John McCain: A Study in Dishonesty

So, the traditional post midterm election press circus of potential presidential hopefuls is in full swing and it looks like there is no hope in sight for America. The field of potential 2008 candidates consists of some of the usual suspects and a few new faces, but in all they are - what's the word... awful.

According to polls, there are somehow enough American's who will still vote a Republican for president. The frontrunner among the potential Republican candidates, of course, is John McCain, the so-called maverick who has sold-out on almost every issue known to man in order to pander to the more conservative elements of the Republican Party. After calling Jerry Falwell and other right wing religious fanatics, "agents of intolerance" during his 2000 presidential campaign, McCain is now saying that Falwell is not an "agent of intolerance", and has made an appearance and speech at Falwell's Liberty University.

McCain also once said that he would not support the repeal a woman's legal right to choose by overturning Roe v. Wade saying in 1999 that, "certainly in the short term, or even the long term, I would not support repeal of Roe v. Wade, which would then force X number of women in America to [undergo] illegal and dangerous operations." Apparently McCain, the principled maverick, now says that the Supreme Court "could overturn Roe v. Wade, which would then return these decisions to the states, which I support."

When it comes to a Constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, McCain took to the Senate floor in 2004 to oppose such an amendment and said, "The constitutional amendment we're debating today strikes me as antithetical in every way to the core philosophy of Republicans". However, the brave McCain apparently now has had a change of heart according to an ABC news report which states that McCain has ""reconfirmed" to Falwell that he would support a federal constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman if a federal court were to strike down state constitutional bans on gay marriage." McCain's latest overture to right wing fanatics is his expressed support for teaching "intelligent design" at schools.

Then there's McCain's cozying up to George W. Bush, a man who used dirty tricks to destroy McCain's presidential hopes in 2000. McCain's George W. Bush love fest during Bush's 2004 re-election campaign is yet another sign that McCain has undergone a dramatic transformation. A true man of integrity would have respectfully refused to hit the campaign trail with a man who only 4 years earlier accused McCain of treason and cowardice, as well as questioning his sanity. Nonetheless, McCain did indeed campaign for Bush and actually hugged the guy - how sweet.

But perhaps the worst example of McCain's integrity deficit is his fake opposition to the Bush administration's policy of torturing suspected terrorist (and completely innocent folks caught up in the insane "war on terror"). After fighting and winning a battle to create a bill to outlaw any and all torture of detainees, McCain literally said and did nothing when Bush attached a "signing statement" to the bill which essentially reserves him the right to ignore the bill as he sees fit, consistent with the Bush administrations demented idea of presidential constitutional authority. After McCain so forcefully fought the White House, who opposed the bills creation, one would think that McCain would at least have condemned Bush's signing statement. Maybe McCain was too busy fund raising for his 2008 presidential bid and just missed the news.

On issues of defense and foreign policy McCain has always been extremely hawkish, and as president would likely support the kind of neoconservative foreign policy we have had forced down our throats during this Bush presidency. McCain has unequivocally supported the invasion and occupation of Iraq, as well as the misguided war on terror. But, even taking McCain's known hawkishness into account doesn't excuse his ridiculous endorsement of sending massive amounts of additional troops to Iraq. Sending more troops is an idea which runs contrary to the military leaderships assessment that this is not a sustainable or realistic option, and that there are no indications that sending more troops will accomplish anything. McCain's reasons for calling for more troop deployments to Iraqis is surely political, designed to make him look like a tough guy with all the answers. But with public support of the Iraq occupation falling rapidly, adding more troops to the death trap that is Iraq is not exactly a popular stance. It seems that sending American troops to their death for no good reason may be the one thing for which McCain will ignore the political winds - but what should we expect - war is like an addiction for too many Republicans these days.

Unfortunatley, if the straight shooting, maverick McCain's actions over the last couple of years are any indication, under a John McCain presidency, the Republican alliance with the faux-Christian right will persist, American's will still be divided by social issues, and America's military industrial complex and belligerent, wrongheaded foreign policy will endure.