Digby takes note of McCain’s strategy for ending the civil war in Iraq:

“One of the things I would do if I were President would be to sit the Shiites and the Sunnis down and say, ‘Stop the bullshit,’” said Mr. McCain, according to Shirley Cloyes DioGuardi, an invitee, and two other guests.

Brilliant. What’s he got in mind for Darfur, smacking the Janjaweed around a little? I’m sure that’s the problem in Iraq - no one’s ever told those guys to just cut it out…

Does the Middle East have some sort of sick sex appeal when it comes to pompous militaristic bloviating by republicans?  This is what Senator John McCain has to say about American Security Threats:

“The greatest single threat that we are facing right now to our national security is Iran,” he said. “If they get that weapon, and they have the capability to deliver it, put yourself in the position of the government of the state of Israel. This could be one of the most unsettling and difficult challenges that we have ever faced.”

Senator John McCain seems to forget that unlike Iran, North Korea likely is in possesion of at least one nuclear weapon. Moreover, North Korea is ruled by a maniac dictator that has shown previous indifference to starving his entire country.

Iran doesn’t have nuclear weapons. Its government appears to want them, but unless our ally Pakistan gave them a couple, they don’t have any at this point.

So who is the larger threat to America?

Seems his associates in Texas have been up to no good:

Sen. John McCain’s Straight Talk America PAC returned $20K in contributions from Sam and Charles Wyly after the STA finance team learned that the Wylys were under federal investigation for alleged tax evasion.

McCain attended a May 15 fundraiser in Austin, TX co-hosted by the Wyly brothers.

“After the checks were received from Sam and Charles Wyly, it was discovered through the normal vetting process here at Straight Talk America that a federal inquiry is ongoing into the two gentlemen,” said STA exec. dir. Craig Goldman in a statement. “Once that was discovered, we have a policy internally not to accept contributions from people in that situation, so the checks were returned.”

Good on McCain for returning the tainted money, but shouldn’t he have known beforehand that these folks were under federal investigation?

Much about a person’s character can be deduced by the company they keep.

When Senator John McCain recently visited New Hampshire, he conveniently refused to mention that his New Hampshire State Director pled with a judge for leniency for the Republican convicted in the 2002 Phone Jamming Scandal:

Last week, Republican lobbyist Mike Dennehy, Senator McCain’s New Hampshire State Director, sent a letter to Judge Steven McAuliffe that asked the judge for a lenient sentence and called Tobin the “the most ethical man I know” despite the fact that Tobin was convicted of multiple felonies over his role in the 2002 phone-jamming crime. The letter was the only such letter from any Granite Stater.

Dennehy’s appeal on behalf of Tobin comes weeks after Senator McCain hired Terry Nelson–Tobin’s supervisor at the Republican National Committee and National Republican Senate Committee–as a senior political strategist. Even after learning about Nelson’s possible involvement in the phone jamming scheme, McCain later said that he had “no qualms” about Nelson’s ethics and that he considers Nelson to be “a fine man” who was “very helpful to President Bush.”

No sign of the “Straight Talk Express.”  If Senator McCain was really interested in reforming the campaign process, he would not have hired staff that are closely tied to dirty campaign tricks.

Jean Rohe, the student speaker at the New School graduation who spoke out against McCain, shared her experience over at Huffington Post:

It really wasn’t his fault that he got invited into a pit of very well-educated vipers, and it really wasn’t my fault that I did what I had to do in the situation. Had he been speaking at something other than our graduation, or had he spoken about almost anything other than his life and his position on the Iraq War and Darfur it might have been OK. But what did he expect? Campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination at the New School is like trying to catch fish in a swimming pool. It was just totally out of place. Many thanks go to the people in the audience who managed to capture with a few yelled and widely-quoted phrases, just exactly what was going on there.

Check out the rest at Huffington Post.

Poor old man never had a chance when student Jean Rohe took him head on in her address:

“The senator does not reflect the ideals upon which this university was founded,” Rohe proclaimed to loud cheers, with McCain sitting just a few feet away.

She added that she knew what McCain would be saying to the graduates since he had promised to deliver the same speech he gave at Rev. Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University last weekend and Columbia University on Tuesday.

“He will tell us we are young and too naive to have valid opinions,” Rohe said. “I am young and though I don’t possess the wisdom that time affords us, I do know that pre-emptive war is dangerous. And I know that despite all the havoc that my country has wrought overseas in my name, Osama bin Laden still has not been found, nor have those weapons of mass destruction.”

When McCain got up to speak, it was to a smattering of boos and hisses.  Many graduate wore or carried orange to signify their disapproval of McCain’s war-mongering stance and his continued support for intolerance.

Thank you New School graduates for exhibiting the disgust at McCain that all moral Americans would if they new the straight truth.

Congressman John Sweeney has been a busy guy. Many folks on the blogosphere know him from his infamous drunken photo-op at a frat house in New York. Then there’s Sweeney’s lobbyist skiing trips and defense of Tom DeLay. When his opponent, Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand stood up and called Sweeney on his nonsense, Sweeney responded with patronizing sexism.

So, what does this have to do with John McCain? You guessed it, the Senator from Liberty is swinging by New York for a fundraiser with Sweeney. Let me get this straight: McCain’s shilling for a corrupt Congressman who parties with frat boys, goes on skiing retreats with lobbyists, votes the party line, and refers to his female opponent as “a pretty face”? Yep, looks like “The Straight-Talk Express” has left the station.

Calling it an “Orange Revolution” (and cribbing just a bit off the Ukrainians) some students at Columbia University plan to show their dislike of Senator John McCain’s policies and positions by wearing orange buttons that read, “John McCain Does Not Speak For Me”:

“Our goal is to show our opposition to McCain’s policies and voting record in a peaceful silent demonstration during his speech,” one of the graduates planning to protest, Ari Rosmarin, said. “We want to be as visually powerful as we can.”

Mr. Rosmarin said that although some students feel a protest is inappropriate on Class Day, Mr. McCain is a likely presidential candidate and thus fair game. “If he has a right to come and be political, we have a right to respond in a political manner,” he said.

Mr. Rosmarin said some family members of graduating seniors also might participate by holding up protest banners. “We hope that what we’ve been taught in our four years at Columbia is to think critically about the world around us, and engage with it directly.” He said he disagrees with Mr. McCain’s support for the war in Iraq and for a ban on gay marriage.

Good for them. As Senator McCain continues to shake of any vestiges of moderate rhetoric that he might have once embraced, audiences need to call him on it at every turn.

American voters need to know that McCain is no maverick!

Senator McCain, have we really come to this?

“We must win in Iraq. We cannot fail. If we lose in Iraq, they’re coming after us. We will fight them somewhere else - like here,” he said. “It’s all part of a gigantic, titanic struggle between good and evil.”

Has McCain been reading a little too much Huntington?

This guy is clearly on the very edge of insanity. When it comes to war it seems McCain’s proclivity for emotion makes him a loose cannon.

Following are Senator John McCain’s remarks at Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University graduation. Play-by-play commentary is in Italics.

Thank you, Dr. Falwell. Thank you, faculty, families and friends, and thank you Liberty University Class of 2006 for your welcome and for your kind invitation to give this year’s commencement address. I want to join in the chorus of congratulations to the Class of 2006. This is a day to bask in praise. You’ve earned it. You have succeeded in a demanding course of instruction. Life seems full of promise as is always the case when a passage in life is marked by significant accomplishment. Today, it might seem as if the world attends you.

Yeah, I’m sure their coursework was truly rigorous considering Liberty is a 4th Tier School as ranked by US News & World Report in their college guide.
But spare a moment for those who have truly attended you so well for so long, and whose pride in your accomplishments is even greater than your own – your parents. When the world was looking elsewhere your parents’ attention was one of life’s certainties. So, as I commend you, I offer equal praise to your parents for the sacrifices they made for you, for their confidence in you and their love. More than any other influence in your lives they have helped make you the success you are today and might become tomorrow.

Unless you happen to be gay or lesbian, in which case your parents would disown you.
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