What about McCain’s Pastor?

I hope people look carefully at John McCain
and recognize that he's a highly flawed character!
by Charlie Leck

My title here, on this blog, is quietly shop-lifted from a Frank Rich column (NY Times). That column provides only one more piece of evidence that there is something squishy and rank beneath the surface with presidential candidate John McCain. I am as uneasy about him reigning over the land, as Republicans tend to do, than I am about the sovereign ruler, George Bush. Rich's column, which is essentially about the fellows John McCain is willing to put his arms around, raises a very troubling issue.

John McCain is a man who professes great moral character, extraordinary legislative ethics and boundless patriotism. I don't get it and I don't believe it, especially on the first two counts.

Let's dig deep when it comes to Senator McCain and let's get to know the real man. Had we, as a nation, done that with George W. Bush, whose approval rating is now at the lowest point of any President in history, we likely wouldn't have elected him. He was elected by such a scant margin that I am certain he would have lost had we realized how totally dull his mind is and how perceptive he is not. [Rearrange the verbs in that last sentence any way you want.]

McCain's ramblings lately on Hurricane Katrina and the disaster in New Orleans provide a good example of his double-babble and the slowness of his mind. Read it the way Frank Rich describes it…

"Speaking of Katrina in New Orleans, he promised that "never again" would a federal recovery effort be botched on so grand a scale.

"This is all surely sincere, and a big improvement over Mitt Romney's dreams of his father marching with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Up to a point. Here, too, there's a double standard. Mr. McCain is graded on a curve because the G.O.P. bar is set so low. But at a time when the latest Wall Street Journal-NBC News poll shows that President Bush is an even greater drag on his popularity than Mr. Wright is on Mr. Obama's, Mr. McCain's New Orleans visit is more about the self-interested politics of distancing himself from Mr. Bush than the recalibration of policy.

"Mr. McCain took his party's stingier line on Katrina aid and twice opposed an independent commission to investigate the failed government response. Asked on his tour what should happen to the Ninth Ward now, he called for 'a conversation' about whether anyone should 'rebuild it, tear it down, you know, whatever it is.'

"Whatever, whenever, never mind."

If that doesn't sound like more 'George-Bush-cloudy-minded conversation,' I'll eat my proverbial hat!

If John McCain is coronated this coming January, I'll need to reassess my opinions about America's greatness. We'll also need to admit that corporate America controls the nation and the people are just hanging on tight.

Here are some tidbits
that cause me to question the myths we're being sold about John McCain – his "moral character, extraordinary legislative ethics and boundless patriotism."

It appears Cliff Schecter's incredible revelations about John McCain are sticking. McCain's use of the "c" word, in a burst of anger at his wife, says volumes to me about the man's stability. Schecter appears to hold solid source references on this one and the McCain campaign is trying to distance itself from the charge rather than refuting it.

McCain's acceptance of very sizeable campaign contributions from the discredited Swift Boat organization is all also carefully documented by Schecter

"According to the Federal Election Commission, 8,600 individual contributions of more than $200 each have been made to the Swift Boaters. McCain has gratefully accepted cash to boost his senatorial or presidential aspirations from 262 of these donors. Through February 2008, the contributions of these 262 donors added up to roughly $600,000….

'Granted, McCain took money from some Swift Boat donors before they contributed to that organization. But long after their ads defamed Kerry, McCain continued to take their money. He accepted almost $238,000 in campaign donations from Swift Boaters in 2007 alone."

We can count on it that the Democratic candidate for President will be swiftboated this coming fall. Hopefully the country will have learned from the cruel, untruthful and unfair attack on John Kerry, and we will not buy into such lies. [Isn't it amazing that such a verb, swiftboated, now exists in the American lexicon?]

Want to read an account of the Swift Boat Veterans and POWs for Truth and the scandalously untruthful charge they brought against John Kerry? This Wikipedia account it accurate and unbiased.

I listened to a video of a non-denial denial by McCain about his brawl with Arizona Congressman Renzi and it just didn't settle well with me. McCain has some anger management problems. Don't call him at 3:00 a.m. whatever you do! McCain and Renzi, according to McCain, remained very close friends and that's McCain's way of saying that the brawl didn't amount to much. Oh, by the way, in February, Renzi was indicted for extortion, wire fraud, insurance fraud, money laundering and for a conspiracy to embezzle money. Renzi ran McCain's Arizona campaign right up until the time the charges were made. That's just one more thing for you to think about.

Pastor John Hagee has endorsed John McCain. McCain got chummy with Hagee and thanked him for the endorsement until he found out that Hagee was quite worse than Pastor Jeremiah Wright in his nut-case pronouncements. Want to read a wonderful account by an atheist who infiltrated Hagee's spiritual organization in an attempt to get an up-close story about the culture and environment with Hagee's religious organization? [click here to read an excerpt from the book] Do you know about the whacko positions Pastor Hagee has taken? [Read about them and the McCain connection to Hagee by clicking here]

Paul Kane, writing in the Washington Post, reports that McCain used the f-bomb in a conversation with John Cornyn about immigration legislation. The comment was confirmed by several people who heard it.

"[Expletive] you! I know more about this than anyone else in the room."

Watch this Keith Olbermann video on McCain's anger and how nervousness about it extends even to leaders in the military.

To see how shaky McCain is as a thinker, watch this You Tube Video called "Ron Paul Exposes John McCain". Then ask yourself if you want this guy having such an enormous impact on our economy?

Watch how John McCain gets completely owned on Meet the Press.

"There's no reason for the United States to remain. The American people want them home. I believe the majority of Congress wants them home. Our continued military presence allows another situation to arise which could then lead to the wounding, killing or capture of American fighting men and women. We should do all in our power to avoid that. What should be the criteria is our immediate, orderly withdrawal. And if we do not do that and other Americans die then I say that the responsibilities for that lie with the Congress who did not exercise their authority under the constitution. For us to get into nation building, law and order, etc. I think is a tragic and terrible mistake."

The above is John McCain's statement about the war in Somalia. McCain said he doesn't see any comparisons between the two situations. I wonder if he sees no comparison in the nation building that is going on in Iraq and "law and order, etc." that is happening in Iraq. What? Huh? Would you repeat that part about the part where you said that thing about the thing?

As for Iraq, "I think it is a tragic and terrible mistake;" and I am quoting a less than distinguished American and U.S. Senator. Come on Senator McCain, get your thinking straight. You really don't know where you are, do you?

Watch this extraordinary video showing John McCain criticizing John McCain and how he claims to be a "straight-talker" yet gets all bound up in the area of the tongue and the brain that drives the tongue.

Okay, maybe I dragged this out too far and too long, but what I want you to understand, and what I want you to make sure others understand, is that John McCain is of the same intellectual type and at the same intellectual level as George W. We can't handle another four years of such empty-headedness. We've fallen far enough behind in the race for sanity in foreign and national political policy. We mustn't fall yet further behind.

Let's elect a President with a brain!