The White Knight - John McCain
The white knight, John McCain, and his shining armor are quickly turning tattle-tale gray. That depends of course on who is looking at him. It has been great fun seeing the bloated wind bag, Rush Limbaugh, throwing fits over McCain’s success in becoming a republican front runner and then becoming the nominee. But some recent events and some not so recent may cause Rush to bring out his white paint can and daub over the gray areas.
Since with Limbaugh, decency and principles take 10th place to winning, I would wager he would sanction and paint white McCain’s speaking at the late Rev. Jerry Falwell’s University commencement exercises and also his acceptance of Rev. John Hagee’s endorsement, thus pandering to Evangelicals and Zionists.
Speaking for myself, even as a Democrat, I had my white brush ready when Mr. McCain spoke out against torture and cast his first vote against tax cuts for the wealthy. We now know what happened to that. As for his campaign finance reform legislation, sounds brightly white until you ask how you can ever stop those with abundant resources from somehow channeling them to whomever they please.
Again to torture, as recently as Sunday, March 9, on being interviewed on “Sixty Minutes” Ch 19, Mr. McCain forthrightly declared waterboarding to be torture; to me and many others, a welcome declaration. Also, on the same day a Cleveland Plain Dealer article informs us that President Bush vetoed a congressional bill that would have prohibited the CIA from using interrogation methods such as waterboarding. So what was Mr. McCain’s response to this veto? He supported Mr. Bush’s position, arguing that the proposed legislation would limit the CIA’s ability to gather intelligence.
For any of us who have ever tried to paint white over an unclean or contaminated surface, it matters not how often or how many coats we apply; the contaminant will always bleed through.
Buz Cormany
Medina County