The John Sydney McCain Memorial Crappie Award - Debate Edition

OK, OK - I admit that I named this award after McCain because he was always a contender for it and his constant presence in the race for the award interfered with the ability of other contenders to earn their moments in spotlight.

Naming the award after him was a way of giving McCain the 'flip-flop' notice the he always seems to merit without ever giving him the award.

However, after his performance at the debate on Friday night, McCain win the latest edition of the Crappie-st award in politics.

First, during the debate question on the Russian invasion of Georgia, he said things like -

"...Russia committed serious aggression against Georgia..."

{snip}

"...But we also have every right to expect the Russians to behave in a fashion and keeping with a -- with a -- with a country who respects international boundaries and the norms of international behavior."

Funny, he wasn't so concerned with the behavior of the U.S. when it ignored "international boundaries" and "the norms of international behavior" and agressively invaded Iraq without anything resembling just cause (lies about WMDs don't count as 'just cause'.)

But that was a relatively small flip flop compared to another Iraq War-related flip-flop (OK, it was more an example of shameless hypocrisy, but that works for this series of posts).

"Honor"

Six times during the debate, McCain used the word "honor" (or a variant of it) in relation to the war in Iraq. The first instance was in reference to coming "home with victory and with honor."

Ummm, some may consider this rude and even impertinent, but where was McCain's concern for honor *before* he supported Bush's invasion of a country that hadn't done anything to us, or was even a threat to do so?

The troops involved, other than a few notable exceptions (i.e. - Abu Ghraib), have been honorable in their service. However, the leaders like Bush and McCain who directed them to serve, kill, and die in Iraq should be hanging their heads in shame.

And that hypocritical cloaking of himself in "honor" when he should instead working to cleanse himself of the shame of the worst American political shame in generations (the campaign to exterminate Native Americans was worse), *that* is why John McCain has won the latest edition of his own award, The John Sydney McCain Memorial Crappie Award.


A transcript of the debate, courtesy the L.A. Times, here.