John McCain Being John McCain

10 Nov, 2008 by Melissa Clouthier

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The silence from John McCain regarding his own campaign members savaging Sarah Palin deafens. What rock is Senator McCain hiding under and why can’t he extricate himself for a moment to defend his running-mate?

Welcome to being a friend of John McCain, Sarah. Don’t worry, the stab wounds will heal.

Once again, John McCain’s actions betray the character traits conservatives abhorred about the man during his years in the Senate: He would spit in a friend’s eye to win the favor of an enemy. Legislatively, that meant ultimately self-defeating garbage like McCain-Feingold, and most recently, the Wall-Street bailout. Far from being a courageous Maverick reformer, McCain has been an expedient self-aggrandizer. Bleh.

For McCain, it has always been, and continues to be, what is best for me? In April, I wrote this:

Does anyone love John McCain besides his family and Joe Lieberman and certain segments of the press? I’ve pondered before that moderates get no love because they tend to piss everyone off–kinda like countries claiming to be neutral. Pick a side and stay on it. McCain claims to transcend politics, to be motivated to do what is “right” no matter the issue. He isn’t political, he’s principled.

Bull and shit. [I’m not swearing in posts anymore. It’s the new, more civilized me.]

John McCain’s overarching principle is John McCain. As far as I can tell, he’s the only one he’s interested in serving. And that makes him different from other politicians, how? What is unique about John McCain is that he doesn’t go to the trouble of even attempting to pander to his constituents. He’s balls off about making it clear that he will do things his own damn way. North Carolina can suck his butt. Conservatives can bite his hiney. He just doesn’t care.

And his latest mountain of contempt is heaped upon Sarah Palin, but this one is going to bite him in the rear. Sarah Palin did everything in her power to get John McCain elected. That the election was even close was a testament to her connection with the voters despite the press treatment.

By either 1) allowing his people to tear her down and not stop it or 2) encourage her demise because it gives his failed campaign a scapegoat, he demonstrates either 1) his incredible lack of discipline and leadership or 2) his lack of character. In short, this episode confirms the conservatives’ reservations about him.

And what will he do in the Senate? Will John McCain turn against those who supported him yet again? Or does he finally see the press and the Left for who they are? You can bet the Left is hoping the Maverick is alive and back. I heard the Newsweek editor kissing McCain’s arse for running an “honorable campaign” on Meet the Press today and nearly punched the TV. These guys are shameless.

Cross-posted at MelissaClouthier.com

Update #1 (Hawkins’ Note): There’s a simple reason why these nasty rumors are being leaked out about Sarah Palin from John McCain’s staffers: it’s because John McCain wants it done.

It is his staff doing it, right? You really think they’re out there undermining their own boss? And if John McCain doesn’t like it, why hasn’t he said something about it publicly already?

Here’s the reality: John McCain has been poking conservatives in the eye for years and has championed a style of moderate politics that most people on the right don’t agree with. Well, he just got to put his style of politics to the ultimate test in a national election — and it failed miserably.

What is he going to do? Come out and say that the GOP was right not to choose him in 2000? Is he going to say that the party needs to move to the right because running to the middle obviously doesn’t work? No, he’d rather have Palin trashed as a scapegoat.

Gosh, if he had only taken someone really exciting as a running mate — like Joe Lieberman or Tom Ridge — then he’d have won in a walk. Why, it wasn’t John McCain or his style of politics that failed, it was that conservative Sarah Palin who wrecked everything! It’s no suprise — it’s how the RINOs in the GOP always operate. They advocate stunningly dumb policies, conservatives oppose them, the policies turn out to be disasters, and then the RINOS always find some way to shift it around to blame the conservatives for their mistakes and the inside-the-beltway crowd nods right along…