Beaten to the Punch

This morning, I wondered which beltway hack would be the first to embrace McCain’s penis mavericky credentials and give them the tongue bath they so desperately need, and little did I know that David Broder had already put a spit shine on things:

Now that John McCain has taken care of his political business in Arizona, it is time for him to return to Washington and the responsibilities he bears as a leader of the Republican Party and the nation.

I did not begrudge him the $20 million he spent to win Tuesday’s primary, or whatever amount it was. Nor was I bothered by the doctrinal compromises the senator made in order to convince Arizona voters that he was, in fact, a conservative. McCain has always been a realist, doing what is necessary to survive a North Vietnamese prison camp or a tough political trap. His 2000 embrace of George W. Bush—a man he had every reason to dislike—showed his practicality, and it made possible his own presidential nomination in 2008.

I think I’m going to vomit. I wish Broder would say something that would offend AIPAC so we could get his worthless ass fired.

Let the Fluffing Begin

So now that McCain has won his primary and no longer needs to cater to the wingnuts, how long before the beltway press begins to rehab his image? Who will be the first out of the gate with a “That’s the McCain I knew” piece?

My money is on either Halperin or Milbank- “You could tell he never really felt comfortable saying those things. The real Maverick is back!”

January/December

This image is so creepy I can’t even think of a good caption, but maybe you can.

Bang the Drum Slowly

Mean old man McCain starts the prepwork for the invasion of Iran the next time the GOP gets control of the WH again:

My friends: I believe that when we consider the many threats and crimes of Iran’s government, we are led to one inescapable conclusion: It is the character of this Iranian regime – not just its behavior – that is the deeper threat to peace and freedom in our world, and in Iran. Furthermore, I believe that it will only be a change in the Iranian regime itself – a peaceful change, chosen by and led by the people of Iran – that could finally produce the changes we seek in Iran’s policies.

The world dodged a bullet when that crazy prick and his idiot sidekick lost.

Not All Americans Are Equal

Last week, they wanted to deport American citizens. This week, they want to pick and choose which Americans deserve rights under the law:

Congressional Republicans want to know whether the Pakistani-born American arrested in the Times Square car bombing plot was read his Miranda rights, with Sen. John McCain saying it would be a “serious mistake” if the suspect was reminded of his right to remain silent.

“Obviously that would be a serious mistake until all the information is gathered,” McCain (R-Ariz.) said on “Imus in the Morning” when asked whether the suspect, Faisal Shahzad, should have been Mirandized.

Rep. Peter King (N.Y.), the top Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, wants to know whether the Justice Department consulted with the intelligence community.

“I hope that [Attorney General Eric] Holder did discuss this with the intelligence community. If they believe they got enough from him, how much more should they get? Did they Mirandize him? I know he’s an American citizen but still,” King told POLITICO.

“I know he’s and American citizen, but still” really says it all, doesn’t it?

Half our political leadership wants a banana Republic, and our media is just treating it like it is another opinion. At what point do we start calling these people what they are?

And I just don’ know what to say about the obviously insane John McCain. You would think that someone who spent half a decade in a cage with no rights whatsoever in the defense of this nation and our laws and legal tradition and way of life, would have the slightest bit of respect for the rule of law. You would, of course, be wrong.

Also, too.

The Winds Done Shifted

It never ceases to amaze me how often it needs to be restated that John McCain can’t lose his integrity, because he never had any, but Daniel Larison makes yet another effort to point this out. So help me, if I could, I would print that out and staple it to the forehead of every journalist in DC if I thought it would do any good.

Or What?

Who cares:

All Senate Republicans wrote President Barack Obama on Thursday, demanding he not use a recess appointment to fill spots on a labor board.

Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and John McCain (R-Ariz.), joined by all of their Republican colleagues in the Senate, warned the president against using his recess appointment powers to name Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

“We are writing to urge you to not act in contravention of the bipartisan Senate vote against the nomination of Craig Becker to be a Member of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) through a recess appointment,” the senators said. “To do so would disregard the Senate’s constitutional responsibility of advice and consent.”

Considering Mean old man John McCain has decided to take his ball and go home already, what is he gonna do (and paid no price in the media, I might add, for his petulance)? Besides, what kind of advice and consent are you offering when you have holds on everyone?

Up or down vote of STFU. I’m seriously to the point that my response to everything the Republicans say is a Friedmanesque “Suck on this.”

John McCain’s tantrum is noticed…

The latest John McCain temper tantrum has been widely reported and commented upon in the press and the old blog-o-sphere. Today, as noted by Michael Scherer, the latest hissy fit from Sentator “Hey-you-kids-get-of-my-lawn” McCain was the source of a fun exchange at the White House:

Q (Helen Thomas): McCain said he’s going to oppose everything.

MR. GIBBS: Well, yes, I find it curious that not getting your way on one thing means you’ve decided to take your toys and go home. I don’t think—it doesn’t work well for my six-year-old; I doubt it works well in the United States Senate, because we have issues that are important for his constituents and for all of America.

Look, again, when it comes to financial reform people are going to have an opportunity to weigh in on behalf of the banks or on behalf of consumers. And I’ll let their vote on that dictate which side of that ledger they feel most comfortable on.

Q (Chip Reed): Are you comparing McCain to a six-year-old?

MR. GIBBS: I’m saying that I think the notion that if you don’t get what you want you’re not going to cooperate on anything else is not a whole lot different than I might hear from a six-year-old.

Somehow, I am certain that is is good news for Not-President John McCain and the conservatives everywhere.

Cheers

dengre

(as I watched the full briefing I saw who asked the questions, so I gave Helen Thomas her props)

Country First!

Mean old man McCain has a sad:

Democrats shouldn’t expect much cooperation from Republicans the rest of this year, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) warned Monday.

McCain and another Republican senator decried the effect health reform legislation has had on the Senate, a day after the House passed the upper chamber’s bill.

GOP senators emerged Monday to caution that the health debate had taken a toll on the institution, warning of little work between parties the rest of this year.

“There will be no cooperation for the rest of the year,” McCain said during an interview Monday on an Arizona radio affiliate. “They have poisoned the well in what they’ve done and how they’ve done it.”

Oh no! Not obstructionism! They wouldn’t dare try that!

What is amazing is that a Senator is openly saying “Fuck the nation’s business, we’re a bunch of kids,” and no one in the media will point out how worthless and childish the Republicans are. Even worse, no one is even surprised.

*** Update ***

My, my my. Seems like a big win and the Democrats have grown a pair. Check out this from Harry Reid:

Washington, DC—Spokesman for Nevada Senator Harry Reid, Jim Manley, released the following statement today regarding Senator McCain’s comment pledging no cooperation from Republicans for the rest of the year:

“For someone who campaigned on ‘Country First’ and claims to take great pride in bipartisanship, it’s absolutely bizarre for Senator McCain to tell the American people he is going to take his ball and go home until the next election. He must be living in some parallel universe because the fact is, with very few exceptions, we’ve gotten very little cooperation from Senate Republicans in recent years.

“At a time when our economy is suffering and we’re fighting two wars, the American people need Senator McCain and his fellow Republicans to start working with us to confront the challenges facing our country—not reiterating their constant opposition to helping working families when they need it most.”

They even threw the “Country First!” stuff in his face. I think I need a cigarette.

I know the answer, but…

I still have to wonder how the Sunday shows could not find a moment to mention that Senator Jim Bunning is obstructing 1.2 million Americans from getting unemployment benefits just to be a dick. One would have thought that this might merit a comment somewhere. On ABC there was ample time to discuss the departure of the White House Party Planner, but not the real world impact of obstructionism on so many people’s lives. I guess important ‘journalists’ can’t be bothered with things like news when catty Georgetown gossip is at hand.

It might have been a good question to ask Gramps McCain as he guest hosted another one of these shows, but it didn’t happen. (I think it was on the Network that has a funny show on Thursday night, but he is on so many of these Sunday shows it is hard to tell which network will toss the old fella softballs on any given weekend).

Yes, I already know why. And yet, I thought I would ask the question regardless of that.

I recently watched “The Most Dangerous Man in America“, a documentary film in theatres these days. It is the story of Daniel Ellsberg and the release of the Pentagon Papers. It is pretty amazing film and reminds one that there was a time—not so long ago—when people actually practiced journalism in America.

Now we just get MC Rove’s back-up dancers.

***sigh***

Feel free to treat this as an open thread.

Cheers

dengre

Amazingly bad coverage…

For all the talk that these HCR negotiations needed to be on C-Span it was odd that when it happened the event was only on C-Span 3, which is not even offered as an option by many teevee delivery systems. The cable news shows were basically hacktacular in their coverage. CNN decided to only show Republicans and MSNBC was just as bad. The “liberal” network broke into the summit every few minutes for commercials or to let folks hear spin from proven corruptionists like Armstrong Williams.

Thank the FSM that I have broadband.

There was decent coverage online, but the teevee coverage was amazingly bad. The only aspect they seem to be able to cover is that John McCain still thinks that he is President.

OTOH, is you do get a chance to watch the full event online (or whenever C-Span decides to actually broadcast it on their real network) I thought it was an amazing event (this highlight reel from the GOS is a good sample of why). It is just too bad that most folks will never sit through it.

So it goes.

Cheers

dengre

and yes, this is an Open Thread…

More Mavericky Behavior

So apparently aging sociopath John McCain slapped a hold NLRB nominee Craig Becker back in October, and even though Becker has been a nominee for six months and answered 280 written questions, McCain never found the time to submit any questions. Al Franken comes to the rescue:

You’d think with his 20 some appearances on Sunday talk shows, he would have had enough spare time to ask even one question to get at why he had a hold on Becker. Apparently not.

McCain’s only principle is what benefits him the most at that very minute. That is why he is able to be so mavericky and switch his postion on everything- he simply doesn’t really believe in it, so why not change your mind if there is some immediate political gain and some camera time to be had.

Meanwhile, the worthless shitheels in our national media (I’m talking to all you McCain fluffers, and especially you Sunday show hosts- Mr. David Gregory, Mr. Bob Schieffer), continue to pretend that McCain is a man of honor and integrity, and a man who stands on principle. Rather than confess their sins and admit what they helped to create, they’ll sit idly by as a bitter geriatric makes them his bitch.

The suicide rate for j-school professors has to be astronomical these days. Are any of David Gregory’s professors still alive?

(video courtesy of the Jane Hamsher’s of the left)

Still Loving You

Love, your love, Just shouldn’t be thrown away. I will be there, I will be there:

McCain appears to shift on ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’

By Michael D. Shear- Wednesday, February 3, 2010; A09

Three years ago, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) was pretty clear about his stand on the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

A former war hero, McCain said he would support ending the ban once the military’s top brass told him that they agreed with the change.

“The day that the leadership of the military comes to me and says, ‘Senator, we ought to change the policy,’ then I think we ought to consider seriously changing it,” McCain said in October 2006 to an audience of Iowa State University students.

That day arrived Tuesday, with Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Mike Mullen testifying to senators after President Obama’s announcement that he would seek a congressional repeal of the 15-year-old policy.

Mullen called repealing the policy, which bans openly gay men and lesbians from serving, “the right thing to do” and said he was personally troubled by effectively forcing service members to “lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens.”

Gates told the Armed Services Committee, “I fully support the president’s decision.”

In response, McCain declared himself “disappointed” in the testimony. “At this moment of immense hardship for our armed services, we should not be seeking to overturn the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy,” he said bluntly, before describing it as “imperfect but effective.”

You just gotta love the Kaplan Test Prep Daily and the incessant McCain worship in our media. Why, yes, Mr. Shear, it does “appear” that he has “shifted” on DADT. In much the same way that the sun “appears” to rise in the east, and that John Edwards “appears” to have cheated on his wife, and so on.

Can you imagine for one second if this were Al Gore or John Kerry who had done the complete and total about face on an issue? There would be no such mincing of words about “appearing” to “shift” positions, they would be labeled wishy-washy and unfit to lead and flip-floppers.

Plus, Al Gore is fat. Also, too.

Never Gonna Get It

Just woke up from a nap and saw DougJ’s thread about Ambinder and McCain. They just never are going to get it, are they?

McCain is a shallow hothead who personalizes everything, but politics most of all. The stories about this are legion, especially by local Arizona reporters who have pointing this out for years. The simple fact is that McCain does not like Obama for a number of reasons, including his belief that Obama slighted him as a Senator over lobbying reform (which was McCain’s personal fiefdom for tv grandstanding face time, whereas Obama wanted to do something about it), showed such disdain for him during the 2008 campaign that it was echoed openly by his staff, all amplified by the fact that Obama handed him his ass in the election. McCain is a bitter old man who is going to simply oppose everything Obama tries to do.

Period. There is no deeper reason. This is why McCain feels no remorse for thrusting Lady Starburst on a vulnerable America he claims to love. It was justified, because he had to beat Obama, who was the “enemy.” It is also why he always eagerly latches on to every neocon war scheme, because he is especially susceptible to manichean depictions of the world.

He’s a pathetic, disgusting shell of a man.

The end.

The First Step Is Admitting You Have a Problem

If it is Sunday, It’s Meet President McCain!