McCAIN MAKING FLIPPY FLOPPY... AGAIN?

There are 49 Republicans in the U.S. Senate (not counting Lieberman). At the rate things are going, there may be 49 resolutions about Bush's Iraq plans, although by that time Bush will be looking at a second batch of 20-30,000 troops to send into the Iraqi Civil War-- or announcing that he just bombed Tehran.

Yesterday Glenn Greenwald posted a great piece on the hypocritical flip-flopping that has marked GOP attitudes towards war-- which is never about national security and always about their own selfish political advantage-- and especially about Senator Doubletalk Express.

Sen. John McCain - October 19,1993

There is no reason for the United States of America to remain in Somalia. The American people want them home, I believe the majority of Congress wants them home, and to set an artificial date of March 31 or even February 1, in my view, is not acceptable. The criteria should be to bring them home as rapidly and safely as possible, an evolution which I think could be completed in a matter of weeks.

Our continued military presence in Somalia allows another situation to arise which could then lead to the wounding, killing or capture of American fighting men and women. We should do all in our power to avoid that.

I listened carefully to the President's remarks at a news conference that he held earlier today. I heard nothing in his discussion of the issue that would persuade me that further U.S. military involvement in the area is necessary. In fact, his remarks have persuaded me more profoundly that we should leave and leave soon.

Dates certain, Mr. President, are not the criteria here. What is the criteria and what should be the criteria is our immediate, orderly withdrawal from Somalia. And if we do not do that and other Americans die, other Americans are wounded, other Americans are captured because we stay too long--longer than necessary--then I would say that the responsibilities for that lie with the Congress of the United States who did not exercise their authority under the Constitution of the United States and mandate that they be brought home quickly and safely as possible...

I know that this debate is going to go on this afternoon and I have a lot more to say, but the argument that somehow the United States would suffer a loss to our prestige and our viability, as far as the No. 1 superpower in the world, I think is baloney. The fact is, we won the cold war. The fact is, we won the Persian Gulf conflict. And the fact is that the United States is still the only major world superpower.

I can tell you what will erode our prestige. I can tell you what will hurt our viability as the world's superpower, and that is if we enmesh ourselves in a drawn-out situation which entails the loss of American lives, more debacles like the one we saw with the failed mission to capture Aideed's lieutenants, using American forces, and that then will be what hurts our prestige.

We suffered a terrible tragedy in Beirut, Mr. President; 240 young marines lost their lives, but we got out. Now is the time for us to get out of Somalia as rapidly and as promptly and as safely as possible.

I, along with many others, will have an amendment that says exactly that. It does not give any date certain. It does not say anything about any other missions that the United States may need or feels it needs to carry out. It will say that we should get out as rapidly and orderly as possible.

Today Senator Speaks-With-Forked-Tongue is blabbling out of various other sides of his mouth. Desperate now to distance himself from the Bush Regime, watching his carefully nurtured image as a "moderate" and straight-talker go up in flames, suddenly Senator Escalation is talking benchmarks-- "tough ones." After the Senate dragged a list of already missed deadlines that Maliki had promised to fulfill, McCain joined Carl Levin in publicly blasting the Bush Regime for their continuing pattern of deception:

"What Secretary Rice's letter makes abundantly clear is that the administration does not intend to attach meaningful consequences for the Iraqis' continuing to fail to meet their commitments. What has been said before is still true: 'America supplying more troops while Iraqi leaders simply supply more promises is not a recipe for success in Iraq.'"

Of course, at the same time Senator Flip Flop was joining Levin to castigate the Regime, he was also joining the Regime's most reliable point person on the Hill, Holy Joe Lieberman, to undermine all the efforts to hold Bush's feet to the fire and instead by putting forward a weak and utterly meaningless resolution urging benchmarks so inconsequential that even Mitch "My Bitch" McConnell is supporting them! Even the most far right wing extremists, who usually have nothing but contempt for McCain, are applauding him for working with Lieberman to undermine the resolutions that could stop escalation.

McCain’s draft resolution is a powerful defense of the surge. Moreover, Sen. Joe Lieberman, who takes a backseat to no one in his commitment to victory in Iraq, revealed over the weekend that he is working on the resolution with Sen. McCain... it should be pointed out McCain applies no timeline at all to these benchmarks. But one could argue that the McCain resolution is part of a strategy to ensure no one resolution gets the necessary 60 percent required for passage; meaning support for a McCain resolution by enough Senate Republicans might thwart the Warner resolution and result in no resolution passing at all-- precisely the outcome [all right wing fanatics] want.