Fred Kaplan points out that mean old man John McCain may have run out of excuses to stop the repeal of DADT, but if NPR news is any indication, the addled old lout managed to babble on for quite a bit today during the hearings. At this point, with the Pentagon brass, Mullen, Gates, the President, the majority of both houses, and the American public, as well as the overwhelming majority of the members of the armed services are on one side, and John McCain is on the other, snarling and just making shit up.
It is long past time to ignore him, because he has no arguments, only prejudices.
WyldPirate
Fresh thread.
I blame Obama for McCain’s loutishness and prejudice. ;)
Felanius Kootea (formerly Salt and freshly ground black people)
I felt for McCain when Bush smeared him during the ’00 primaries and I kind of bought into the whole maverick thing. I have never grown to despise someone so quickly. What the hell happened to him?
Zifnab
Listen, if Obama had just let the old guy be President, we wouldn’t be having this argument right now. This’ll teach you young whippersnappers to walk on Old Man McCain’s lawn.
Redshirt
Weren’t responsible civilian leaders supposed to listen and heed every pronouncement of the military brass? At least, I thought that was the rule prior to 1/2009. Another rule change?
dr. bloor
That old saw about Eskimos having endless names for “snow” may be an urban myth, but we’re about to be exposed to six years of various ways that McCain can say “Hey you kids, get off my lawn!” And they’ll all get the lede at NPR or a seat at Press the Meat.
Comrade Jake
And tire swings! Don’t forget those! McCain’s buddies in the media surely haven’t. Otherwise this guy would’ve been skewered for the complete asshat he is years ago.
JCT
Did you hear Mullen whack him about his odious comment that Mullen wasn’t commanding troops?
My g_d, if a Dem had pulled such a thing a few years ago McCain would have wet himself in indignation.
He’s a pathetic nasty old fool.
Suck It Up!
You know sometimes I wonder if McCain is going to run for president again. Why o why is this man fighting this so hard and moving to the far far right on everything? He won his re-election and he’s very old. at this point he should just do the right thing and give the wing nuts the finger. I guess this is his true self?
And when is his daughter going to call him out?
Bulworth
Get Off My Lawn.
jonas
I don’t get this. Who’s McCain carrying water for on this? He just won re-election against a right-wing nutcase quite handily and has never seemed that into the whole culture war thing before. Some of the Marine corps brass apparently are against the repeal, but why’s McCain going to the mat for them on this? Is he even on speaking terms with his daughter and wife any more?
Maybe he’s just a crotchety old homophobe. But he’s a shameless political hack first and foremost, which has me scratching my head a bit.
lacp
Fuck Poopdeck Pappy – time to ship him to the glue factory.
New Yorker
Oh, so the guy’s name really IS “Fred Kaplan”. I thought for a moment that this was a creative new name for the WaPo editorial page.
Hal
This is one of the fundamental reasons I despise both John McCain and Meghan McCain. Meghan is a massive hypocrite who goes around spouting off on why more gays aren’t Republicans, while largely ignoring her own fathers stand on DADT, and her parties enormously anti-gay positions.
She criticizes Obama on the issue, but only “disagrees” with her father’s position. If she were really a new kind of Republicans who isn’t embracing the parties past use of social issues, her father would be in her cross hairs as much as Obama is, at least on this issue.
John McCain meanwhile flips and flops over whatever issue will ensure his continued existence in the Senate. The man really has nothing else, and now I just view him as a empty shell of a man who’s been full of shit and lies since the 80’s. The Keating Five McCain was the real John McCain. Everything since then has been a fabrication.
Zifnab
@Felanius Kootea (formerly Salt and freshly ground black people):
John McCain is a product of the modern GOP. He used to be just another grumpy Republican Senator, who ran an unusually progressive campaign. Bush crucified him for it. Then the Republicans spent the next eight years feeding the base bloody red meat. And now a crazy base, a Party of No, and a twice-denied Presidential bid have left John McCain the bitter, amoral asshole he is today.
Tsulagi
Yep, the battle outcome doesn’t look good for the Dems.
kay
@Felanius Kootea (formerly Salt and freshly ground black people):
Nothing. He was always this way.
These are the issues he has back-pedaled or reneged on:
DADT, immigration, climate change, campaign finance reform.
His whole record of ‘maverick’ statements or positions. All bullshit.
Calouste
@Felanius Kootea (formerly Salt and freshly ground black people):
The mask fell off?
Nothing else ever happened to McCain. He was always a non-too-bright, bigotted, entitled, son of military aristocracy who managed to ride getting shot down into a political career. He just managed to hide it for a few years.
New Yorker
@Calouste:
Yes, and the mask fell off because he lost the presidency that he felt entitled to. An aristocrat to the bitter end….
arguingwithsignposts
This is obviously (all together now…) good news for John McCain!
Another round of Sunday gabfests for him this week. Bookmark it, libs.
sigh.
dr. bloor
@jonas:
He’s all of these. The difference is that he realizes he’s gotten as far as he’s going to go, so there’s no need to try and hide his bitter, contemptuous attitude toward the world.
trollhattan
I heard his blathering while gathering my morning coffee, which I nearly lost through my nose when he went for the “Don’t make a change like this in a time of war” card.
Shite on a shingle old man, whatever happened to “Don’t criticize the president during a time of war” back in January ’09, when you decided your most important role as a senaotr was permanently warming chairs on the Sunday morning chat shows taking shots at…well…the president overseeing two wars?
What a worthless, cancerous bag of flesh. He and Gates into Thunderdome, stat!
licensed to kill time
Angry and bitter is no way to end your life, old man.
Allan
@Hal: The one thing the McCain women can do to redeem themselves involves a strategically placed pillow.
WyldPirate
@jonas:
fixed as it offers a hypothesis to the intransigence.
Maybe he misses Larry Craig. Also, too.
freelancer
@arguingwithsignposts:
You’re not kidding. Google news results for the DADT hearings all have McCain in the headlines. WTH?
Corner Stone
@Allan: A pillow under the tailbone can be quite the…oh wait, you meant smother him, right?
john b
@freelancer:
that’s because the search is actually for john mccain.
djheru
This is great news for Republicans!
freelancer
@john b:
Well, shit. That’s my goof. A revised search for “DADT” isn’t much better.
TOP123
@JCT: THIS I gotta see–you happen to have a good link?
john b
@freelancer:
i get much less mccain when i search for dadt. i think you’re refining your mccain search.
edit: in fact, there’s only one mention of mccain on the front page of my google news mccain search.
bobbo
@Suck It Up!:
Let’s hope so. Other than Palin, he is our best hope for Obama keeping the White House.
Linda Featheringill
@bobbo:
McCain running for president:
I actually suspect that Boehner is thinking about running. This is just a thought, with no hard evidence.
The Grand Panjandrum
Sullivan put up a video of some of today’s highlights from the military brass, but you have to listen to the very last thing Gates says. It might be the most important piece of this entire process. I’m surprised we haven’t heard it more often. Basically what Gates says is that policy matters should NOT be put up for referendum to the troops. He says it is a Very Dangerous Path. Good for him. Someone had to say it and I’m glad it is now on the record.
bozack
Well, same goes for his whole fucking party, and they just swept to a giant victory. Can’t ignore ’em.
Old white people love their prejudices and hate rational thought. They just might manage to murder America.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@jonas:
His own daughter offers the most charitable explanation: He’s a very old man (older than his years) who’s uncomfortable with the idea of teh gai. I call that fear and bigotry, exacerbated by his bitterness, of course.
The man who wanted to give Sarah Palin a very real chance of being commander in chief doesn’t think Obama is a military leader, regardless of that little Constitution thingie. James Madison never saw combat.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@jonas:
Can you imagine the screaming torrent of F-bombs and insults Cindy had to endure before she got back into line?
NickM
McCain is a completely hollow man. Kind of tragic, in a way.
Cacti
When it comes to military issues, McCain is forever trying to prove his bona fides to his dead father and grandfather.
He got into politics because his career as a Navy legacy was a failure, and nothing will let him live that down.
JCT
@TOP123: Here’s the quote, I’m sure one of the more complete videos has the comment.
McCain’s comment about Mullen was simply disgusting. I can’t believe such an accomplished naval officer (unlike McCain) had to even reply. Poor Grumpy McLoser must still be mad that he never had a hope in hell in making Admiral.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@JCT:
It all good when a Republican disses our military, especially when a war hero like Walnuts does it. Nobody but the liberals will complain about it and that bit of criticism will die off real fast. Now if it had been a Democrat who did this then you know there would have been a proper level of outrage on both the left, right and in the M$M.
The game is rigged, it only works when everyone is outraged and everyone only gets outraged at Democrats.
cursorial
I’ve been completely baffled by McCain lately – but I really don’t think his current bizarre act is motivated by bigotry. As some commenters have pointed out, the culture war stuff never animated him before. He was one of the few Republicans willing to cross the religious right in 2000, and even as late as the 2008 primary, I remember him making some fairly sane points on immigration to a hostile audience.
I’m starting to think that was never principle, he was just being contrary. Like Tina Fey’s Palin line, he makes major decisions by figuring out what the maverick position is, and just doing that. When it was novel for a Republican to consider DADT repeal, he went on record considering it. Now that it’s conventional wisdom, even in the military, he’s going to oppose it. And if he looks ridiculous, he’ll double down. It’s a strange way for an adult to act – and makes me ashamed I seriously considered him for President. Say what you will about W., he at least had the virtue of being consistently loyal to his delusions.
Wile E. Quixote
@JCT:
It’s even more disgusting when you consider that McCain was a fucking pilot fer crissakes. Hell, the enlisted crew chiefs that maintained the jets that McCain
crashedflew had more experience and responsibility for leading men than John McCain ever did. What a worthless piece of shit.JCT
@Wile E. Quixote: Basically word-for-word what my Navy guy father once said about McCain. He *loathed* him and this was years ago. “Lazy-assed, pretty-boy prima donna pilot” was one of the nicest things dad ever said about McLoser.
I was slack-jawed when McCain made his comment re: Mullen not being in charge of troops — Like McCain *ever* was? Ahhhhh.
Triassic Sands
@JCT:
McCain was in charge of his own ego — and that’s a really
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job.
Plus, he flip flops so much it’s more like fifty or sixty thousand people rather than just one.