PAUL KRUGMAN: So here's what you need to know about John McCain.

[kpete]

Monday, March 13, 2006
PAUL KRUGMAN: The Right's Man


It's time for some straight talk about John McCain. He isn't a moderate. He's much less of a maverick than you'd think. And he isn't the straight talker he claims to be.
..............

So here's what you need to know about John McCain.

He isn't a straight talker. His flip-flopping on tax cuts, his call to send troops we don't have to Iraq and his endorsement of the South Dakota anti-abortion legislation even while claiming that he would find a way around that legislation's central provision show that he's a politician as slippery and evasive as, well, George W. Bush.

He isn't a moderate. Mr. McCain's policy positions and Senate votes don't just place him at the right end of America's political spectrum; they place him in the right wing of the Republican Party.

And he isn't a maverick, at least not when it counts. When the cameras are rolling, Mr. McCain can sometimes be seen striking a brave pose of opposition to the White House. But when it matters, when the Bush administration's ability to do whatever it wants is at stake, Mr. McCain always toes the party line.

It's worth recalling that during the 2000 election campaign George W. Bush was widely portrayed by the news media both as a moderate and as a straight-shooter. As Mr. Bush has said, “Fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again.”

http://jurassicpork.blogspot.com/2006/03/paul-krugman-rights-man.html

[liberal N proud]

1. There is only one thing I need to know about McCain

He sleeps with the bu$h snakes.

[abluelady]

8. And cuddles up. eom

[0007]

2. McCain is slightly dumber than junior

Would Mr. McCain, like Mr. Bush, have found some pretext for invading Iraq? We'll never know. But Mr. McCain still thinks the war was a good idea, and he rejects any attempt to extricate ourselves from the quagmire. “If success requires an increase in American troop levels in 2006,” he wrote last year, “then we must increase our numbers there.” He didn't explain where the overstretched U.S. military is supposed to find these troops.

When it comes to social issues, Mr. McCain, who once called Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell “agents of intolerance,” met with Mr. Falwell late last year. Perhaps as a result, he is now taking positions friendly to the religious right. Most notably, Mr. McCain's spokesperson says that he would have signed South Dakota's extremist new anti-abortion law.

[Kolesar]

11. McCain endorsed theocrat Ken Blackwell for Ohio governor last year

No moderate, there

[0007]

24. Yikes!!!

[SheilaT]

3. Thanks for posting this.

I'm driven crazy by people here who think McCain is some kind of liberal who's going to switch parties one of these days. They're simply imagining him to be the man they want him to be, not the man he actually is.

[Missy M]

4. I was upset during the 2004 presidential election when....

it was being suggested that Kerry was going to pick McCain for vice president. It made me angry that anything so stupid was being reported. McCain is one of the most highly overrated politicians, second only to Bush.

[MH1]

10. McCain veep rumors were started by McCain camp

to add confusion and cause trouble. According to a recent post I saw somewhere (I believe it was HuffPo, may have been Daou.)

The more I learn about McCain, the more that version of events seems probable.

[Missy M]

13. Very interesting. McCain was playing real coy while that...

was going on. Do you think he was guided by Rove? McCain is awfully chummy with the White House.

[Inland]

5. Krugman! The man is a prophet!

He's had a column or two on all the right wingers who dismissed him as a hater and a whacko over the last five years or so, now all repeating HIS talking points as if they just came up with them.

Get and read, or reread, the Great Unraveling. The dude's a prophet.

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

6. "Anybody who says the President was lying about WMDs is lying."

John McCain's words last week at the Republican Beauty Pageant & Snake-Handling Festival.

And McCain is one of the slitheriest snakes around.

Thank you, Mr. Krugman.

[CTyankee]

7. Drive a stake into the heart of the McCain myth

Stomp it to death. Beat it into the dust. We CANNOT have this guy as our next president. He's a right wing, antiwoman and anti everything progressive as it gets.

Hopefully, Krugmans column will be shot over the bow to the repubs that they won't be able frame McCain as easily as they think.

We need MORE of this kind of attack on McCain, starting now.

[OnionPatch]

9. Yep, and we all need to start stomping ASAP

on this guy if we don't want a "nicer" seeming version of GWB for our next president.

[tblue37]

15. It is hard to wise people up.

There are still A LOT of foolish, ignorant people here on DU who go on and on about what a fine, noble man Colin Powell was until he let himself be used by the Bushies to present the case for war. They have no clue about what a self-serving opportunistic slimeball Powell is or about his role in the My Lai coverup, even now, and they are the same ones who are praising McCain and wishing he would run as a Dem. Trust me, if McCain runs as a Repub, these people will cross over to vote for him.

It all makes me sick.

[central scrutinizer]

12. Don't forget: "I hated the gooks. I will hate them as long as I live."

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/hongop.shtml

It may be blatantly racist, but there's your straight talk!!

[tishaLA]

14. Will Tweety read it?

And will he then say it's a hit piece from the liberal media about an American hero?

[womanofthehills]

16. McCain has a temper too

Besides flip-flopping he can occasionally flip out. Remember his past little bit with Murtha.

[petgoat]

17. I would have voted for McCain over Gore in 2000

I was pretty pissed off about filegate. Nat Hentoff called Clinton "The Most Anti-Privacy President in
History" and I honestly thought the Republicans would do a better job of protecting our rights. Of
course I was wrong.

I'll never vote for McCain after seeing this:

[lovuian]

18. McCain is their candidate and he will say anything to

get elected... its obvious!!!

[immoderate]

19. McCain hypocrisy on abortion.

Like most right wingers, the rules don't apply to them. They have "special circumstances."

Republican presidential candidate John McCain, when asked Wednesday what he would do if his 15-year-old daughter Meghan became pregnant and wanted an abortion, said it would be a "family decision."

"The final decision would be made by Meghan with our advice and counsel," McCain said, speaking of himself and his wife Cindy.

"I would discuss this issue with Cindy and Meghan, and this would be a private decision that we would share within our family and not with anyone else," McCain told reporters in New Hampshire on board his campaign bus nicknamed "The Straight Talk Express. "Obviously I would encourage her to bring, to know that baby would be brought up in a warm and loving family, but the final decision would be made by Meghan with our advice and counsel."

That's different from the laws he said he would support for the rest of us.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/01/26/mccain.abortion/index.html

--IMM

[progressoid]

31. Yet he says he would've signed the SD law.

Definitely hypocritical!

[noonwitch]

20. I like McCain, but never deluded myself into thinking he was moderate

I voted for him in the 2000 primary for many reasons, mostly a fear of shrub. I still would have voted for Gore in the fall. I respect McCain, but will never vote for someone who values a fetus more than the woman carrying it.

[Spinoza]

21. McCain ADMITTED that

he broke under torture in Vietnam.

[moondust]

22. Doesn't follow through.

A guest on Washington Journal a week or two ago who has worked in gov't for decades noted that McCain says things to please the crowd on camera but often that's as far as it goes.

[Sir Jeffrey]

23. McCain cannot win a Republican primary....

He can't shore up the base. They think he is pro-choice. He was against the Bush tax cuts. They think he is too cozy with Democrats. And if he ever made far enough into the primary to appear like the favorite, he'll get slimed for his involvement with Charles Keating.

http://www.azcentral.com/specials/special39/articles/1003mccainbook5.html

"On Oct. 8, 1989, The Republic revealed that McCain's wife and her father had invested $359,100 in a Keating shopping center in April 1986, a year before McCain met with the regulators.

The paper also reported that the McCains, sometimes accompanied by their daughter and baby-sitter, had made at least nine trips at Keating's expense, sometimes aboard the American Continental jet. Three of trips were made during vacations to Keating's opulent Bahamas retreat at Cat Cay.

McCain also did not pay Keating for the trips until years after they were taken, when he learned that Keating was in trouble over Lincoln. Total cost: $13,433.

When the story broke, McCain did nothing to help himself. When reporters first called him, he was furious. Caught out in the open, the former fighter pilot let go with a barrage of cover fire. Sen. Hothead came out in all his glory.

''You're a liar,''' McCain snapped Sept. 29 when a Republic reporter asked him about business ties between his wife and Keating.

''That's the spouse's involvement, you idiot,'' McCain said later in the same conversation. ''You do understand English, don't you?''

He also belittled the reporters when they asked about his wife's ties to Keating.

''It's up to you to find that out, kids.''

And then he played the POW card.

''Even the Vietnamese didn't question my ethics,'' McCain said."

[KAT119]

25. The Vietnamese certainly DID question McCain's 'ethics' they filmed

him betraying the United States, giving up military info. and calling the US:" A Foul Beast" & " A Devil Nation" etc. etc. etc.

The list of Mc's instability, irresponsibility & sheer recklessness is a long one indeed, starting in childhood. He puts much of it in an early book-to pre-empt his critics b/4 2000 campaign-as if that would soften his dark & dangerously without scruples or boundaries past and now present.

It is beyond belief that anyone considers him a "hero'....

[enki23]

27. nothing he said as a pow should ever be held against him.

there are plenty of other reasons he shouldn't be president. that he was tortured into saying some bullshit he was told to say isn't one of them.

[EFerrari]

28. Agreed. Let's just remember him eating cake with that Idiot

while the Gulf Coast drowned.

[Sir Jeffrey]

29. I agree completely...

Who knows what we could be coerced into doing while under intense torture.

With that said, McCain would make an awful president because of his policies, beliefs, and temperament. His biography is powerful, so long as you don't dig too deep, but it won't carry him in a Republican primary full of biblethumpers and robber barons. They want Frist, or a Fristian, and I hope they get him.

[bobbieinok]

26. remember Nation article on McCain in 2000

http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20000103&s=dreyfuss

(following paragraph comes near end of article)

....

Yet McCain stands far to the right on many issues. He supports the Star Wars missile defense boondoggle and never tires of accusing President Clinton of underfunding the Pentagon, while surrounding himself with hawkish foreign policy gurus, including Henry Kissinger, Jeane Kirkpatrick, Brent Scowcroft and Lawrence Eagleburger. He supports school vouchers, privatization of Social Security and a constitutional amendment mandating a balanced federal budget. He backs the flat tax, the death penalty and a lock-'em-up approach to crime. He opposes gun control, abortion and increasing the minimum wage. He opposes government regulation as a matter of principle. He voted to impeach President Clinton, and he supported every item in Newt Gingrich's 1994 Contract With America. He's voted for an amendment to outlaw flag-burning. He backs tort reform and free trade, including NAFTA and normalizing trade relations with China. He voted against protecting homosexuals from job discrimination, and (though he's changed his mind since) he voted against making Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a holiday.

a bit more....

[Hailtothechimp]

30. I think of him as "B.B. McCain"

The first B, obviously, is "Bush's" because King George owns him. The second B isn't really important, but it could be "Boy" or "Bud" or a 5 letter word that some will be upset if I use (and it rhymes with "Rich").

The closer we can tie him to the White House's present failure, the better it will be down the road.

[Postman]

32. Quite honestly, I think McCain is psychotic...

the guy has never seen a military action he doesn't like.

Is there any war this guy is against?

He's a passive aggressive.

I think he spent too many nights in the Hanoi Hilton and besides, he's an ex-Naval Officer --- the biggest assholes on the planet.

[Nothing Without Hope]

33. K & R. Also see this Media Matters piece on the fawning of the media

over the two-faced, lying, posing McCain:

http://mediamatters.org/items/200603110001#3

[Nothing Without Hope]

34. Here is the link to the TIMES SELECT article itself & a huggy photo:

http://select.nytimes.com/2006/03/13/opinion/13krugman.html?th&emc=th

[Nothing Without Hope]

35. And remember this article on McCain from a year ago - LINK & EXCERPT:

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0309-35.htm
Published on Wednesday, March 9, 2005 by Doug Ireland

John McCain, Hypocrite

by Doug Ireland

John McCain, the media's darling, has found a clever way around his own campaign finance reform law to take big corporate bucks in furtherance of his political ambitions while carrying water for the corporate mammoth providing the dough. But the national press is ignoring the story.

The Associated Press first ran the story of John McCain's odorous but lucrative Senatorial service to the communications giant Cablevision on the afternoon of March 7. But, while some local papers in McCain's home state (like the East Valley Tribune) have run the story, nothing has as yet made it into the print editions of the New York Times, the L.A. Times, the Washington Post, or any of the half-dozen other big city dailies I checked (although, if one searches the hundreds of AP stories available on the Post's website on its Politics page by clicking on "Latest Wire Reports," one can find it there--but how many readers would bother to do that?) One notable exception: the Kansas City Star.

Here's what the AP's investigation found:

McCain repeatedly intervened on behalf of a policy Cablevision favored -- one which "congressional and private studies conclude could make cable more expensive" -- while his chief political adviser, Rick Davis (who's masterminding McCain's probable '08 presidential rerun) solicited $200,000 in contributions from Cablevision to an institute that promotes McCain and pays Davis a $110,000 annual salary.

The Reform Institute was set up to promote McCain and his issues--especially campaign finance reform, embodied in the famous McCain-Feingold law. This Institute is "a tax-exempt group that touts McCain's views and has showcased him at events since his unsuccessful 2000 presidential campaign," and it "often uses the senator's name in press releases and fund-raising letters and includes him at press conferences," the AP says. And, of course, it provides a cushy sinecure with no heavy lifting for McCain's main man, Davis, as he prepares the pontificating Senator's next presidential run. Cablevision's contributions account for a whopping 15% of the Institute's budget.

(much more, including links to documents, at link)

[Nothing Without Hope]

36. People, do you see how big the problem is? Even HERE some people say

they like McCain. The media campaign and his own posings and hidden flip-flops have sold -- and have BEEN sold by the fawning media -- so well, even some progressives actually have been convinced that he's an honest, good guy. I urge these people to look deeper.

The all-out corporate media campaign to push McCain for the presidency has been going on for some time and is way, way over the top. For example:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1818584

Clearly, the fix is in. Barring some major new scandal (or rather, public exposure of some of the things he's already done) or a health crisis, John McCain will be the GOP presidential candidate for 2008.

And even HERE there are people who say they LIKE this lying, betraying hypocrite.

:banghead: :nuke: :banghead: