Good on ya, John McCain
Kudos to Senator John McCain, for expressing his disgust with the latest attack ad against John Kerry's Vietnam service, sponsored by the Bush-supporting "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth." Boos and hisses to the White House for not complying with McCain's request that the President denounce the ad publicly.
McCain remembers all too well the same kind of dirty pool being pulled on him by the Bush backers during the 2000 campaign. He could have simply said nothing in this case, but instead had the courage to step forward and make it known that these tactics are "dishonest and dishonorable." (None of the veterans who appear in the ad were members of Kerry's crew in the incident for which Kerry won the Bronze Star and earned his third Purple Heart, but rather were on other swiftboats in the same general area.)
The President, via his mouthpiece Scott McClellan, had the audacity to refuse to echo McCain's outrage, instead patting himself on the back for signing the campaign finance reform bill McCain co-sponsored — a bill the President opposed, and only signed because his feet were held to the fire.
I used to have serious reservations about McCain, given his association years ago with the so-called Keating Five Scandal, a savings and loan influence-peddling debacle back in the late 1980s and early '90s. McCain was one of a quintet of U.S. Senators (and the lone Republican) connected to a shady character named Charles Keating, at the time the president of a financial institution, Lincoln Savings and Loan, that went belly-up, taking a couple of billion of its depositors' simoleons along with it. These Senators, dubbed the "Keating Five," attempted to persuade the chairman of the federal regulatory agency which governed S&Ls to curtail an investigation into Lincoln's finances. Whether that attempt at persuasion had anything to do with the combined $1.3 million in campaign contributions from Keating weighing heavily in their pockets, I'll let you speculate.
Over the past dozen or so years, McCain has repeatedly demonstrated himself to be a stand-up guy, even when that's meant putting himself at odds with many of his GOP cohorts in Congress, and with the Republican White House. This present instance is merely another example of the way McCain has fairly consistently put justice and truth first and partisan politics second — a rare act in Washington these days.
Sometimes I'm asked what it would take for me to vote for a Republican for President. If the GOP ever nominates John McCain, I'll at least be compelled to think about it.
McCain remembers all too well the same kind of dirty pool being pulled on him by the Bush backers during the 2000 campaign. He could have simply said nothing in this case, but instead had the courage to step forward and make it known that these tactics are "dishonest and dishonorable." (None of the veterans who appear in the ad were members of Kerry's crew in the incident for which Kerry won the Bronze Star and earned his third Purple Heart, but rather were on other swiftboats in the same general area.)
The President, via his mouthpiece Scott McClellan, had the audacity to refuse to echo McCain's outrage, instead patting himself on the back for signing the campaign finance reform bill McCain co-sponsored — a bill the President opposed, and only signed because his feet were held to the fire.
I used to have serious reservations about McCain, given his association years ago with the so-called Keating Five Scandal, a savings and loan influence-peddling debacle back in the late 1980s and early '90s. McCain was one of a quintet of U.S. Senators (and the lone Republican) connected to a shady character named Charles Keating, at the time the president of a financial institution, Lincoln Savings and Loan, that went belly-up, taking a couple of billion of its depositors' simoleons along with it. These Senators, dubbed the "Keating Five," attempted to persuade the chairman of the federal regulatory agency which governed S&Ls to curtail an investigation into Lincoln's finances. Whether that attempt at persuasion had anything to do with the combined $1.3 million in campaign contributions from Keating weighing heavily in their pockets, I'll let you speculate.
Over the past dozen or so years, McCain has repeatedly demonstrated himself to be a stand-up guy, even when that's meant putting himself at odds with many of his GOP cohorts in Congress, and with the Republican White House. This present instance is merely another example of the way McCain has fairly consistently put justice and truth first and partisan politics second — a rare act in Washington these days.
Sometimes I'm asked what it would take for me to vote for a Republican for President. If the GOP ever nominates John McCain, I'll at least be compelled to think about it.
SwanShadow was randomly pounding the keyboard at 12:26 PM
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