Ace McCain

The Onion's "War For The White House" Blog includes a (mean but funny) post by McCain's (fictitious) Viet Cong torturer on an actual LA Times story about McCain's poor flying record. Take it away, Dac Kien:

Still, you have to admire the man. After all, he was a brilliant fighter pilot, right? At least, that's what I always thought, back when I used to pass the time by seeing how long old Johnny could hold his breath for. But then, just yesterday, I saw this.

According to his Air Force flight record, apparently my pal Johnny was something of a "Betsy butterfingers" when it came to flying jets. His flight commanders even gave him the sarcastic nickname "Ace McCain" because he crashed so many times!

Maybe one too many times for your own good. Isn't that right, you big pussy? Ha ha.

I'm just kidding you, John McCain!

McCain's POW Secrets [October Surprise!]

Sydney H. Schanberg, the longtime New York Times reporter and editor and Newsday columnist -- and author of "The Killing Fields" -- has written a 9000-word investigative piece on John McCain and his longstanding efforts to, as Schanberg asserts in his lede, "hide from the public stunning information about the live Vietnam prisoners who, unlike him, didn't return home."

[Via Editor & Publisher]

Sarah Palin VP Debate Corrections

Obvious: The top general in Afghanistan is not Civil War General George Brinton McClellan [via TPM]

Not-So-Obvious: She does not seem to have supported Alaska's divestment from Sudan. [via ABC]

I Can't Take This Campaign Anymore

Transparency (defined as an amount of public disclosure sufficient to limit officials from abusing state mechanisms for their own interest) is a hot topic in government ethics. Opening meetings to the media and private citizens, publicly releasing budgets and financial statements, and providing referendums on laws, rules and decisions—these are all seen as government gestures toward being transparent.

This is a different kind of transparent:

76 McCain Flip-Flops

It's like an end of summer liquidation sale! So many flip-flops! We're just giving them away!

This Joke Is An Oldy, But A Misogynistic-y

It's been over a decade since McCain made this nasty (and jokebook-level dumb) gag at a Republican Senate fund-raiser, but we might as well relive it, a comment the Washington Post thought "was too vicious to print" — and they printed Cheney saying "Fuck yourself!" Wipe away any expectations, it's not clever or interesting:

"Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly?
Because her father is Janet Reno."

All together now: That's not change we can believe in.
[via a Salon.com article, so old it's in the previous HTML layout]

McCain Gets Tough On Veterans' Biddies

From McClatchy's Washington Bureau:

Back in Washington, families of POW_MIAs said they have seen McCain's wrath repeatedly. Some families charged that McCain hadn't been aggressive enough about pursuing their lost relatives and has been reluctant to release relevant documents. McCain himself was a prisoner of war for five-and-a-half years during the Vietnam War.

In 1992, McCain sparred with Dolores Alfond, the chairwoman of the National Alliance of Families for the Return of America's Missing Servicemen and Women, at a Senate hearing. McCain's prosecutor-like questioning of Alfond — available on YouTube — left her in tears.

Four years later, at her group's Washington conference, about 25 members went to a Senate office building, hoping to meet with McCain. As they stood in the hall, McCain and an aide walked by.

Six people present have written statements describing what they saw. According to the accounts, McCain waved his hand to shoo away Jeannette Jenkins, whose cousin was last seen in South Vietnam in 1970, causing her to hit a wall.

As McCain continued walking, Jane Duke Gaylor, the mother of another missing serviceman, approached the senator. Gaylor, in a wheelchair equipped with portable oxygen, stretched her arms toward McCain.

"McCain stopped, glared at her, raised his left arm ready to strike her, composed himself and pushed the wheelchair away from him," according to Eleanor Apodaca, the sister of an Air Force captain missing since 1967.

McCain Speech Interrupted by Iraq Vet Protester

John McCain was caught off guard this evening when an Iraqi War Veteran interrupted his speech.

"Service" is the theme of the Republican National Convention. Isn't John McCain all about military service? Watch the video.

Tire Swing Journalism

Well this and the tags below it should speak for themselves:



If they don't, here's tpm's Josh Marshall to do it.

Harry Reid and John McCain are not BFF

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid feels strongly that John McCain is not the right guy to fill the president's shoes. Reid said McCain is wrong on a host of issues and "does not have the right temperment" to be Commander-in-Chief.

This comment comes at a time when McCain needs all the positive press he can get. Now I ask you Senator Reid - Have you had your ass kicked in a Vietnamese prison for 6 years and still been able to hold a smile? No? Then shut the hell up.

More On The "McCain Trailblazer / Haiti Telcom" Scandal

Lucy Komisar just published the documents on her blog.
This is, of course, re: this.

More On Whom The Associated Press Associates With [Hint: John McCain]

Ron Fournier — the AP's acting Washington Bureau Chief, and the man most responsible for its recent shift toward less objective and more 'analytical' coverage — was vigorously pursued by the McCain campaign, in March of 2007, for "a senior advisory role” in communications.

How much damage will RF bring to the most omnipresent and neutral-seeming name in journalism once the story has played out? God (R–HV) only knows.

"$4.00 A Gallon"

[On Google: McCain + Milk = Gaffe]

McCain "Trailblazer" And Lots Of Other GOP People in Haiti Telcom Scandal

So, in the wake of his firm receiving a $1.3 million fine from the Federal Communication Commission, Jim Courter (one of John McCain's top fundraisers*) has stepped down from the position of national finance co-chairman for the candidate's presidential campaign.

New Jersey-based IDT — of which Courter is CEO — was fined by the FCC for failing to file a contract for telephone service to Haiti in 2004. More interesting, however, as Lucy Komisar points out:

Its work with Haiti has been put under scrutiny since a former employee, Michael Jewett, then IDT’s manager for the Caribbean, sued the company. His suit claims he was fired when he balked at negotiating a scheme that routed a portion of the company’s long distance revenue from Haiti calls to a shell company owned by then-president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. [...] In a quarterly S.E.C. report filed June 6, IDT's balance sheet shows $365 million "income taxes payable," meaning the sum is put aside for back taxes. The figure was zero last year.

All the executives below Courter involved with the Haiti deal are gone. The June report announced the "involuntary" departure of the chief legal officer.

Top-tier Republicans have also bailed out.

William Weld, former G.O.P. governor of Massachusetts, was head of corporate governance at IDT but resigned after the Jewett complaint was unsealed in July 2005.

IDT announced in October 2006 that its entire board would not seek reelection, including former congressman and vice presidential nominee Jack Kemp, former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Jeane Kirkpatrick, former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore, former Minnesota Senator Rudy Boschwitz, and former Washington Senator Slade Gorton. [Note: I posted all their faces at the above left. From top to bottom: McCain with Gorton; Courter; Boschwitz; McCain with Kemp; Kirkpatrick; and, lastly, Gilmore with an eye patch photoshopped on by another blogger.]

"Why do you put very powerful politicians on your board. Because you like them, you think they’re capable and they buy you protection," said Herbert Denton, president of the New York investment firm Providence Capital, which owned IDT stock. "Why do they leave at the same time? I speculate there’s something rotten in Denmark."

I hope this story gets some traction.

[*He seems to get a lot of his coworkers to donate.]

Jindal Says Back The F*#$ Up

This Wednesday, John McCain praised two VP picks whilst on a shopping spree at the local Bethlehem, PA market.

Earlier at a stop at a grocery store, where the presumptive Republican presidential nominee got a look at the high price of milk and other staples, he spoke highly of two people said to be on his short list: Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal.

Unfortunately, Governor Jindal doesn't agree.

But Jindal told Fox News on Wednesday he wasn’t interested in being vice president.

“Let me be clear: I have said in every private and public conversation, I’ve got the job that I want,” Jindal told Fox News. “And I’ll say again on air: I’m not going to be the vice presidential nominee.”

We guess John's not getting the pick of the litter.

McCain Thinks "Rape" Funny Ha-Ha

A joke John McCain made to a reporter in 1986 is coming back to haunt him. Recently, when his spokesperson was asked about this incident, they said:

"He's long said that he's said and done things in the past that he regrets," Rogers said. "You've just got to move on and be yourself -- that's what people want. They want somebody who's authentic, and this kind of stuff is a good example of McCain being McCain."

Here's McCain's infamous joke:

Did you hear the one about the woman who is attacked on the street by a gorilla, beaten senseless, raped repeatedly and left to die? When she finally regains consciousness and tries to speak, her doctor leans over to hear her sigh contently and to feebly ask, "Where is that marvelous ape?"

More here from the Huffington Post.

Now that's some awkward Schmidt!

Mr. Schmidt's elevation is the latest sign of increasing influence of veterans of Mr. Rove's campaign efforts in the McCain operation. Nicolle Wallace, who was communications director for Mr. Bush in the 2004 campaign and in his White House, has joined the campaign as a senior adviser, and will travel with Mr. McCain every other week. Greg Jenkins, another veteran of Mr. Rove's operation, has joined the McCain communications operation.
[Adam Nagourney for the NYT]

Just sayin'.