Liberty Maven

During one of the GOP debates John McCain jokingly attacked Mitt Romney on his perceived flip flopping by calling him the “candidate of change.” Sure Romney is an obvious target due to his changing stance on abortion, but McCain should heed the biblical advice: “let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”

John McCain has been a political chameleon for longer than he’s been in politics, but one need not go further back than 2007 to see the evidence. He was one of the leading proponents of the 2007 immigration bill. He felt so strongly in favor of it that he felt the need to dress down a colleague with profanity. Only after Capitol Hill offices were inundated with letters and phone calls from Americans against the bill, effectively killing it, did McCain realize the error of his ways. He now favors securing the borders first, like just about every other Republican. How is this any different than what he accused Mitt Romney of doing? McCain panders to the political winds with the best of them.

McCain voted against the tax cuts George Bush pushed through Congress in 2001. Now he campaigns on making them permanent. McCain has consistently spoken out against “waterboarding” as a torture method during the campaign. Yet he recently voted against ruling it out as an allowed torture method by the CIA.

In July of 2004, after John Kerry had already chosen John Edwards as his running mate McCain flat out denied being asked by Kerry to be his VP. This past week he flew off the handle at a reporter for asking him about it saying, “It’s been well chronicled a thousand times. John Kerry asked if I would consider being his running mate.”

Is the chameleon in McCain a recent occurrence? Not at all. We witness this phenomenon beginning in 1973 when he came back to America after being a POW in Vietnam. He came home to his wife who had a horrible automobile accident in 1969. He is quoted as saying, the accident “left her 4 inches shorter and on crutches, and she had gained a good deal of weight.” He backed up his comments by beginning an adulteress life. In 1980 he finally divorced his first wife in order to marry 25 year old Cindy Hensley one month later.

His new marriage could be viewed as more about politics than love. Cindy Hensley’s father was a rich Anheuser-Busch distributor and helped fund his first campaign for Congress in Arizona. How convenient for McCain to fall in love with someone who could assist his political ambitions right at a time when his Naval career was faltering. McCain changes his colors again to fit his thirst for attention and power.

Continuing his reliance on rich people to help get him campaign victories he befriended Charles Keating in his first House campaign in 1982. Keating was an Arizona developer and the owner of Lincoln Savings and Loan. Federal regulators investigated Lincoln throughout the 80′s on charges of illegal practices. In the end the federal bailout of Lincoln cost tax payers $2.6 billion.

McCain was one of five Senators under investigation by the Senate Ethics Committee in 1990 about their involvement in the Lincoln Savings and Loan investigation. McCain, apparently, had received more money from Keating than any of the others, which is certainly plausible since Keating helped him win his first Congressional race. Somehow McCain weaseled his way out of having to resign or be indicted on charges.

Later McCain became a chief architect of campaign finance reform legislation. It was almost as if he was trying to shed the stigma of his association with the Keating donations of the 80s by being an aggressive champion of reform. Nowadays the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform laws have become hated by many as too restrictive and lacking in common sense. In fact, his Presidential campaign has run into FEC issues regarding matching funds. He only has himself to blame.

Not even McCain’s favorite topic on the campaign trail is immune. To put it succinctly, John McCain is a flip-flopper on foreign policy. Perhaps unfortunately for him he flipped the wrong way. He likes to deem himself a “foot soldier of the Reagan Revolution” yet he denounced Reagan for putting troops in Lebanon:

 

The fundamental question is: What is the United States’ interest in Lebanon? It is said we are there to keep the peace. I ask, what peace? It is said we are there to aid the government. I ask, what government? It is said we are there to stabilize the region. I ask, how can the U.S. presence stabilize the region?… The longer we stay in Lebanon, the harder it will be for us to leave. We will be trapped by the case we make for having our troops there in the first place.

What can we expect if we withdraw from Lebanon? The same as will happen if we stay. I acknowledge that the level of fighting will increase if we leave. I regretfully acknowledge that many innocent civilians will be hurt. But I firmly believe this will happen in any event.

If he held on to these beliefs throughout his career he’d probably be a foot soldier of the Ron Paul Revolution today. Once again, his change occurred when it fit him politically. During Bill Clinton’s intervention in Kosovo McCain criticized the administration for not waging the military action strongly enough. He even suggested that it would fail.

It seems like he purposefully took this line once again in criticizing the Bush administration’s effort in Iraq. Of course, Bush had just defeated him for the GOP nomination a few years earlier. It’s impossible to say if he was still holding a grudge, but the Bush 2000 primary campaign was especially nasty to him. It is certainly plausible given his track record of character instability.

McCain deserves admiration for being a surviving POW in Vietnam. Not many can imagine the pain and suffering he endured. It alone does not qualify him to be President of the United States. Unfortunately for him, that is just about all he has.

Sooner or later these other truths about McCain will come to the forefront in the election. The Democrats are licking their lips at the potential. Of course they need to get their own house in order first by selecting a nominee.

Meanwhile McCain will continue to paint himself as the leopard with unchanging spots. Once the general election begins, his spots will be forced to change revealing him to be the chameleon that he truly is.

He has Bill Clinton’s lack of principles with the war mongering civil liberty taking spirit of George W. Bush. Those that don’t want a Clinton or a Bush in the White House again should steer clear of McCain. With him you are getting the worst of both.