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McCain: Finally A Republican Again -- to the Media!
by Mac Johnson [scientist, author 2/22/08]
Wednesday, John McCain’s decade-long honeymoon as the favorite Republican of the mainstream media came to a crashing halt. In a remarkable coincidence, Wednesday marked approximately one week of McCain feeling so assured of the Republican nomination that he stopped attacking conservatives and began attacking Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
Contributor
Mac
Johnson
Mac
Johnson is a freelance writer and biologist in Cambridge,
Mass. Mr. Johnson holds a Doctorate in Molecular and
Cellular Biology from Baylor College of Medicine. He
is a frequent opinion contributor to Human
Events Online. His website can be found at macjohnson.com |
McCain, long a maverick, and the infallible, unassailable, war hero engineer of the “Straight Talk Express” is now just another Republican: an obstacle to the Democrat Party, to be denigrated, besmirched, harassed, undermined, gossiped about and ultimately destroyed. Welcome home, John. I can’t say we missed you, but it’s amusing to watch your surprise.
Now that McCain is the nominee apparent, the New York Times has done some digging and what do you know, McCain was one of the infamous “Keating Five” back in the 1980s. In case you’ve forgotten, as was intended by the media, the Keating Five were a group of “allegedly” corrupt Senators that did special favors for Arizona wheeler-dealer Charles Keating, one of the worst offenders in the Savings and Loan crisis that cost the government billions when it imploded.
Charles Keating was a friend and early benefactor of John McCain. The other four members of the Keating Five (which included Arizona’s other Senator, Dennis DeConcini) were all Democrats and three had their careers ended by the scandal. It was a major media story for a long time. Then John McCain became a maverick. For some reason, all knowledge of McCain being the last surviving member of the Keating Five disappeared.
Now it’s back. Hmmm. Also back is a story that McCain and a much younger female lobbyist had a classic “I’ll scratch your back, if you write intimidating letters for my clients on Senate letterhead” relationship. Personally, I won’t criticize other males for such alleged behavior. It’s not how we should pick an alleged leader. Although, really, couldn’t McCain allegedly share special time with someone not representing companies needing favors from the commerce committee he sat on?
The Prime Biological Imperative is one thing, conflict of interest is another.
The Times has rediscovered as well (the Times is suddenly an archeological journal) that McCain has benefited from all sorts of donations that violate the spirit of McCain/Feingold campaign finance reform. It has unearthed a once known (but somehow forgotten for eight years) tale of McCain raising money in 2000 from corporate lobbyists at a swank DC hotel. When Bush supporters called attention to the event, McCain was a no show at his own corporate fundraiser -- an act he himself later called “cowardly.” Straight Talk. Courage Under Fire. John McCain.
The New York Times and Political Paleontology Review also excavated a known but underreported tale of McCain founding the “Reform Institute” to help promote campaign finance reform, and of course his favorite campaign finance reformer, John McCain. The Reform Institute, in order to fight the power of money in politics, took unlimited contributions from the same huge corporations lobbying McCain in the Senate. This was only a violation of the spirit of McCain’s Campaign Finance bill. Strangely, after McCain literally rewrote the rulebook for campaign finance, his 2008 campaign seems to have done much better than his 2000 campaign. But, again that’s a remarkable coincidence. He didn’t write the rules to play to his own strengths or anything.
All these facts were lost, but now are found. Now John McCain is the Republican nominee. The maverick is now just a mangy stray.
John, I hate to break this to you, but the media never loved you -- they just hated your team and knew you were (and are) bad for its morale and unity. You were the enemy of their enemy, and never their friend. They rooted for you in same way that a Red Sox fan roots for whomever plays the Yankees. They loved you in the same way that Satan loves the flies that buzz around the face of a dying famine victim. Now that the fly is buzzing around Satan’s face, it just needs to be squashed.
And we’re still eight months out from the actual election. The digging season has just begun, and who knows what treasures are waiting to be discovered in McCain’s once unexamined life.
Oh well. At least it will be nice to see McCain end his political career as he began it: as a Republican.
Note: John McCain has issued the following statement on the Times report:
“It is a shame that The New York Times has lowered its standards to engage in a hit-and-run smear campaign. John McCain has a 24-year record of serving our country with honor and integrity. He has never violated the public trust, never done favors for special interests or lobbyists, and he will not allow a smear campaign to distract from the issues at stake in this election.
“Americans are sick and tired of this kind of gutter politics, and there is nothing in this story to suggest that John McCain has ever violated the principles that have guided his career.” ExileStreet
First appeared at Human Events
copyright
2008 Mac Johnson
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