Akkam’s Razor

…and you have Jim Webb, the Senator-elect from Virginia, in this ballsy exchange with the Commander-in-Chief:

At a recent private reception, President Bush asked Sen.-elect Jim Webb (D-VA), “How’s your boy?” referring to Webb’s son Jimmy, who is serving in Iraq. Webb answered, “I’d like to get them out of Iraq, Mr. President,” to which Bush responded, “That’s not what I asked you.” Webb “coldly” shot back, “That’s between me and my boy, Mr. President.” Webb later confessed that he was “tempted to slug” Bush.

That, is a maverick.  Definitely not "stay the course".  Not like John McCain.

Now, I have to admit that I had flip-flopped on McCain.  In my youth, the tough-guy (hanging in while a POW) and maverick image was the angry white-males archetype, afterall.  Even earlier than that, he had escaped death aboard an aircraft carrier when a missle ignited on deck, killing dozens.  But as time passed on, through 2000, 9/11, and especially the 2004 election, I saw McCain is a great politician and a flawed man.

The one incident, and a later associated event are the prime example why I can't back Candidate for President McCain.  It started with Karl Rove running Push Polls on McCain in the Heart of Dixie:

And the smear in question?  Why, the notion of race-mixin', with the intent of planting a seed in the mind of southern voters that McCain had a dark-skinned illegitimate child, and that somehow disqualified him from office:

McCain took Bush to task on the issue regarded a different comment at a subsequent debate (CNN):

McCain said a spokesman for a veterans' group, at a Bush-sponsored event, accused McCain of abandoning fellow veterans.

McCain, who as a Navy pilot was shot down during the Vietnam War and spent 5.5 years as a prisoner of war, complained in the debate that Bush had not apologized, and called the move "shameful."

The Bush response was "it's just politics".  Well, to McCain, it probably is.  Just like a guy focused on ethical reform dances around said ethics when it suits him, or perhaps his role in suppressing how bad the Abramoff affair was to the Republican Party.

I think that the notion of Bush, given his history, attacking a competitor by surrogate, is an unforgivable indiscretion, yet somehow, McCain gave a "hug" that to me is parallel to the Lieberman "kiss".  It's all water under the bridge, so long as their egos gets stroked. 

You can see it already with his pandering to all the ideological sides.  I don't know how one man can simoultaneously hold completely oppositional positions.  In the month since the election, I've heard him say both more and less troops are needed in Iraq, and a variety of incongruent positions on gay marriage.  I suspect that he'll spend 2007 campaigning to the fringes, and then moderate to get the populist vote in 2008.  And this, ladies and gentleman, is why the argument for moderates and centrists are going to be just as dangerous as the neocons. 

The "Straight Talk Express" isn't about uncomfortable truths, it's about saying whatever it takes to win.  That's why I think the fact that we're seeing Lieberman and McCain frequently being mentioned side-by-side.  "Lieberman4Lieberman" has a similarly sized ego to McCain, and both men are adddicted to their own power and hype.  I'll make a bold prediction now - the pundit and political chatter will say that this "bipartisan ticket" is exactly what this country needs (and it isn't).  The country needs truth and honesty now more than ever, not rainbows and unicorns, and certainly not mindless pandering to slivers of the electorate.

Warren Ellis has more on St. John's flip-flopping.