Does McCain Have Regrets and Does Bill Clinton Also Justify Anything Bush Wants to do Ever?

I am not sure I can think of a significant politician in recent memory who has had a stranger journey than John McCain. It was McCain who was one of the “Keating Five” and despite the fact that McCain was at least tangentially connected to the saving & loan debacle, he worked his way back from that particular ignominy.

With a combination of charisma, war-related heroism and a willingness to not always say what had been focus-grouped within an inch of its life, McCain, despite some pretty conservative positions, actually positioned himself as a Republican that Democrats could get behind if he ever won the presidency. Admittedly, a lot of those Democrats only saw McCain saying he disagreed with President Bush and conveniently forgot all those times McCain supported him. People saw McCain leading the charge for necessary campaign finance reform and they extended that ostensibly liberal position into an assumption that McCain was one of those old-school fiscal conservatives who was more a Libertarian when it came to “social” issues” and would be an acceptable candidate, at least as far as Republican go.

McCain burnished his reputation by being a “maverick” and having his “Straight Talk Express” and pretty much positioning himself as the anti-establishment Republican. He helped for m the Gang of Fourteen to avoid the administration using the “nuclear option” when it came time to confirm the President’s Supreme Court appointees. He did a lot of stuff that gave him some measure of regard and goodwill with independents and some Democrats.

Most importantly, though, he allowed George W. Bush and Karl Rove to put him into a position where he thought he needed to kiss the President’s ass if he wanted to be President. McCain pretty much sold out everything he believed and he kissed the ring of the President because he thought that he needed to shore up the right-wing base having now done so well to make himself palatable with everyone who isn’t a Republican. There is little doubt that McCain could actually win the general election if he gets the nomination.

Unfortunately, there is even less doubt that McCain will never get the nomination. He is so estranged from the hard-right wing, despite the fact that he is pretty damn conservative, that he isn’t getting any money and he isn’t getting any support. Again, he cannot win the Republican Party’s nomination. To his credit, McCain realized what he had to do and he did it. He went to Lynchburg, Virginia and he kissed Jerry Falwell’s now-decaying ass. He has supported the President through this entire disastrous war and he is showing no sign of letting up. He has campaigned for the President. He acted like he was taking the tough position regarding torture of prisoners captured while waging the “War on Terror” but caved at the last minute and enable the President to get everything he wanted.

I wonder if it was worth it? Now that McCain is clearly not a factor for the Presidency, do you suppose he regrets kissing Falwell’s ass? Do you suppose he regrets not hitting Bush in the face for allowing Karl Rove to start an awful whispering campaign against McCain’s daughter in South Carolina? Do you think McCain wishes he had stood on his principles when the issue of torture of detainees came around? Or do you think that McCain instead regrets his attempts at campaign finance reform and would do it differently if given another chance? I would like to know what John McCain regrets doing and I would like to remind him that even though he will never be President, there is plenty of time left for him to do the right thing for the right reasons and that he can still make a difference in the lives of people all around the world.

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Why is Bill Clinton an excuse for George W. Bush to do anything he wants? I am so SICK of people defending the President’s “commutation” of Scooter Libby’s sentence by reminding us that Bill Clinton pardoned Marc Rich and scores of other people. The fact of the matter is that every President has pardoned people that a segment of the population wishes would get sentenced to a week in the electric chair. We all need to get over it. I was mad about Bush the Elder giving a pass to Cap Weinberger. Some people were mad about Marc Rich. I am FURIOUS about Scooter Libby.

When Clinton pardoned Rich, I had a hard time defending Clinton. I still do. I am a big fan of Bubba Clinton but there is no way to say that it smells good when the President, as one of his final official acts, pardons the wealthy husband of one of his biggest financial backers. It just looks bad.

Why can’t the right wing make that same admission? Why can’t they just admit that Bush effectively pardoning Scooter stinks to high heaven and get on with it? Why do they need to justify it by saying that Clinton did pretty much the same thing? I keep hearing people raise this defense and I keep wondering if their mothers (assuming they all HAVE mothers) ever actually taught them that two wrongs don’t make a right. But the real issue is, now that Dubya has done it and the only defense that you right-wing nutjobs can raise is that Clinton did it too, I want to ask you this: Does this mean that you are OK with what Clinton did in pardoning Marc Rich? The way you keep referring to it as some sort of justification suggests to me that you are now giving your assent to what Clinton did.

So, answer the question: Do you approve of Bill Clinton’s pardon of Marc Rich? Yes or no. Because if you do not, then you can’t excuse Bush commuting Scooter’s sentence. And if you are OK with the way Shrub treated Scooter, then you have to give Bubba a pass for his handling of Marc Rich. There is no middle ground here unless you are a hypocrite and if you are admitting to hypocrisy, then I think that tells us a lot about what you truly believe and what you have at your core.
Spike.