McCain wants a cookie for things he's supposed to do

I'm getting tired of people telling me that I need to respect John McCain for correcting people at his rallies that call Obama a terrorist or Arab (which apparently to McCain supporters, simply being an Arab is bad). Wow, way to go Johnny, you're putting out the fires that your campaign's been pouring gas on for the last two weeks. That's like a serial killer expecting parole because he hasn't murdered anyone lately.

To be brutally honest, I have absolutely no sympathy or respect left for John McCain; I want him to lose in November, I want him to lose his next Senate campaign and I want him out of our political system altogether. I say this because I want to have some memories of the John McCain that I once respected and admired, a man whose story hadn't been cheapened by the campaign and a man that just seemed like a decent human being. This election has changed John McCain and I can't feel sorry for him because he brought every bit of this on himself. Great, he finally managed to reign in some of the idiot racists at his campaign rallies, but this is still the guy that decided to associate himself with slimy, disgusting figures like Karl Rove, Rick Davis and Sarah Palin, he should have expected this negative tone when he aligned with these scumbags.

The far right is all over who Obama is associating with, but what about McCain? Let's take a look at McCain's shady friends and ask why the media isn't bringing them up whenever a McCain surrogate talks about who Obama "pals around" with:

Karl Rove - A man who was once described as "Bush's Brain," he got George W. Bush the Republican nomination for president in 2000 after running an incredibly sleazy primary campaign against John McCain. Rove's smears included allegations that McCain's adopted Bangladeshi daughter was his "illegitimate black baby," and that the Arizona senator didn't support funding for breast cancer. As a member of the Bush Administration, Rove was instrumental in the US Attorney Scandal, the political destruction of an Alabama governor, and the outing of a CIA Agent, which last time I checked, is an act of treason. It should be noted that Rove was never convicted of any link to the outing of the agent's identity, but we'll never know since he brazenly ignored congressional subpoenas and the spineless Democrats in congress just let him slither away. Rove is now a FOX News contributor and an advisor to the McCain campaign, which would be a blatant conflict of interest if FOX News was ever considered a legitimate form of journalism.

Rick Davis - A registered Washington lobbyist and the chief executive officer of John McCain's presidential campaign. Davis was the head of a group that lobbied on behalf of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac where he earned over $30,000 a month; as of August of this year, it was revealed that Davis was still receiving $15,000 a month from Fannie and Freddie. Of course, we now know that the actions of those companies are largely responsible for the current mortgage crisis that has caused our current economic crisis. But the fun doesn't stop there, in 2006, Davis also set up a meeting between John McCain and a man by the name of Oleg Deripaska, a Russian billionaire. Later that same year, the United States revoked Deripaska's visa, denying him entry into the country due to his connection with organized crime.

G. Gordon Liddy - A man that McCain desribes as an "old friend" that he's "very proud of." Liddy is a convicted criminal who was sentenced to twenty years in prison due to his role in the infamous Watergate scandal. Liddy was convicted of conspiracy, illegal wiretapping and burglary, but he also admitted plotting to murder a journalist, kidnapping leftists, and bombing the Brookings Institution. For this lovely behavior, Liddy was rewarded with a commuted sentence and his own radio show where he encouraged his listeners to shoot ATF agents in the face. He has donated at least $5,000 to McCain campaigns since 1998 and their relationship is far more concrete than Obama's ties to 1960s radical William Ayers.

Funny how the media never brings any of this up, isn't it? One could make an argument that it's underlying racism and it's a lot easier to connect the dots of "terrorism" to a guy named Barack Hussein Obama than an old white guy named John Sidney McCain, but I don't this it's that nefarious on the media's part. Honestly, I just think it goes back to the lazy journalism I often discuss - the media will talk about whatever the campaigns talk about and since the McCain campaign is playing up on their racist supporters' unrelenting hatred of Barack Obama, it's what the media will report on.

But unless John McCain answers for his associations with men who have been accused of treason, connections to organized crime and domestic terrorism, why should I be taking any of these accusations against Obama seriously? Honestly, do I think these connections disqualify McCain from the presidency? Of course not, but I have to ask why no responsible journalist is using McCain's own tactics against him when he has just as many (if not more) shady associates than Obama. If this is the political climate we're going to create, why aren't these questions being asked of McCain?

So to go back to the original point, no I'm not going to give McCain a thumbs up for suddenly telling racists that Barack Obama isn't an Arab while his running-mate is still out there repeating these ridiculous charges. He is responsible for setting this tone and now he has to undercut his message of the last two weeks while simultaneously taking heat from the racists and fringe-lunatics that have been coming out to hear that very message. I know that McCain doesn't believe any of this garbage that his surrogates have been spewing lately, so I hope it burns just a bit hotter now that this has blown up in his face.