Caveats

Matt Lewis to John Sith McCain on close campaign advisor and "Mexico-uber-alles"-ist Juan Hernandez:

MATT LEWIS: Can I ask you about Juan Hernandez, not so much about Townhall where I write, but a lot of conservative bloggers have a lot to say about him… You never know what is accurate, but from what I read he has some very controversial things to say…about Mexico first, about essentially having a completely open border….Are we getting misinformation? or What is the disconnect there? Why are you taking advice from someone if he has made these outlandish comments?

McCAIN: First of all, I take advice from many many people. I don’t always agree with that advice. I’m not sure that if he has a view, that he and I are in disagreement about..which I’m sure he does… I know very few people in this country, or in this world, that I agree with everything on… There’s a difference between disagreement, if we have disagreement, and things that American’s just find not acceptable…..

MATT LEWIS: …Couldn’t you make that argument for Rev'rund Wright or….?

McCAIN: I would be glad to examine any statement from any supporter of mine…I don’t even know if he is quote or what he has specifically…I’ll be glad to look at it… I’ll be glad to look at anything anybody has said that may be offensive or wrong. But I may have disagreements with an issue with lots of people…and if we have strong enough disagreements, I will ask them to withdraw their support. And that is what has guided me….and that is all I have to say about it. [emphases added]

Sure does sound like his amigo Juan is not a topic Darth Queeg feels very comfortable discussing, doesn't it?  I can't imagine why, can you?

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See-Dubya highlights this video as grist for GOP hay-makers to come:

Yeah, sure, it's a fun clip.  But will any of BO's flip-flopping matter?  Remember, John Kerry wasn't the Messiah, and he wasn't B-L-A-C-K, and he still came within three percentage points and thirty-four Electoral Votes of a popular reigning incumbent.  St. Barry is, is, and is running functionally unopposed.  Unless you don't count Hillary Clinton out, as I never do and never will.

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Here's another fun clip:

Duane Patterson provides the context:

Senator McConnell held his own press conference to explain what the maneuver was really about.  He has no qualms about debating the 491-page gas tax that Senator Boxer thinks will save Earth.  He's very confident that going from $4 bucks a gallon to $4.50 virtually overnight if the bill were to become law isn't exactly the solution most Americans are looking for.  But a deal is a deal, and he's calling the Democrats out for their consistent screwing of Bush judicial nominees. 

For conservatives who bemoan Congressional Republicans always spending too much money, or not being pure enough on one issue or another, they should take note of the lengths Senate leadership is willing to go to protect one of the principles on which all conservatives should agree, and that's the the abilty of appointed conservatives to be able to be confirmed to the courts.

It doesn't take much to be an effective Minority Leader in the U.S. Senate.  The rules of that august body are set up to where the Minority Leader pretty much runs the show, or at least can effortlessly make sure it doesn't run at all without his say-so.  Still and all, Mitch McConnell has done a more than adequate job in that role, successfully gumming up the works on numerous occasions to nix the Democrats' more egregious extremist impulses, particularly on the war.  Wednesday he took another stand on behalf of Executive judicial appointment powers and constitutionalism.

McConnell isn't expected to win re-election this November, BTW.  And the party that is screwing Bush judicial nominees and has been going back to the inception of his presidency is expected to pick up five additional seats.  Which kinda calls BS on virtue being its own reward.

Betcha the 111th Congress won't be screwing President Hussein on anything. 

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Here's a thought to blow out your muffler:

[T]he [GOP] grassroots haven’t formed any strong opinions yet about Obama because he’s still a relatively unknown quantity, which is probably true … and kind of horrifying in what it suggests about the relative impotence of the vaunted conservative message machine. After Wrightgate and Bittergate and Limbaugh and Hannity hammering away at the Messiah for three hours a day for the past four months with no meaningful Republican primary contests to distract them, the base still isn’t worried enough about him to donate in huge quantities?...Or am I missing the whole point here, that Obama’s actually earned goodwill among conservatives by having dispatched Her Satanic Majesty?

Might I suggest an alternative explanation?  To wit, that it isn't that the grassroots haven't formed any strong opinions about BO, but rather already HAVE strong opinions about the miserable quisling that somehow shanghaied their presidential nomination, and are unwilling to give one thin dime to further benefit or reward that usurpation?

You know what they say: the opposite of love isn't hate, it's apathy.  If you've got no horse in a race, how much are you really going to bet?

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The Haditha exoneration conga continues to rock on:

A court martial has acquitted a US Marine for his role in the deaths of 24 civilians in Haditha in Iraq in 2005, the sixth man to be exonerated in the affair.

Lieutenant Andrew Grayson, 27, was declared “not guilty on all charges” by a jury, said a spokesman for the Camp Pendleton military base in southern California where the hearing started on May 28.

Grayson had been charged with making false statements and attempting to fraudulently separate from the Marine Corps. He was also charged with obstruction of justice, but the military judge dismissed this charge Tuesday.

He was the first Marine to stand trial in connection with the killings of 24 men, women and children in Haditha, the most serious war crime allegations leveled at US forces since the 2003 invasion to topple Saddam Hussein.

Did you know how poorly this witchhunt against the alleged perps of Iraq's "My Lai massacre" is going?  The silence speaks resoundingly of where the Enemy Media's sympathies, hopes, and dreams lie.

Don't expect the libs to let these exonerations stand, though.  Their next strategy?  Try these "war criminals" again in a hand-picked federal civilian court before a left-wing, anti-war judge who will ensure that "proper" verdicts are delivered.  After all, the Hadith Eight are guilty as sin by virtue of even BEING in the military; they can't be allowed to stand trial in a sympathetic military court; that's like the fox guarding the hen house.  The exonerations speak for themselves.

And if they still are acquitted there, then send 'em off to rot in Gitmo, and torture them until they confess.  After President Hussein turns all the captured jihadis loose next year, there'll be plenty of vacancies.

Isn't that right, Congressman Haw-Haw?

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In reference to Barack Hussein Obama's "intellectual bankruptcy," Ensign Ed asks: 

Have Democrats come up with an original thought in the past quarter-century?

Answer: Yes - pretending to be "moderate".  But they only found one man who could pull that mother of all scams off, and he ended up getting himself impeached.

Besides, given their reascension to unchecked power in 2006 and 2008, do the Donks really need original thinking?  It's not as if Republicans or the voters are stirring up the mental pots.

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With apologies to "Nature Boy" Ric Flair, it isn't diamonds that are forever, it's Bushophobia.

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So if Lord Queeg's choppers are fair game, does that mean that the Barack Obama-Curious George comparisons are back in play?

Yes, that is a rhetorical question.

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So if Lord Queeg is already aping False Messiah's campaign slogans AND graphics, isn't that the most garish symbolism imaginable of how haplessly Donk-Lite a campaign he's going to run?  And isn't that precisely what some of us were afraid of when he clinched the GOP nomination four months ago, and why we refuse to "close ranks," no matter how "scary" Barry is?

I mean, sheesh, at least Obama is plagiarizing from his own party....

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One can easily see why AP ought to stick to "exit" questions:

I wonder why McCain hasn’t given Bolton a bigger role in his campaign, on the order of what Joe Lieberman has.

Awright, fair question.  He even does a passable job of making the case for why Maverick should do so.

Then he sneezes right into his painstakingly contructed house of cards:

Granted, there’s a cost in associating with any former Bush official, but my sense is that JB is so well loved by conservatives and flew low enough under the radar as ambassador to the UN that he’d be more of an asset to McCain in bringing the base on board than a liability in scaring off independents, especially if Maverick arranged for some high profile counterbalancing appearances alongside prominent “realists” like, say, James Baker. [emphasis added]

And there's his answer.  Conservatives detest "realists" like, say, James Baker.  Such "high profile counterbalancing" would not only defeat the whole purpose of recruiting Ambassador Bolton for a bigger campaign role (i.e. appeasing a hostile GOP base), but would eviscerate the one fleeting issue advantage Sailor enjoys.

Team Sith's thinking is doubtless down these same lines, and they've evidently decided that Bolton by himself is too big a risk, and Bolton plus a "realist" is even worse.  Actually, they probably think that their guy doesn't need any foreign policy reinforcements.

They're probably right.  And if foreign policy was going to matter a hill of beans in this cycle, that might actually be relevant.

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Sorry - well, no, I'm really not, but work with me here - but I've got to take another well-earned shot at AP's woeful political acumen:

The Dark Lord's latest ad:

Oh, don't get me wrong, I believe him.  Heck, he's largely echoing me from a few days ago.  Nobody but a berserker WANTS war, and soldiers know that better than anybody.

My problem with this spot is that it got made at all.  It comes across as defensive; the notion that if you're willing to go to war to defend the country, that makes you a warmonger is a slur that ought to be considered beyond the pale, and therefore unnecessary to defend oneself against.  If Team Messiah used it, it could easily be made to backfire against them, and I have to think they'd be smart enough to realize that.  Besides, McCain's well-known POW experiences ought to insulate him from such a defamation without squandering scarce campaign ad dollars on overt reiteration.

Consider as well the opening that creates for the Left.  If Senator McCain really does "hate war" and "prays for peace," then why doesn't he join Senator Obama in pledging a World Dictator Fellation Tour 2009 if elected?  Indeed, why doesn't he "pre-emptively" guarantee the blanket renunciation of military action as an instrument of American foreign policy?  With this one ad, McCain has set himself up to be accused of being a flip-flopper for the rest of the campaign every time he speaks about the war.  It has managed to raise doubts about Johnny Mac's mettle with the estranged GOP base he desperately needs without mitigating his supposed jingoism with the indies and Hillarynistas he's presumptuously trying to woo.

How you "feel" about war is irrelevant; what matters is whether you're willing to fight when it becomes necessary.  That ought to go without saying, and why Maverick should have kept his mouth shut.

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See what happens when the GOP goes RINO?  Bob Barr wouldn't have been a pimple on Fred's or Mitt's posteriors.  But nooooo, we had to panic and give Benedict McCain his "turn," and open up a void on the Right so huge even a non-entity like BB can suck off of it.

Heck, I wouldn't be astonished to see BO make a play for it before all is said and done.  After all, unlike the Sith Master, he can take his base for granted....