IS THERE ANY POLITICIAN AS INHERENTLY DISHONEST AS JOHN McCAIN ANYWHERE IN AMERICA... IN EITHER POLITICAL PARTY?

Although McCain's Doubletalk Express has been huffing and puffing all weekend about how he will never change his mind about expanding the war in the Middle East, he has been busy sewing confusion among voters on another political football: Women's Choice. Yesterday's Washington Post article on hard right John McCain is quite a bit different from an older Post article about moderate John McCain softening his position on abortion. That John McCain-- "But certainly in the short term, or even the long term, I would not support repeal of Roe v. Wade, which would then force X number of women in America to [undergo] illegal and dangerous operations"-- is a lot different from the radical right wing fanatic who showed up in South Carolina this weekend hustling for votes among the Neocons and the Neo-Confederates.

Don't ask me why but Friday I went over a new Fox "News"/Opinion Dynamics poll conducted February 13 and 14. Asked to choose between Giuliani and McCain, Republican respondents, picked Giuliani by a resounding 56% to 31%. Another question that was asked-- of all participants, not just the Republicans-- was designed to find out if voters know the positions each candidate takes on Choice. A plurality of voters simply don't know, but 19% think Giuliani is anti-choice and 37% say (correctly) that he is pro-choice. In McCain's case, the majority don't know where he stands, while 35% identify him (correctly) as anti-choice and 12% think he is pro-choice.

Between June, 2002 and June 2005, John McCain has voted on Choice-related legislation 15 times. Unlike GOP senatorial collegaues Kay Bailey Hutchison, Lisa Murkowski, John Warner, Ted Stevens, Areln Specter, Susan Collins, and Olympia Snowe-- all of whom have voted at least once in a progressive way on choice-- McCain, like the rest of the Republican caucus, has voted against Choice at every single opportunity.

Still, you can't blame 65% of Americans either saying McCain is pro-Choice or that they don't know what his position is on the issue. That's because his p.r. machine has carefully crafted an image for him as a moderate. It's a fake image and in his desperate bid to catch up with Giuliani among GOP primary voters, McCain has unmasked himself as the extremist, far right loon he's always been.

After running around Iowa all day Saturday trying to frighten easily spooked Republicans with his absurd campaign theme: "If we leave Iraq, they are going to follow us home," he hightailed it off to even more right-wing South Carolina where he further shredded his long-cherished, albeit never accurate, moderate image. In Spartanburg he tossed raw meat out to the wild-eyed extremists. "I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned."

Lately, as he's seen his numbers going further and further south among Republican voters, who now favor Giuliani over him by a wide double digit margin, McCain has moved further and further to the extreme right on every single issue. To counter far right Republican religionist James Dobson, who said he would never consider voting for McCain under any circumstances, he is now coming out as the anti-sex candidate. He attends abstinence-only rallies on the campaign trail and backed away from a more Libertarian position that says it's none of the government's business if same sex couples want to marry each other.

Whether people see McCain as a hypocrite, an opportunist, a liar-- or just confused with the onset of senility-- no one can possibly mix him up with anyone promising the straight talk that he once vowed he'd always deliver to Americans. Now he's just another grubby political hack, scurrying around looking for votes wherever he can get them, no matter what he has to say or do. John McCain has transformed himself into one of the most reprehensible creatures on the contemporary American political landscape. And you thought it would never get worse than Bush?

ABOUT THE ART: No, Jesus' General has not replaced Adam as DWT Art Director; it only looks that way.