Psychogeezer

“Colin Powell, interestingly enough, said that Obama got us out of Iraq. But it was Colin Powell, with his testimony before the U.N. Security Council, that got us into Iraq.” —John McCain, attempting to trash Colin Powell’s Obama endorsement, but managing to further bury his own reputation instead. [NRO, via TPM]

America’s Frothy Mixture of Lube and Fecal Matter says he can teach John McCain a thing or two about torture:

Hugh Hewitt: Now your former colleague, John McCain, said look, there’s no record, there’s no evidence here that these methods actually led to the capture or the killing of bin Laden. Do you disagree with that? Or do you think he’s got an argument?

Rick Santorum: I don’t, everything I’ve read shows that we would not have gotten this information as to who this man was if it had not been gotten information from people who were subject to enhanced interrogation. And so this idea that we didn’t ask that question while Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was being waterboarded, he doesn’t understand how enhanced interrogation works. I mean, you break somebody, and after they’re broken, they become cooperative. And that’s when we got this information. And one thing led to another, and led to another, and that’s how we ended up with bin Laden.

Since Salon has done us the favor of reading a McCain memoir, we’ll let them provide the relevant passage:

Eventually, I gave them my ship’s name and squadron number, and confirmed that my target had been the power plant. Pressed for more useful information, I gave the names of the Green Bay Packers offensive line, and said they were members of my squadron.

Thank God the Viet Cong never got to Francis Peay, Bill Lueck, Ken Bowman, Gale Gillingham, and Dick Himes — although since the Packers went 6-8 in 1970, it probably wouldn’t have made a difference.

Santorum: What does McCain know about torture? [Salon]

“Sen. John McCain, R-AZ, tells CNN he believes his good friend Joe Lieberman would make a good defense secretary for President Obama, calling him ‘one of the most informed members of the Senate on national security issues and homeland security issues.'”

John McCain to Newsweek: “I never considered myself a maverick.”

The McCain Mutiny [Newsweek, via Political Wire]

New Ad Calls McCain ‘The Original Maverick’ [NYT, 8/5/2008]

Slow day, unless you want to argue whether the Pentagon shooter was a deranged wingnut or a deranged moonbat. So, in anticipation of Sunday’s Big Event Which Has Nothing To Do With Sport, we’ll note that J.D. Hayworth is mocking John McCain for enjoying Avatar too much. Or something like that.

Apparently an earlier version of this ad neglected to paint Psychogeezer’s face entirely blue, providing an excuse for McCain’s campaign manager to call it “insulting to Native Americans”. Now it’s just insulting to deranged LARPers.

Is Hayworth ad mocking McCain offensive? [Arizona Republic, via TPM]

Second Hayworth ad puts McCain in ‘blueface’ [Arizona Republic]

While we have the Wayback Machine warmed up, our inaugural post on September 25, 2008, was “Looks Like We Picked the Wrong Week to Quit Campaigning”. And lo, the inspiration for that post is back in the news:

McCain said Bush called him in off the campaign trail, saying a worldwide economic catastrophe was imminent and that he needed his help. “I don’t know of any American, when the president of the United States calls you and tells you something like that, who wouldn’t respond,” McCain said. “And I came back and tried to sit down and work with Republicans and say, ‘What can we do?’ “

Of course, Hank Paulson doesn’t remember it that way:

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John McCain, October 2006:

The day that the leadership of the military comes to me and says, Senator, we ought to change the policy, then I think we ought to consider seriously changing it because those leaders in the military are the ones we give the responsibility to.

Mike Mullen, JCS chairman, Tuesday:

No matter how I look at the issue, I cannot escape being troubled by the fact that we have in place a policy which forces young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens… Allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly would be the right thing to do.

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