JOHN McCAIN: THE ULTIMATE PROSTITUTE
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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.”
Since losing to Obama in the 2008 election, McCain has become a consistent critic of the president. He also has, for the first time in years, a serious primary fight on his hands. Given this convergence the good senator has clearly decided to prostitute himself to the machine.
McCain spokeswoman Brooke Buchanan said her boss has not shifted his position.
She noted that Mullen said repeatedly that he was speaking for himself and not for the military, and she dismissed Gates’s testimony because he was expressing the Obama administration’s line.
“There has to be a determination from our military leaders that they think it is a good idea to change the policy; then, of course, Senator McCain will listen to them.”
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4 has a point (remember I’m a pacifist! most of the time) McCain showed his colors broadly in the last Pres. campaign. Why does anyone think he remotely has any kind of integrity? Huh? Geesh.
Good post MM.
Prostitute?? I don’t think that even Spitzer will pimp him.
Teeluck you are right. He is throwing away, if not “has thrown away” the honor and respect that he once had because of his sycophantic attitude toward Bush and Gang, and his most recent obstructionism.
He is throwing away what little respect and honor he has left…that is sad, and stupid…that happens when you drink too much koolaid.
McCain’s in a tough primary fight with J.D. Hayworth. And, yeah, it’s because of that that he’s continuing to sell his soul like this. Damn, whatever happened to that fellow who once proudly said, “I’m not afraid to lose!!”?
Will you are right about that primary fight, which is another reason why he flip-flopped on his original DADT position. What a shame. No portrait of courage there.
McInsane….
Gotta go with Holte. I have as much respect for Veterans that served in wartime as anyone. Both of my parents did. But when a guy is smeared as a coward for not trying hard enough to escape and other despicable lies, he needs to get nasty in defense of all that were in his situation. Instead of that, he hugs Bush. That made me sick.
Truth I agree! He should have kept on kicking ass but instead he cut and ran to the enemy and as a result became the enemy.
Since day one I have never liked or respected McCain.
He is not a maverick or a man who uses good judgement. Instead, he blows with the wind, says whatever is politically expedient at the moment, and shoots from the hip more often than not.
He – along with 4 Dems – was cited by his colleagues for using bad judgement when he got involved in the Keating S & L debacle.
I have 5,000 red flags going up that say, “Don’t Trust MCain.”
Apologies if this is a dupe. Having problems.
Leslie, “political expediency!” That is the term I was casting about for…Thanks.
Since day one I have never liked or respected McCain.
He is not a maverick or a man who uses good judgement. Instead, he blows with the wind, says whatever is politically expedient at the moment, and shoots from the hip more often than not.
He – along with 4 Dems – was cited by his colleagues for using bad judgement when he got involved in the Keating S & L debacle.
I have 5,000 red flags going up that say, “Don’t Trust MCain.”
@Four Dinners, Mad Mike,
I guess that’s the point though, -it’s not like there’s going to be some crazy upswell of Gays and Lesbians joining the armed forces (OK maybe the Navy, that Village People song still gets air play), more at the idea of -they’re already in there, -already been in there for decades if not all of history.
The question remains then:
How much longer are we going to say it’s cool for service people be afraid of being outted and having everything they’ve worked for (we sometimes forget, being in the military is also a job and a career) thrown away because of their sexual orientation? -Sexual orientation being quite possibly the most irrelevant feature of a soldier’s attributes…
Kind of like the issue around skin color once upon a time…
-SJ
They join up…they get blown up.
Does it really matter?????
‘Course it fucking doesn’t.
4D you are absolutely RIGHT!!! Do they have silly shit like this in the UK? I mean I think the military there is fully integrated is it not?
@Holte, Mad Mike
there are so few hints of the man who had the guts and backbone to collaborate with Russ Feingold in the 1990s, it’s really sad. Since 1999 McCain’s been chipping away at his own integrity, -but in trade for what?
I’ll never forgive McCain for giving George W. Bush a pass for all the f’ffed Rovian smear campaigns that you mentioned that they ran against him in 2000. He should have called George W, Bush what he was to his smug little face: a combat-dodging, goldbricking rich boy C student who loved coke.
McCain may be a Republican, -he may be on the wrong side of a lot of issues, -and might never ever have even gotten my vote, but he had my respect once and I used to be glad he was in the Senate. John McCain put his life on the line for his country, regardless of my convictions about the Vietnam War and that the GOP refuses to acknowledge the difference between him and cowards who push war on everybody but would never themselves serve in any conflict (George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove et al.) is disgusting.
McCain’s still a better man than any of them, even with his continuining self-inflicted decline acknowledged.
-SJ
SJ..I will always respect him for his courageous service during the Vietnam conflict, and for much of what he did prior to the “appointment” of George Bush in 2000. Unfortunately, his need to suck up to the administration greatly diminished him, at least in my eyes.
Holte you are right. This man is the ultimate flip flopper but he will not be known for that, nor will he be known for his war record. He will forever be known as the man who introduced Sarah Wayne Palin to an unsuspecting public.
McCain is a constant source of disappointment, his maverick image is a self created one, he is definitely towing the party line (as usual), I cannot forget how Bush dumped on him in 2000, accusing him of having a love child re: his adopted daughter, a comment like should have made him mad for life, but no, he was back in bed with Bush/Cheney pretty quick. For a man with such a war record, he is coming across as a man with no scruples.