McCain Update

McCaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaain!

Oldie but Goodie
So, just how big of a jerk is John McCain?

Well, he thinks it's appropriate for a US Senator to tell disparaging jokes about a teenage girl. From way back in 1998:

Earlier this month, at a Republican Senate fund-raiser, McCain told a downright nasty joke making fun of Janet Reno, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Chelsea Clinton.

...

"Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly?
Because her father is Janet Reno."

Ahh, McCain. Vintage McCain. Loony McCain.

Source: Salon.com

Hothead McCain

John McCain is known for his willingness to engage reporters on all matter of issues, so some scribes on his campaign plane were taken aback Friday when the Republican presidential candidate appeared to lose his cool when talking to a New York Times correspondent.

Elisabeth Bumiller asked McCain about a meeting he had with then-presidential candidate John Kerry in 2004 about becoming the Democrat's running mate. McCain had just mentioned to a town hall meeting in Atlanta that he and Kerry "had that conversation," but he turned down the offer to share the ticket.

Bumiller noted that McCain denied speaking to Kerry at the time, citing a May 2004 Times article. The candidate appeared to grow agitated, although he never raised his voice. Fox News broadcast video of the exchange.

"Everybody knows that I had a private conversation. ... There’s no living American in Washington" who doesn't know, McCain said.

...

It appears Bumiller was asking about this Times article from May 15, 2004:
Asked if Senator Kerry had made such an offer, Mr. McCain said no without hesitation. But asked if the two men had ever discussed it, even casually, he paused for a moment.

"No," he said finally. "We really haven't."

So were you lying then, Senator, or now? Or did this mystical conversation come up later? If so, why the pause? Why the qualification? Did you 'really' discuss it, or not?

McCain doesn't like being caught in a lie. Pity it happens so often.

Source: Raw Story

Flip-Flop
Perhaps there was more than being caught in a simple lie to irk McCain about his anecdote going South, however.

Jonathan Singer: There's a story in The Hill, I think on Tuesday, by Bob Cusack on the front page of the paper talking about how John McCain's people -- John Weaver -- had approached Tom Daschle and a New York Congressman, I don't remember his name, about switching parties. And I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about what your discussions were with him in 2004, how far it went, who approached whom... if there was any "there" there.

John Kerry: I don't know all the details of it. I know that Tom, from a conversation with him, was in conversation with a number of Republicans back then. It doesn't surprise me completely because his people similarly approached me to engage in a discussion about his potentially being on the ticket as Vice President. So his people were active -- let's put it that way.

So, basically, Kerry didn't approach him, he approached Kerry, and he wasn't just angling for the VP slot, he wanted to jump ship.

To run against El Presidente. As a Democrat.

Hilarious.

This is your nominee, Republican Party! Suck it down!

Source: Hullabaloo

Hagee-ography
So McCain still refuses to denounce OR reject his Hagee endorsement, the rabid anti-Catholic who calls that particular church 'The Great Whore', amongst other things.

His supporters think it's perfectly ok, however, to take the endorsement of a loon if it helps him over the top.

McCain meanwhile is trying to have his cake and eat it too.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain on Friday repudiated any views of a prominent televangelist who endorsed him last month "if they are anti-Catholic or offensive to Catholics."

McCain has come under fire since televangelist John Hagee endorsed him on Feb. 27, but until Friday his response had been tepid. The Arizona senator merely said he doesn't agree with everyone who endorses him. He said Friday he had been hearing from Catholics who find Hagee's comments offensive.

IF they're offensive?

IF?

Yeesh, come on man. Get a damned clue.

Of course, after almost kinda sorta disagreeing with Hagee, he signs up to go to an even nuttier group's conference.

Sen. John McCain, in his post-victory debut before the conservative movement's top donors and leaders, will address the Council for National Policy's annual winter meeting here today.

His remarks at the event, which has always been closed to the public and will have only a partial accommodation of the press this year for the first time, could turn out to be his make-or-break pitch for support from some of the right's most influential critics of his past positions and policies.

But, you ask me, 'Who's in the Council for National Policy?' Glad you asked, random non-existent reader.

Some well-known figures affiliated with the CNP include Rev. Jerry Falwell, anti-feminist Phyllis Schlafly and the Rev. Pat Robertson. But its the lesser-known CNP mainstays that are more indicative of the organization's politics. They include:

Richard Shoff, a former Ku Klux Klan leader in Indiana.
John McGoff, an ardent supporter of the former apartheid South African regime.
R.J. Rushdoony, the theological leader of America's "Christian Reconstruction" movement, which advocates that Christian fundamentalists take "dominion" over America by abolishing democracy and instituting Old Testament Law. Rushdoony's Reconstructionalists believe that "homosexuals . . . adulterers , blasphemers, astrologers and others will be executed," along with disobedient children.
Reed Larson, head of anti-union National Right to Work Committee.
Don Wildmon, TV censorship activist and accused anti-Semite.
Lieutenant-Colonel Oliver North, Major General John K. Singlaub and other principals from the Iran-Contra Scandal.

Klansmen, theocrats, dominionists, bigots, thugs and traitors!

What an august and learned body. Thank you, Senator McCain.

Source: Hullabaloo

Chalabi and McCain
Whenever I read the name Chalabi, I can't help but think of Challah, the delicious and oh-so-kosher bread.

Which is a bit odd when you think about it, Chalabi being an agent of the Iranian government, itself a theocratic bunch of nuts. Though supposedly, the Jewish population in Iran gets along relatively fine.

What the hell was I talking about? Oh, right.

Ahmed Chalabi, former deputy prime minister of Iraq, is the subject of a new biography that reportedly reveals some shocking new examples of Chalabi's scandalous role in US foreign policy.

Considered by some to be a neo-con "darling," Chalabi is best known for his role in pushing questionable evidence in the run-up to the US invasion of Iraq, including since-debunked claims dealing with biological weapons laboratories from the Iraqi defector code-named "Curveball."

Yes yes, he's a jerk, but what else is new?

Among the revelations disclosed in the biography by Emmy award-winning journalist Aram Roston, The Man Who Pushed America to War: The Extraordinary Life, Adventures and Obsessions of Ahmad Chalabi, are that Chalabi "helped arrange meetings with the Iraqi oil minister for American oilmen like Bush fundraiser Albert Huddleston."

Chalabi also reportedly "misled a team of reporters from ABC News and British publications by arranging interviews with 'Saddam's Mistress,' Parisoula Lampsos, who peddled countless lies about a meeting between Hussein and Osama Bin Laden" and was initially backed by Sen. John McCain, "one of the first patrons of Chalabi's grand-sounding International Committee for a Free Iraq when it was founded in 1991."

Regarding McCain, Roston adds that he was "Chalabi's favored candidate in the 2000 election since Chalabi knew that he would be able to free up the $97 million in military aid plus millions pushed through in Congress and earmarked for Chalabi's exile group, the Iraqi National Congress."

I see.... so Chalabi, who gamed the US into an unwinnable war on behalf of his Iranian paymasters, was also backed by St. John McCain!

Ahh, the things you learn, the things you learn.

Source: Raw Story

Melanoma On the Body Politic
So McCain is being secretive about his health these days, which is an odd turn of events for him.

"Along with his signature bright white hair, the most striking aspects of Senator John McCain’s physical appearance are his puffy left cheek and the scar that runs down the back of his neck," writes Lawrence K. Altman M.D. in Sunday's Times. "The marks are cosmetic reminders of the melanoma surgery he underwent in August 2000. Mr. McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, sometimes tells audiences that he has 'more scars than Frankenstein.'"

...

"In 1999, during Mr. McCain’s first race for president, he gave the public an extraordinary look at his medical history — 1,500 pages of medical and psychiatric records that were amassed as part of a United States Navy project to gauge the health of former prisoners of war," Altman writes. "This reporter, who is a physician, interviewed the senator’s doctors in 1999 with his permission."

Altman complains that now it's a different matter.

"But this time around, Mr. McCain has yet to make his full medical records or his physicians available to reporters," writes Altman. "At least three times since March 2007, campaign officials have told The New York Times that they would provide the detailed information about his current state of health, but they have not done so. The campaign now says it expects to release the information in April."

In April, long after he'd been sure to secure the GOP nomination.

Sneaky.

Of course, who doesn't want a lying*, adulterous**, corrupt***, gullible****, sickly old man***** for President?

Lolz.

*The Kerry thing if you like, but if not, then take his lies about meeting with lobbyist Iseman while she had business before his committee.

**No, not the lobbyist. His first wife, whom he cheated on with the woman he's currently married to, before dumping her for the younger model.

***Private meetings with tv magnates while they ask your committee for special favors? Sounds corrupt to me.

****Getting taken for a ride by Chalabi and his tour company of fabulists should disqualify you forever from positions of power.

******He's 72, older than Reagan was when he got into office, and his cancer status is uncertain. His mental health is also pretty dubious, as this little campaign kerfluffle on the plane shows. I mean, why bring up this old story unless you want to talk about it? Did he forget he tried to change parties and run as Kerry's VP?

Source: Raw Story