Politics Re: John McCain Is a Total Asswipe
posted by on November 20 at 14:08 PM
The Carpetbagger Report has a great list of John McCain flip-flops, including the following doozies:
• He called TV preacher Jerry Falwell a “an agent of intolerance” in 2002, but has since befriended the man who said Americans “deserved” the 9/11 attacks, and has even hired his debate coach.
• He used to oppose Bush’s tax cuts for the very wealthy, but he changed his mind in February.
• He opposed torture before he supported it.
• He abandoned his signature policy issue, campaign-finance reform.
• He was anti-ethanol. Now he’s pro-ethanol.
• He’s been both for and against state promotion of the Confederate flag.
• And now he’s both for and against overturning Roe v. Wade.
In 1999, McCain was in New Hampshire, campaigning for the GOP nomination as a moderate. He proclaimed himself a pro-life candidate, but told reporters that “in the short term, or even the long term, I would not support repeal of Roe v. Wade.” He explained that overturning Roe would force “women in America to [undergo] illegal and dangerous operations.” Yesterday, campaigning for the GOP nomination as a conservative, McCain said the opposite.
Here’s the transcript of George Stephanopoulos’ interview with McCain, via ThinkProgress:
STEPHANOPOULOS: Let me ask one question about abortion. Then I want to turn to Iraq. You’re for a constitutional amendment banning abortion, with some exceptions for life and rape and incest.MCCAIN: Rape, incest, and the life of the mother. Yes.
STEPHANOPOULOS: So is President Bush, yet that hasn’t advanced in the six years he’s been in office. What are you going to do to advance a constitutional amendment that President Bush hasn’t done?
MCCAIN: I don’t think a constitutional amendment is probably going to take place, but I do believe that it’s very likely or possible that the Supreme Court should could overturn Roe v. Wade, which would then return these decisions to the states, which I support.
STEPHANOPOULOS: And you’d be for that?
MCCAIN: Yes, because I’m a federalist. Just as I believe that the issue of gay marriage should be decided by the states, so do I believe that we would be better off by having Roe v. Wade return to the states. And I don’t believe the Supreme Court should be legislating in the way that they did on Roe v. Wade.
So, according to McCain’s logic, women have a right to control their own bodiesbut only if their pregnancy is the result of rape or incest (or if it will kill them). If you get pregnant because, Jesus forbid, you wanted the sex that resulted in the pregnancy, you’re having that baby, little lady.
Moreover, as blogger Scott Lemieux has pointed out, McCain’s “federalism” is itself a flip-flop.
He had voted for nation-wide “partial birth” bans at least 6 times. He voted to deny the use of military facilities for women in the military who needed abortions. He voted for this year’s Fugitive Uterus Act. Indeed, given his 0% NARAL rating, he apparently has yet to meet a federal regulation of abortion he doesn’t like. So while I suppose it might be possible in the abstract to oppose Roe on “federalist” grounds, in McCain’s case it’s a pathetically disingenuous dodge. The brutal truth is that McCain clearly, unambiguously opposes abortion rights, and has no objection to federal restrictions of these rights, no matter what his centrist fans try to project onto him.
Any liberals out there who still contend McCain’s some sort of “maverick” or “moderate” need to look at his record, not his rhetoric.
I'm an even bigger flip-flopper than he is. I used to want him to be president... now I don't.
The way I see it, better for them to show their true colors PRIOR to the election.
My opposition to McCain is more sinister, I'm afraid, and I'm truly ashamed.
I don't know, perhaps I've seen too many movies, but he was a POW in North Vietnam. That's a little too Manchurian Candidate/The Dead Zone for my comfort.
But you're right, Erica....he does backbend way too much kissing some pretty sorry anuses. I scratched him off my list when he was nearly French-kissing Bush on the podium at the 2000 Republican Convention.
Federalist. Yeah, right. He started out as a Goldwater conservative, small-l libertarian and States Rights. Now he's a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Kristian-Kook Bushie Big Government conservative. The odd thing is, I think the tide has turned against that sort of thing.
The tide definitely turned for me when he caved to Bush on torture. Of all people. He WAS TORTURED. He knows it's wrong more than anyone, and he knows WHY it's wrong.
A tragic career end; more fallout from the collapse of Republicanism.
Why does Slog post topics twice so often?
Even though McCain is showing his stripes as a hard right conservative, the corporate media still loves him and promotes him as an "independent maverick." Getting his hypocracy out to the general public that doesn't read Daily Kos or Democratic Underground will be a hard battle.
Has Josh scraped his McCain bumpersticker off his car yet? Yeesh...
I agree with Monkey.
Thanks, Erica, for finally writing something that I agree with entirely.
Agree with 8.
McCain stands out because in the *big tent* Republican Party a junior asswipe such as Giuliani has no shot in getting elected. To think otherwise would be to turn Rovian theory on its head.
McCain is an opportunist and a chump. His constantly changing positions on issues will not hold up to scrutiny, even among the more easily-manipulated segments of the Republican party.
Okay, so Allen's out, Guiliani's hopes are dying, and McCain is morphing into Bush so fast I'm surprised he hasn't taken up a coke habit and binge drinking. Who the hell is gonna end up with the nod now that the front runners are dying off?
Cheney 2008!
@2 - I completely agree. His speech at the 2002 RNC broke my heart - I thought he was a peacemaker, and I loved that he was an environmentalist, and fiscally responsible, and got along with people from both parties ... but there's absolutely no way that man likes Bush after what he did to him during the primaries. He looked us in the face and lied. People who want to be politicians should be automatically disqualified from the running (I can't remember who said that first).
Gitai - I think their frontrunner right now must be Sam Brownback, whose motto is, "building that bridge back to the day of Cotton Mather"!
bwahahahahaha!
If he kept presenting a strong middle ground the Republican party would not elect him as their front-runner for the 2008 election. Once he wins that seat he's free to lean back to the middle and attempt to win back his former supporters.
Brownback! Brownback! Yes! Almost as good a GOP candidate as George "Macaca" Allen or Trent "White Citizens Council" Lott. PLEASE nominate Brownback, GOP!
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