he lost "thousands" of fake dollars' during the marathon Capitol Hill session.





McCain may have been distracted by the presentations from Secretary of State John Kerry, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey. He had, after all, already made up his mind to side with the president and his request for authorization to bomb Syria.

'If the Congress were to reject a resolution like this, after the president of the United States has already committed to action, the consequences would be catastrophic,' McCain said after her emerged from a closed-door meeting with Obama on Tuesday morning, 'in that the credibility of this country with friends and adversaries alike would be shredded.'
'And there would be not only implications for this president, but for future presidencies as well.'

The next time McCain meets with he president, the two might have more to discuss than just foreign policy: Obama played a game of spades – with physical cards, not a hand-held phone – while Seal Team Six killed Osama bin Laden in 2011.


SOURCE:DAILY MAIL