John McCain continues to take serious hits from the right on his solid stand against Pres. Bush on the terror detainee/Geneva Conventions bill in the Senate. Meanwhile, centrists are proclaiming their unabashed love of the man. "...biographers will conclude that--whether one agrees or disagrees with him, loves or loathes him--the man is, in his sturdy mind and his redoubtable heart, first and foremost, a patriot. "But, unfortunately for JMac, centrists aren't GOP kingmakers. The right-wingers of the GOP are, and they are mad as hell.A selection of the very worst vitriol from the right against the good Senator - RedState: "Senator and Presidential candidate John McCain was on to talk about his disagreement with the President. His basic premise is terrorists are soldiers; and we should not tamper with Geneva Convention common article 3. Which would open up American soldiers to be treated more harshly by countries like Iran if they were captured.
I worry about Senator McCain, where is the common sense in all this? I think it insults American soldiers to compare them to terrorists or put them in the same class as terrorists. I think it insults the American people to try and make us believe countries like Iran and Somalia are going to abide by the Geneva Convention."The article itself is bad enough, but the comments about the posting from the average conservatives are the killer blow for McCain.- "Please remember this pandering, drooling bit of foolishness when '08 rolls around. John McCain is not fit to hold elective office of any kind, anywhere. Except maybe Venezuela."
- "McCain, who increasingly appears to be insane, would toss right into the trash this huge advance in making war a little less horrific; rewarding those who hide among civilians with the same benefits accorded those who agreed not to do such a thing.
The issue is no longer how to keep McCain away from a presidential nomination. The issue now is how long we have to wait before his physical and mental infirmities conspire to remove him from the stage. He has become a Gong Show in need of a gong."
The American Thinker:
"If a team of geniuses sat down to design a man who should never be President of the United States they would come up with John McCain. Fortunately the character flaws that make him unfit for the Oval Office also put that office well beyond his reach. Sometimes the universe really does unfold as it should.
McCain considers himself a conservative and any number of his apologists are eager to cite his support for military action in our “war on terror” and his predominantly pro-life and conservative voting record. Nevertheless, many conservative Republicans loathe him and there’s a reason for this antipathy.
McCain is a moral exhibitionist. The principal goal of all his public acts is to showcase his exquisite decency. His only apparent ideology is sanctimonious self-congratulation. Consider, for example, his approach to the two defining issues of his career, campaign finance “reform,” and the al Qaeda bill of rights."
"It is also disqualifying for a Republican presidential candidate. Moral exhibitionism is a characteristic disease of the left. Conservatives are accustomed to ridiculing leftists for their hollow self-congratulation in connection with issues as diverse as minimum wage laws and hate crimes legislation. They associate moral exhibitionism with their political enemies and they won’t accept it in a presidential candidate.
And it gets worse in the AT article...
Town Hall:
"Senator John McCain has championed reform of military interrogation, succeeding in placing severe restrictions on the intelligence-gathering techniques our troops use on enemy prisoners. Because of his experience as a prisoner of war, McCain’s views are seldom challenged. They should be."
"John McCain is in the same position. After being captured on the battlefield, wounded, tortured, imprisoned and brutally questioned, how can he dispassionately decide on the merits of various methods of interrogation used by our military?
"This veteran, who served his country as a naval aviator conducted himself courageously and honorably under the most brutal conditions as a prisoner of war has earned our gratitude, respect and admiration. But his experience gives him no greater authority than any other senator over the rules governing our own interrogators, who are bound by codes of conduct stricter than those of any nation on earth. Because Senator McCain has deeply held beliefs about the issues in this case, he should recuse himself. Otherwise, his understandably strong feelings will hinder the interrogators who save American lives with every answer they extract from enemy prisoners."
