Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

Haven’t seen discussion here of McCain’s big flip flop on torture

By

I respected McCain once, although I could never have supported him for any office given his extremely conservative voting record on social issues.  He lost a little of his maverick cachet in my eyes when he embraced and supported Bush after what the Bush campaign did to him in South Carolina in 2000.  But with his torture vote this week, I now know McCain has utterly sold his soul to chase his presidential ambitions.  He voted with 44 others in the Senate against requiring the CIA to follow the Army Field Manual’s restrictions against torture and degrading treatment of detainees.  

Here’s what the Washington Post had to say today:

McCain cast a vote against Democratic-sponsored legislation supported by anti-torture advocates that sought to ban waterboarding and other coercive tactics by the CIA.

The Senate vote put McCain (R-Ariz.) on the same side as President Bush, who plans to veto the waterboarding ban.

The interrogation methods that would have been prohibited for the CIA include waterboarding and other torture techniques that McCain has condemned in the past.

The Army manual specifically bars waterboarding and seven other tactics: forcing a detainee to be naked, perform sexual acts or pose sexually; placing hoods or sacks over the head of a detainee; beatings, electric shock, burns or other forms of physical pain; threatening detainees with dogs; the use of temperature extremes to cause physical trauma; mock executions; and depriving detainees of necessary food, water or medical care.

Full story here.

I’m sorry to see a one-time hero reduced to condoning inhumanity and betraying the values of our country to win votes.  The good news is that the measure carried in the Senate with 51 votes, depite McCain’s and other Republican opposition.

Please share widely!
fb-share-icon
Tweet
0

Comments

  1. Thanks Bean – I hadn’t heard about that yet.  Not sure him flipping to support torture will hurt with his base, but it will hurt him a lot with the moderate independents he so covets.

    <

    p>In related news, McCranky has never been a great friend of the gays, but he has apparently reversed himself at least once on his support of the federal marriage amendment.  According to Deb Price,

    …in 2004 and 2006, he voted against and spoke out against amending the U.S. Constitution to ban same-sex marriage [, but] has said he’d support amending the U.S Constitution if federal courts order gay marriage.

     So what he’s telling those very important “values voters” is that he’ll defend hetero-only marriage…maybe…but not just now, thanks.  That would not satisfy me if I were the fire ‘n brimstone sort.  Especially since he’s been nice to gays in other ways, according to Price:

  2. Met with the Log Cabin in 1999 during his earlier presidential bid and expressed distaste for anti-gay discrimination. He’s hired openly gay Senate and campaign staffers.
  3. When U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe, a fellow Arizona Republican, came out in 1996, McCain declared that Kolbe “has the respect and appreciation of most Arizonans.”
  4. During the recent Florida primary, his campaign placed anti-gay “robo” calls against Romney. The plus is that, according to a knowledgeable source, McCain never saw or approved the script, and senior staff stopped them.  

  5. I assume our government has tortured, is torturing and fully intends to continue to do so covertly in the future.  The official statement “we waterboarded three times” in the spite of a worldwide watch of the CIA rendition flight airlines, that famous picture of the hooded man and numerous other reports of atrocities in Iraq make all statements on the matter moot and irrelevant.

  6. McCain’s voting for torture is surprising only if you credit the guy with any integrity at all.  After making a big noise about the honor of the US military in 2003, he worked to get the chief condoner, if not perpetrator, of torture reelected in 2004.  He’s as much of a liar and flip-flopper as Romney, just a lot more skillful at it.

  7. Nick Kristof actually made the argument that since McCain admitted lying, that proves McCain is honest.

    His most famous pander came in 2000, when, after earlier denouncing the Confederate flag as a “symbol of racism,” he embraced it as “a symbol of heritage.” To his credit, Mr. McCain later acknowledged, “I feared that if I answered honestly I could not win the South Carolina primary, so I chose to compromise my principles.”

    In short, Mr. McCain truly has principles that he bends or breaks out of desperation and with distaste. That’s preferable to politicians who are congenital invertebrates.

    <

    p>Seems to me that McCain’s deepest bedrock principle is lying is good if it helps you win.

    <

    p>If Nick Kristof admires him for his honesty, that tells you all you need to know about Nick Kristof.

    • He is the last of the Keating Five.  Only goes to show that “all publicity is good publicity”.  Now with the Bush backing, we are guaranteed a continuation of the last 20 years.

Archives