Brew City Brawler

John McCain has been a sleaze merchant for 20 years

The Brawler is somewhat surprised at the amount of surprise greeting the nasty turn in the McCain campaign.

Why? Because back in the early years of his political career -- back in 1988 -- McCain was part of the Atwater machine throwing sleaze at Michael Dukakis and he went on to crack a short guy joke about the Duke and question Dems' patriotism at the Republican National Convention. He was bruited as a potential VP candidate but he was passed over for Dan Quayle, possibly because his cheating on and shabby treatment of his first wife deeply alienated the Reagans. (Not that would undermine Charlie Sykes' support.)

John McCain: Small, pathetic man

Charlie Sykes et al have been exhorting John McCain to "take off the gloves" and really pound Barack Obama on stuff people don't care about (William Ayers). In the town hall debate tonight, McCain revealed he's as big a wimp as Charlie Sykes. He and Sarah Palin will assail Obama when he's not around and whip up crowds into a hate-filled frenzy. When they're on the same stage? Not so much.

John Cole nails it:

Finally, I guess when it boils down to iis that, McCain, for all his tough guy talk, is just a tired old wimp. Given ninety minutes to go after Obama like he and his partner and his surrogates have the past few days, and he said nothing. Given all that time to question Obama’s patriotism, to question his background, to suggest he does not support the troops, and McCain refused to do it. Why didn’t he look him in the eyes and call him Sen. Hussein like his surrogates aredoing? Or is that just supposed to be in the background, to make Obama look suspect, to accuse him of being in league with terrorists- but like every punk and every bully he can’t own up to it himself.

On the other hand, Obama, every time he landed a punch, it was something he has done above board, in public. There is no scummy underbelly launching into questions of character- all his punches were fair, legitimate, and issue based. All his punches were on things he had mentioned before, publicly, things he is man enough to put in his commercials and repeat right in John McCain’s face.

What a sad, pathetic, small man John McCain has turned into right before our very eyes.

The Brawler can't wait to see how Charlie Sykes and Rick "Ese" Esenberg spin this debate into a McCain victory.

John McCain -- I've been everywhere

To the tune of Johnny Cash's "I've been everywhere":

John McCain's been everywhere, man, John McCain's been everywhere.

He's been to

Iraq

Pakistan

Waziristan

(Did you know he was in Vietnam?)

John McCain's been everywhere, man, John McCain's been everywhere

Yes, during the debate McCain told people he'd been everywhere (and he knew everybody). Of course, all that traveling doesn't make John McCain a smart boy.

Anybody remember this April 2007 photo op:

From Think Progress:

Sen. John McCain strolled briefly through an open-air market in Baghdad today in an effort to prove that Americans are “not getting the full picture” of what’s going on in Iraq.

NBC’s Nightly News provided further details about McCain’s one-hour guided tour. He was accompanied by “100 American soldiers, with three Blackhawk helicopters, and two Apache gunships overhead.” Still photographs provided by the military to NBC News seemed to show McCain wearing a bulletproof vest during his visit.

McCain recently claimed that there “are neighborhoods in Baghdad where you and I could walk through those neighborhoods, today.” In a press conference after his Baghdad tour, McCain told a reporter that his visit to the market today was proof that you could indeed “walk freely” in some areas of Baghdad.

It's weird -- John McCain visited Baghdad and saw what he wanted to see! Of course a year later, that area was under Sadr's control -- and more dangerous than ever!

And John: The surge was a tactic to create breathing space to drive the fundamental strategy of creating a peaceful Iraq. That has not happened. Indeed, given that members of the Shiite government have been uttering eliminationist rhetoric about the Sunni "Sons of Iraq" -- the anti-al Qaeda Sunni warlord-led militias that were critical to the comparative calm in Iraq (at least as much as the surge) -- the prospect of increased violence is quite high.

 

John McCain, 20 years of low-roading part 2

Washington pundits can't get over the fact that John McCain, the honorable John McCain, would even think of taking the low road and engage in a nasty, dishonest and wildly unheroic campaign. Blame it on those mean Roveniks!

The Brawler suspects that John McCain could have done this all on his own. Why does the Brawler think that? Because McCain's first prime-time speech at the 1988 Republican National Convention was a low-road attack that portrayed Dems as�"dishonorable" and capped it off with a joke about Michael Dukakis' height. The cherry on top: shameless wallowing in, and politicizing of, his imprisonment in Vietnam -- that ordeal the press likes to say he's so humble about.

From an 8/15/88 Associated Press story:

NEW ORLEANS (AP) _ Arizona Sen. John McCain, recalling his captivity in North Vietnam, depicted Michael Dukakis as weak on defense issues Monday and compared the Democratic nominee to former President Jimmy Carter.

"In this presidential race, George Bush alone has the experience and knowledge to continue the policy of a strong defense, coupled with a willingness to negotiate," McCain told the Republican National Convention.

"Michael Dukakis, like Jimmy Carter before him, clearly doesn't understand that," McCain said.

"Michael Dukakis seems to believe that the Trident (submarine-based nuclear missile) is a chewing gum, that the B-1 (bomber) is a vitamin pill, and that the Midgetman (land-based nuclear missile) is anyone shorter than he is," McCain said.

McCain spoke to the convention on its opening night as delegates eagerly awaited the address of President Reagan, who was delivering something of a farewell to his party as well as a strong endorsement of Bush's candidacy.

Reagan watched McCain's speech from his seat in the Superdome convention hall, and with the delegates watched a brief film about McCain's ordeal during the Vietnam War.

The delegates gave McCain a standing ovation _ the first of the convention _ after his account of five and a half years as prisoner of war in North Vietnam.

McCain recalled those days of captivity as he denounced Dukakis for his veto as governor of Massachusetts of legislation requiring the pledge of allegiance to be spoken in the state's public schools. Dukakis contended the legislation was unconstitutional.

"It is outrageous," McCain said of that action.

McCain described the beating administered to a fellow prisoner at the hands of North Vietnamese captors after they discovered a hand-sewn American flag they had used to secretly pledge their allegiance to.

"We must never forget those thousands of Americans who, with their courage, with their sacrifice, and with their lives, made those words live for all of us," McCain said. "Ronald Reagan and George Bush remember. They have made America strong, free, prosperous, and have brought peace to our time."

McCain also blasted Dukakis for opposing the bombing strike on Libya, for his reluctance to support the rescue invasion of Grenada, and for opposing U.S. military action in the Persian Gulf.

From David Broder's 8/16/88 report in the Washington Post:

But the most effective shots against the Democratic nominee may have been fired by Sen. John S. McCain III of Arizona, a Navy survivor of years in Vietnam prison camps. Using the West Point motto, "Duty, Honor, Country," the white-haired McCain argued that Dukakis, "like Jimmy Carter before him, clearly doesn't understand" the essentials of national security.

"Michael Dukakis," he said, "seems to believe that the Trident is a chewing gum, that the B1 is a vitamin pill, and that the Midgetman is anyone shorter than he is." They are, in fact, three major weapons systems.

McCain also turned what Republicans regard as one of Dukakis' major social issue vulnerabilities-his veto of a bill requiring the Pledge of Allegiance to be recited in every Massachusetts classroom-against the Democratic nominee with a moving and lengthy anecdote about the brutal beating one of McCain's fellow prisoners had received when he stitched together an American flag out of scraps and led the group in reciting the pledge.

"It is outrageous," McCain said, "that Gov. Dukakis vetoed legislation giving Massachusetts school children the right to pledge allegiance to that flag at the beginning of the school day."

In fact, the legislation would have required teachers to lead their classes in the pledge and Dukakis has said repeatedly that he vetoed it on the basis of an advisory opinion from the Massachusetts Supreme Court that the requirement was an infringement on the teachers' freedom of speech.

From an 8/16/88 San Francisco Chronicle report:

A former POW accused the Democrats of dishonoring flag and country last night, as the Republicans pulled out all the stops on patriotism.

Frustrated that Democrats have attempted to reclaim traditional values, the Republican convention featured a prime-time evening speech by Arizona Senator John McCain, who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam for more than five years.

In unusually harsh terms even for a political convention, McCain accused "the liberal left" of undercutting the national defense and abandoning the Contras in Nicaragua.

"It is dishonorable for this nation to sell Central America down the river to communism," he said. "Just as shameful is the conduct of the speaker of the House, that best-selling author, Jim Wright, who thinks he is secretary of state for Latin American affairs."

McCain was particularly harsh in attacking Democratic candidate Michael Dukakis for having once vetoed a Massachusetts state law requiring students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance every day. Dukakis has said he felt compelled to veto the bill because of constitutional grounds cited by a court.

McCain recounted the story of a fellow prisoner of war in Vietnam who was brutally beaten for sewing an American flag in his shirt.

"Sitting there beneath that naked light bulb, with a piece of white cloth, a piece of red cloth, another shirt and his bamboo needle, was my friend, Mike Christian," he said. "Sitting there, with his eyes almost shut from his beating, making another American flag."

"Ronald Reagan, George Bush, Republicans," McCain said, drawing the parallel explicitly. "Duty, honor country."

McCain,honor, bullshit.

John McCain, 20 years of reluctantly talking about Vietnam

John McCain has been consistent about very few things in his political career. But over the span of 20 years he's been consistent in purportedly not wanting to make a big deal about his ordeal as a POW ... but then directly or through proxy he'll tell you about it.

From a 6/11/08 Associated Press report, "McCain doesn't talk about Vietnam, but ads do":

NEW YORK—Prodded on the campaign trail to talk about his compelling personal story, John McCain usually demurs. "I'm very reluctant to do so, as you know," the presumed Republican nominee told a donor at a small fundraiser here this week.

But McCain and his campaign have still found a way to remind voters with some regularity of his 5 1/2 years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam and his family's long tradition of military service.

On Wednesday, his campaign expanded the reach of his first major television ad of the general election campaign -- a commercial where McCain speaks directly to the camera about being shot down in Vietnam and his years of captivity.

For McCain it represents a tension between his attempt to remain humble about his story of courage and survival and the desire by his campaign to turn his experience into a political asset.

There is a tension here, but it's between reporters talking about McCain's "attempt to remain humble" and reality. McCain wants people to think he's humble and reluctant to tell the story because it makes him look like more of a noble badass. But McCain has a long record of talking about his story when expedient. Not the least was his appearance at the 1988 Republican National Convention, where he told the story of his imprisonment in between making fun of Dukakis' height and suggesting Dems were disloyal.

The real tension is between communicating the story without overdoing it and slipping into self parody.  

McCain tells the story, directly or through proxies, because it's a powerful one, one few politicians can match. But he also knows that it gave him a degree of celebrity that gave him a boost politically, a point he acknowledged in an old Washington Post interview. In the same story he suggested he was tired of telling the tale -- though he would do exactly that hours later.

From "Working Profile: John S. McCain, Two Years in the Capital, but Already a Rising Star" in the 8/9/88 Washington Post:

The one subject that Mr. McCain does not speak about easily is the time he spent as a prisoner of war. He still bears the marks of his ordeal: a right knee that will not bend and a left shoulder so damaged that he cannot raise it to remove his coat.

Yes, Mr. McCain agreed, certainly his celebrity as a former P.O.W. opened the doors to his political career. But he chafes now at some of the constraints and expectations that status has imposed on him.

''I don't want to be the P.O.W. Senator,'' he said. ''What I've tried to do is position myself so that if opportunities come along, I'm qualified and ready. My job for the next few years is to acquire a reputation as a serious Senator who studies the issues and doesn't try to steal the limelight.''

Having recited the tale of his capture and confinement countless times, he is, he said, simply bored by it.

''Perhaps it has made me more sensitive to the underdog than I otherwise would have been,'' he said. ''I know what it is like to be humiliated and degraded. But I don't think it made any change in my basic character. It's something in my past and I moved on a long time ago. I never had a nightmare, or a flashback. I just don't think about it that often.''

McCain, race-baiting and Obama

Look up "Washington insider" in the dictionary and more likely than not you'll see a picture of David Gergen. That's why it's quite remarkable that Gergen is willing to come out in public and point out the racial subtext to McCain's latest viral ad making fun of Obama as The One, a point that's not likely to endear him to other members of the village:

Gergen's southern provenance is important here. He knows the language that's being spoken. And the Brawler would suggest that we'll be seeing a lot more of this code given that Obama is doing better than Democrats in recent memory in places like Virginia,North Carolina, and Georgia. Not that all white folks in these states are racists; but there are plenty of white folks with racial anxiety (Republican or Dem, the Brawler would add) who may respond to these attacks. And McCain can't afford to let a single Old South state fall to the forces of Obamafascism.

Meanwhile, how could anyone ever accuse Republicans of race-baiting when the button below was for sale at at Texas Republican confab (yes, the vendor -- who had sold controversial items before -- was bounced after said button was highlighted in the blogosphere. But if we are to believe in the power of the free market and entrepreneurs, shouldn't we take seriously his assumption that he'd find a ready market for this pin?

 

How long before McCain makes fun of Obama's kids?

Speaking in wake of his laughable, too-long-by half "viral" video making fun of Obama as "the One," John "flop sweat" McCain insists he's an honorable man -- and a funny one to boot!

"I don't think our campaign isn't negative in the slightest," McCain said. "We think it's got a lot of humor in it, we're having fun and enjoying it ... we'll continue to fight and scrap all the way to November 4."

Here's the most famous example of McCain's humor, from a Republican fund raiser in 1998:

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

Ha ha ha! Get that: an ugly girl joke and a dyke joke wrapped up in one! Of course, McCain was merely 62 at the time so it could be chalked up as a youthful indiscretion.

Is there a statute of limitations for how long you can call a grown man an "asshole" if he calls a kid "ugly"?

John McCain, 20 years of low-roading

The Brawler is encouraged that some Washington media mandarins have overcome their infatuation with John McCain. They've dispensed with the illusion that he's some sort of "honorable" politician and have recognized him as a low roader who will make any scurillous attack necessary to get to the White House.

Some suggest that this low-roading is due to his slim chances (though not impossible) of reaching the White House, which is probably true. Others point to the Roveniks working for him. Which also is probably true, but only to a point.

Because the fact is, McCain has been a low-roader for most of his political career. That was generally ignored, as the media preferred to portray him as some high-minded solon (an image McCain has cultivated quite carefully).

Via Balloon Juice, Daniel Larison notes that McCain has been low-roading rival Republicans for years.

And it's worth pointing out that McCain worked with the Atwater machine -- the pioneers of modern political lowroading -- to attack Dukakis in the 1988 presidential election.

From "Bush 'surrogate' to be a step ahead" from the 6/15/88 Boston Globe:

WASHINGTON - When he travels South tomorrow in search of general election votes, Gov. Michael S. Dukakis of Massachusetts will be heading into a political ambush of sorts.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), working on behalf of Vice President George Bush, will be traveling ahead of Dukakis, stopping in two cities the governor plans to visit, to raise questions about the Dukakis record.

According to a senior aide to the vice president, McCain will hold a press conference today in Nashville, where Dukakis plans to campaign tomorrow. And he will hold another tomorrow in Miami, where Dukakis will campaign on Friday.

The vice president's aide, who asked that he not be identified, said McCain plans to draw attention to the Dukakis record and call on him to explain some of his stands.

Among other things, according to the aide, McCain will raise questions about Dukakis' commitment to defense, his 1977 veto of legislation requiring the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools, his support for gun control, his past support for weekend furloughs for convicted murderers and his prochoice stance on abortion.

This seems banal today, but as the quotes around "surrogate" suggests, McCain's actions as a sitting senator were novel enough that they invited rounds of criticism from his comrades in the Senate.

(The Duke's response was to say that McCain didn't know "beans from brown bread." Those four words provide a perfect summation for why the Duke got hided.)

And, indeed, the attacks must have stung -- because honorable St. John McCain suddenly realized that attack role wasn't the one for him. How do we know that? Because he told infatuated reporters!

From "John McCain and His Prime-Time Moment" in the 8/15/88 Washington Post:

This was widely perceived as a negative tactic, and the Dukakis campaign immediately launched a counterattack in the Arizona press, asking why McCain was out campaigning for Bush instead of doing his job in Washington. As a result,McCain told the Bush campaign that "I preferred the surrogate kind of stuff that's positive. Let's face it, I'm not one who's comfortable with the attack role."

Indeed, McCain was so uncomfortable with the attack role that he was back in it mere days later!

More later.

John McFearmonger

The Brawler, deeply enjoying his hiatus, has had a good  chuckle over John McCain's tut-tutting over Obama's foreign policy naivete and McCain's fearmongering -- i.e. elect Obama and we all die.

(McCain, as we know, would solve that Iraq thing by telling the Sunnis and the Shiite (assuming he could figure out who was who) to "stop the bullshit." Experience! Judgment!)

Why is the Brawler so amused? Because it shows yet again how Mr. McMaverick is willing to say the most shameless things.

Because 8 years ago John McCain was a callow 64 year old who made these remarks in Florida, apropos of the USS  Cole bombing,  leading up to the Bush-Gore contest:

"We just saw in the tragedy that befell those brave young Americans on board the USS Cole that we still live in a very dangerous world," McCain said as he introduced Bush at the Daytona Beach rally. "We need a steady hand on the tiller. We need the kind of leadership that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney will provide this country so we can not have those kinds of tragedies." (Newsday, 10/26/00)

That didn't work out so well. (And one wonders how  McCain or Republicans would react if, days before the election, a large number of Americans were killed in Iraq and a senior Obama proxy -- a senator, say -- were to say the deaths of those brave young Americans demand you vote against war supporter John McCain.)

From that same Newsday story, another instance of McCain's stellar judgment:

"He is fully prepared to assume the duties of president of the United States of America," McCain said at a rally here. "I am fully convinced that this man can be one of the finest, and will be one of the finest, presidents of the United States that we have ever had."

Man, you got to give McCain credit. Despite all the nasty stuff Bush & Rove did to him in South Carolina, he could ass kiss with the best of them when a potential future run for the presidency was on the line.

So you'll have to pardon the Brawler if he has trouble taking John McCain's claims for foreign policy gravitas seriously. McCain has been making fatuous politicized statements about the world we live in for the better part of a decade (and lord only knows John "100 years in Iraq/Bomb Iran" McCain would only make the world a more dangerous place). And his schtick hasn't gotten any better with age.

A Washington Times story from the same time quoted McCain thusly:

Mr. McCain, who also made military issues a central part of his failed bid for the Republican presidential nomination, accused the Clinton administration of conducting a "feckless photo-op foreign policy for which we may pay a very heavy price in American blood and treasure."

John McCain certainly knows from feckless photo ops. From his famed stroll through the safe streets of Baghdad under heavy helicopter escort: