Want to know why John McCain is spineless at heart?

[enigmatic]

Here's a great story to tell you why:

http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/extra/running_john/opiate.html

Oh, and Joe Arpaio is one evil MoFo; I lived in Phoenix for years and saw his slime cover everything it touched..

[Dookus]

1. A ten-year old story about his wife?

please

[enigmatic]

2. You're not getting it..

this has been a pattern all his political career; that's why I posted it.

[Leilani]

4. I Get It Loud & Clear...

Post it over at Free Republic, or send it to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

Oh, never mind. They already put this stuff out, in 2000.

[enigmatic]

7. You think I'm a Freeper?

Gotcha.

Last time I post an article.

Sorry.

[WindRavenX]

3. I don't care about his wife

I think it's wrong to slime McCain, or any other person, based on their spouse's weaknesses.
I am at odds politically with him, but I still respect him.

[NEOBuckeye]

5. I agree. Leave spouses out of it.

Unless they themselves have become politically active.

[Tight_rope]

6. I'm not surprised...Bush has made McCain look like a fool to the world..

[JI7]

8. McCain isn't spineless at heart

i don't like him campaigning for bush and will even say it's disgusting. but he sure isn't spineless. and i don't care for the attacks on his wife.

[TexasSissy]

25. I agree. McCain is a genuine hero and an admirable man. He is

one of the country's finest. To call him spineless is to have warped sense of values. His being a Republican does not make him an enemy.

[PurityOfEssence]

9. The point being gotten at here is not so much spinelessness as denial

Skip the slagging of his wife and look at it from the vantage of the man who avoids confronting and admitting a big problem. (Okay, so it's speculation: maybe he HAD confronted her and they were either at loggerheads about it, or she was going through the motions of cleaning up her act; much exists in relationships that we don't and shouldn't know.)

Regardless, what's salient here is that this is a man who claims to be forthright, honest and decent, yet he serves as a waterboy for some of the most unscrupulous hornswogglers who've ever held power in this country, and the idiotic thing about it is that they've actively fucked with him to no end. That's such denial that it boggles the imagination. Even if it's calculated consorting with evil to curry favor and get the reins of power himself, it's STILL a naive and undeniable denial.

I don't like this man. He has a scrap or two of integrity, but he's a reactionary. Don't let the smile fool you: he's a twinkly-eyed and smiling Reagan type. Not only is he career military, he comes from a long line of career military; such mindset doesn't tend toward democracy, nuance or pluralism, and it shows. Don't be suckered by this guy; he's an extremist too. Just because he rankles at the influence of big money, he's a corporatist himself, and worse than anything: he's a cultural conservative. Why folks on this board love him so only leads one to suspect that denial is highly contagious.

As for Enigmatic, I don't think that's a cipher for being some kind of mole; the thrust of this thread makes perfect sense to me: it's an illustration of culpability through denial and without spelling it out in Pet Goat Prose, it makes a good point. When the problem was inescapable, he called in the dogs to deal with it for him. It surprises me not one whit that she's a shrew to her employees and is a child of privilege.

Once again, it wasn't posted as an attempt to humiliate his wife and hold him to ridicule because of his spouse's failings, it was posted as an attempt to show his coldness and willing ignorance. He's still praising the character of Junior, is he not? That says volumes. It's one thing to be a good soldier, but at some point, if one truly has a moral compass, one has to lay down one's arms, turncoat or slither toward neutrality. He doesn't. He's a fool, and as such, dangerous.

[Dookus]

10. My objection to this kind of stuff

is I consider someone like John McCain somebody I disagree with on very important issues, but is at heart an honorable man. He's also a politician, and yes, he endorses his party's candidate. We all hate Zell Miller for NOT doing that.

Being a Republican isn't necessarily a character flaw. If you go to Free Republic, you'll notice immediately that their anger comes from the idea that all liberals are flawed, dangerous human beings. They don't just disagree with us, they HATE us. I think having the same kind of unthinking hate for Republicans is just as frivolous and silly.

[enigmatic]

12. I don't hate McCain..

I save that for people who send soldiers to die based on not only lies, but calculated lies.

McCain knows what W has done, he's seen the smears up close and personal. He's watching right now as Kerry gets slimed by the very people who did him in 2000, the very ones who are pulling the strings right now. yet he still supports W. That's unforgivable to me. He knows what W is doing in sliming Kerry is despicable; but instead of standing up to him, he campaigns for him. And like the article showed, when the going gets tough, McCain doesn't deal with it. It's been a pattern; I know, I've seen from living in Phoenix and watching him for a number of years.

And I'm not a freaking mole, ok?

[Dookus]

14. Didn't mean to imply

you were a "freaking mole". Not sure what you mean.

OK, what you say he does is "unforgivable". And I would suspect you also think Zell Miller's actions are "unforgivable". So either supporting your candidate or NOT supporting your candidate is "unforgivable" depending on which party you're talking about. I think that's just too rabid, and is exactly the kind of thing I see on the far-right.

[enigmatic]

16. By you're reaction and Leilani's..

post to "Post it over at Free Republic, or send it to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" that was an implication that I was a mole. If you didn't mean that, sorry.

Zell Miller is is crazy, but I don't see him in the same light as McCain. McCain is putting his own party above decency; above what's right. He's watching as a fellow military brother gets slimed by the very same people who did it to him and Max Cleland. And instead of taking a stand and and doing the right thing- the honorable thing- and not campaign for the very guy you know is behind it. Yeah, that's unforgivable to me.

There are very few black and white moral tests in my world, but that's one of them.

[KG]

11. thank you for one of the more clearheaded assesments of asshole mccain

can never fathom why some still, as with powell, 'respect' him. his appearance of 'honesty and integrity' is just a veneer.

[PurityOfEssence]

18. Yep. The Powell phenomenon absolutely baffles me

Skunk. Rotter. Button man. Lying, bullying, soulless thug who thirsts for respectability. Fool. Tool. Enabler.

What's worse about Powell is that he also gives himself a little "plausible deniability" as he goes about his errands for these creeps. He is the von Ribbentrop of his age, and I hope he lives long enough to be haunted by his ignominity.

The U.N. speech needs to be subtitled like pop-up video, showing how every syllable he uttered was false, misleading and evil.

[enigmatic]

13. Thanks

You put it better than I could have, and should have, when I posted the article.

[aquart]

19. Not to mention the debts he incurred for these favors.

[REP]

15. Is Addiction Only A "Disease" When It Happens to Those We Like?

Many of us would have done the same things, if we could, to protect someone we loved.

I disagree with McCain on many, many things.That doesn't mean I have to hate him, or his wife, or loathe him for acting human when a loved one faced humiliation. Not agreeing with his politics doesn't mean I can't have some respect for the man as a person.

[enigmatic]

17. I would never allow somebody else to be sent up the river..

for something that my wife, son, or anyone else did. I could never live with myself.

And I sure as hell don't hate Cindy McCain; I think what she went through was sad.

[REP]

20. Easy To Say

Easier even still if one lacks power and money.

When a loved on is in trouble, most people will do *anything* to get them out, especially get them out of prison time.

[enigmatic]

21. I wouldn't

I guess that's the difference between me and John McCain, and I don't have power, and I'm not rich.

If I knew that I was allowing someone to go to jail because of that, then I don't have much worth as a human being. Family does not take precedence over letting an innocent person go to jail. Sorry, I don't know any other way to put it.

[Disturbed]

22. I have no respect for McCain

It's one thing to be loyal to one's party. It's another to embrace a Dumbass that is a criminal who is in the process of destroying America's environment, liberties and the Middle Class.

[HootieMcBoob]

24. I totally agree with you

I used to have a lot of respect for McCain. To some extend it's still there somewhere but that and his campaigning for Bush is mind boggling to me. It's as if everything he's ever stood for is really in the end meaningless to him, because he should be vehemently against Bush. Also mind-boggling to me is why so many people on DU in the face of everything we've seen can still find it in their heart to defend him. This is not about a principled man who is campaigning for the leader of his party. It's about a man who has lost all principle. A man who in my mind for whatever reason is yes - "spineless". He was a hero years ago and he should always be respected for what he did for his country and the men he was imprisoned with but he's not that man anymore. His actions in this campaign have been spineless.

[no_hypocrisy]

23. Well, that story could explain why John McCain doesn't totally abandon *.

If we have access to this story, it's certain the BFEE has known about it for years, and has used it effectively to keep McCain in line.

And that's a man's Achille's heel: defending his wife, not to mention his political career.

And this could have been avoidable. Be a man like Governor Jim McGreevey, be forthcoming, and move on.