John McCain is Still a Richard

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist


Remember when your kindly old grandmother used to caution, "Once a dick, always a dick"?    Well, those words were never truer than in the case of Arizona's crotchety senior senator, John McCain.

McCain, a son and grandson of admirals who grew up enjoying an unhealthy amount of privilege, easily got into the Naval Academy in the 1950's where he managed to graduate near the bottom of his class.  He served as a young officer in Vietnam, quickly establishing a lackluster career until he managed to get shot down and captured by the North Vietnamese.  Several years later McCain emerged from his captivity,  finished out his time in the military, divorced his handicapped wife and mother of his children, married a beer heiress who was young and pretty and had lots of money, and went on to a scandal-tarnished life in politics.

There was a time a decade ago when McCain tried to wear a mantle of straight-talker, posing as a man of unswerving principle, but those days ended when he tacked sharply right in his run up to the Presidential election of 2008.   By the time he made his famous pilgrimage to Lynchburg, Virginia, to kiss Jerry Falwell's ring (or ass, as the case may be), America knew that John the straight-talker had been taken back over by sleazy John, the eternal politician.  It was a case of truly bad instincts and terrible timing, because what America was seeking after eight years of George Bush was an honest-to-God straight-talker.   Fortunately Barack Obama was available, and the country did not have to settle for a geriatric Bush clone.

But you can't keep a bad dick down.  McCain, like his even more evil twin, Joe Lieberman, is still in the Senate and never misses an opportunity to stick it to those he views as his philosophical or political enemies - which includes most of literate America.  Yesterday he creamed his adult diaper by leading a filibuster of the Defense Appropriations Bill because it had language ending the military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell, joke of a policy aimed at keeping patriotic gay members of the Armed Forces in the closet - out of sight, out of mind.

Cindy McCain, John's lovely wife, supports gay rights.  Meghan McCain, John's outspoken and highly intelligent daughter, supports gay rights.  The family cocker spaniel probably supports gay rights - but not John.  Intellectually, John has to know that the time of gender bigotry has passed, even in the military, and that there are many gays serving in uniform today who perform essential duties that help to keep our country safe.  But mean, old, political John is playing to his base, the sand goobers of Arizona who enjoy being mired in hate and bigotry.

And that's a pity because John McCain could be a leader taking America forward.  Instead, he chooses to be a jackass, braying loudly and refusing to move.

I've whipped myself into such a frenzy, that I am going to send another check to Rodney Glassman.  You should too!

http://www.rodneyglassman.com/