We don’t expect much out of McRINO, but going to an Al Jazeera event and telling them how “proud” you are of them is infuriating.

(Politico) — Al Jazeera may not be having much luck getting its English channel onto American televisions, but Washington, at least, continues to be smitten.

At the opening night of the Al Jazeera U.S. Forum on Monday night, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney could be spotted milling among Al Jazeera top brass on the balcony of the Newseum while waiters passed non-alcoholic refreshments.

Over dinner, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Sen. John McCain praised Al Jazeera’s role as a catalyst in the Arab Spring uprisings before a room of journalists ranging from New Yorker investigative reporter Seymour Hersh to Ayman Mohyeldin, the face of Al Jazeera English’s reports from Tahrir Square.

‘I’m very proud of the role that Al Jazeera has played,” Sen. McCain said. “When that young man who was humiliated by the police in front of his friends and compatriots and family decided to burn himself to death, that would have been confined in earlier years to a single isolated incident, and it was Al Jazeera, it was Al Jazeera, that spread the story time and time again, so that it permeated the conscience, not only of the Tunisians, but of countries throughout the Arab world. So I congratulate you.”

He said he was proud to have been the first U.S. senator to travel to Al Jazeera’s headquaters in Doha (“not a bad place that you’ve got going on there”) and sit for interviews.

“We live in a new era,” he said. “What Al Jazeera has done is achieved something that all of us I think want to achieve, particularly as we grow older, and that is to make a contribution that will last and will be brought to future generations that lie ahead of us. I want to assure you that these young people who were able to watch Al Jazeera and be inspired by the example of others is a remarkable achievement.”

Leader Pelosi, whose district includes Twitter’s headquarters in California, said that credit for the Arab Spring must be shared by social networks and Al Jazeera, but agreed that both played a vital role.

“Whatever it was, it was a great combination, so I congratulate you on Al Jazeera’s role,” she said.