McCain Drinks the Kool-Aid

This story is sad.

Six years ago John McCain ran for president. He was a breath of fresh air with his candor and near-total lack of bullshit. He spoke truth to power -- and eventually got his head handed to him by the vicious lies of Karl Rove and the dirty tricksters in the Bush camp. To the end of that sad campaign, however, he maintained his integrity -- and called George Bush out on live television for the lies that Bush's people spread about him. He was one of only two Republican politicians that I've ever truly admired (the other one, in case you're wondering, was Warren Rudman).

Well, as the saying goes, that was then. And this is now.

Yesterday McCain gave a speech at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va. The school run by Jerry Falwell. You remember him -- he's the founder of The Moral Majority, longtime media whore and the guy that McCain once called, along with Pat Robertson, "agents of intolerance."

That was back when McCain had a conscience. Now, knowing that 2008 is his last chance at winning the Republican nomination for president, he sucks up to these same troglodytes like a vacuum cleaner. And it's nauseating to watch.

Warren Fiske of The Virginian-Pilot covered McCain's speech.

"McCain's tone was decidedly friendlier than in 2000, when he called Falwell and Robertson "corrupting influences" on American politics. McCain delivered the comment in Virginia Beach the day before his critical loss to George W. Bush in the state's GOP presidential primary.

Although the Arizona Republican never specifically mentioned those old remarks during his speech at Liberty, he did express remorse for sometimes making strong comments in the heat of debate.

"We are arguing over the means to better secure our freedom, promote the general welfare and defend our ideals," he said. "It should remain an argument among friends. … I have not always heeded this injunction myself, and I regret it very much."

Falwell, in return, lauded McCain as "a great American hero. "

Their appearance together signaled a rapprochement that could bolster McCain's presidential ambitions. Christian conservatives have wielded growing influence in the GOP in the past 15 years.

"Any Republican wanting to be president in 2008 has to be on their good side," said John Green, a senior fellow at the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, in an interview last week. "Falwell is giving a signal that McCain is OK."

Actually, the real signal is that McCain is not OK. This action, along with his campaigning for Bush in 2004, a man he had every right to despise, shows that McCain, like Bush père in 1980, when he sold his soul in Detroit to get on the ticket as Reagan's vice presidential nominee, is now seemingly willing to do anything to achieve power.

He may not garner comparisons to Marshal Pétain (another military man who was once considered a hero by his countrymen) quite yet, but then 2008 is quite a while away. Anything could happen.

And what exactly did McCain get for the price of his soul? According to the Virginian-Pilot article, not much.

Falwell has said that:

"I invited John McCain to speak at Liberty because I want our students to become acquainted with one of America's most profound heroes - whether or not he becomes president." [...]

He described McCain as "the kind of conservative I would have little trouble supporting." Falwell vowed to back McCain should the Arizonan win the GOP nomination, but added, "If another candidate who shares our value wins the nomination, then I will work to support that candidate, too."

So what exactly did McCain accomplish? Did he merely neutralize a potential enemy, the way Hillary Clinton seems to have neutralized Rupert Murdoch? And was that really worth what was left of his integrity?

The Virginian-pilot piece goes on:

"It's all about presidential ambition," said Mark Rozell, a political scientist at George Mason University who has written a book about the Christian conservative influence in Virginia politics. "In 2000, he tried to win the nomination by mobilizing the non-Christian right and that didn't work, so now he's trying it the other way."

He's trying it the other way.

I think that's what they call a euphemism.

And it's what I call sad.

As Marx (Harpo, not Karl) once said, the passing of an ordinary man is sad. The passing of a great man is tragic, and doubly tragic when the greatness passes before the man does.

Tom Moran