A dossier full of disappointment

I just started a subscription to the dead-trees version of Mother Jones magazine. I like what I have seen so far. One of the founders of MJ is Jeffrey Klein. He has just put an ax through the head of whopping big lie McCain has been passing off as part of his resume.

I have mentioned here and commented at other peoples blogs that McCain's war service should not be translated into presumptions about his competence to command or lead the military.
Well, at Huffington Post, Mr. Klein has the facts to make my protests look downright muted. The gutsy gusty Captain Windsock is lying about turning down the offer of promotion to Admiral: he never would have been promoted. If their are anti-democratic elements in the Navy they are probably out shredding records fast as the machines will take paper.

Lets see if more facts come to light, or maybe we will hear nothing more. It seems hard for news of this sort to make it into those TV news outlets that bent over and took pentagon talking points up the a**, passing them off as expert opinion. I was going to and I may yet post on all of the analysis of why the press fawns over McCain and pays little attention to his shortcomings as a potential president: McCain's free pass has been kicked around quite a bit on our side of the blogosphere and squelched elsewhere. But for now, just because its still fresh and very tart, I urge you to get a hold of Walcott's piece in this month's Vanity fair. Walcott links the same New Yorker article by Ryan Lizza that I have..but there is much more.

I have tried to see what ever good I could in McCain. Even if he is half bluster and bullshit, he really did suffer for his country. In the past, he has said the right things about campaign finance reform and lobbyist influence but just not done as he has said. Given the way this nation treats most of its Viet Nam vets, McCain is lucky not to be in a homeless shelter. But while I do not feel bad for the Republicans, who really deserve a phony conflicted order-taker for a candidate, I do feel a bit sorry of McCain. He wants to be president, he probably feels he deserves to be president. But it is becoming clear that, like Clinton, he wants it so bad he will say anything, and contradict anything he had said previously if it has a chance of getting him elected. It is a pathetic outcome of an ambition far ahead of the abilities. That overreaching shows. Maybe they nominated McCain because they needed someone who won't go to pieces when he has lost the fight and is being tortured by the poll numbers???