WHAT HAS JOHN McCAIN BEEN SMOKING?

Most people I know claim that McCain has no chance of being nominated by the GOP for the presidency. The far right loons who control the party detest him, even though he's blown every single one of them multiple times in the last 4 years. Conventional wisdom is that he's too old, his incipient senility too apparent, even for desperate Republicans to go with him. Besides, everybody loves Rudy. Right? Well, they do... now. But the worry, of course, is that if Rudy becomes the nominee and then gets exposed as a cross-dresser, a womanizer, a chid abuser, an advocate of gay rights, abortion rights, liberal judges and gun control... his wipeout in the general election will drag scores of local and state Republicans down the toilet with him. So, I'm sticking with McCain as the sacrificial pig to be  sliced and diced on the alter of Hillary late next year in what I expect to be the biggest Republican electoral defeat since 1964.

Of course, there are no sure things in politics and there's something that could easily derail my prediction: McCain could go publicly bananas before the primary causing Republicans to turn to a dark horse like actor Fred Thompson or even serial philanderer Newt Gingrich. And, as a matter of fact, it looks like McCain's handlers let gramps out of his cage without his meds today and yesterday.

Yesterday he was on Bill Bennett's right wing propaganda broadcast. He's been running all over telling anyone who will listen that everything is going splendidly in Iraq. He's beyond what we used to hear about Vietnam and the light at the end of the tunnel. "There are neighborhoods in Baghdad," said the crazy old coot, "where you and I could walk through those neighborhoods, today."

Well, let's hope to God he takes Bennett with him for a stroll. While he was saying it, in fact, the one "neighborhood" in Baghdad where it's been considered relatively safe, the Green Zone, since it's heavily guarded, fortified by the U.S. and no Iraqi gets in or out without proper documents, experienced a massive suicide bombing leaving the Deputy Prime Minister in the hospital and 9 of his companions dead. Maybe McCain meant Sadr City?

He continued his willful ad bizarre delusionalism today. John Amato's got it at Crooks and Liars, first McCain's load of crack and then a CNN reporter in Baghdad disputing every word the double-talking Arizona senator was babbling on TV. The reporter absolutely called McCain a clueless liar. Watch that video. Here's a partial transcript from Michael Ware in Baghdad, on the air moments after McCain told Wolf Blitzer that General Patraeus rides around Baghdad in an unarmed car every day and that Blitzer needs to be brought up to speed with reality of he thinks it would be dangerous for McCain (and Bennett) to go for a stroll in town:

Well, I'd certainly like to bring Senator McCain up to speed, if he ever gives me the opportunity. And if I have any difficulty hearing you right now, Wolf, that's because of the helicopter circling overhead and the gun battle that is blazing just a few blocks down the road.

Is Baghdad any safer?

Sectarian violence-- one particular type of violence-- is down. But none of the American generals here on the ground have anything like Senator McCain's confidence.

I mean, Senator McCain's credibility now on Iraq, which has been so solid to this point, has now been left out hanging to dry.

To suggest that there's any neighborhood in this city where an American can walk freely is beyond ludicrous. I'd love Senator McCain to tell me where that neighborhood is and he and I can go for a stroll.

And to think that General David Petraeus travels this city in an unarmed Humvee. I mean in the hour since Senator McCain has said this, I've spoken to some military sources and there was laughter down the line. I mean, certainly, the general travels in a Humvee. There's multiple Humvees around it, heavily armed. There's attack helicopters, predator drones, sniper teams, all sorts of layers of protection.

So, no, Senator McCain is way off base on this one... No way on earth can a westerner, particularly an American, stroll any street of this capital of more than five million people.

I mean, if al Qaeda doesn't get wind of you, or if one of the Sunni insurgent groups don't descend upon you, or if someone doesn't tip off a Shia militia, then the nearest criminal gang is just going to see dollar signs and scoop you up. Honestly, Wolf, you'd barely last 20 minutes out there.

I don't know what part of Neverland Senator McCain is talking about when he says we can go strolling in Baghdad.

Today the poor man, sinking deeper and deeper into senility and delusionalism took time off from his busy fundraising schedule to show up at the United States Senate. He decided to show up to vote for the doomed Cochran Amendment that would have stripped out the Democrats' proposal to fund the troops and start redeploying out of Iraq next year. Muttering about the Vietnam War and the Korean War and that we might have to keep soldiers in Iraq for as many as 50 years, McCain tried using the Rove tactic that has worked so well for George "29% approval" Bush. "Failure is genocide. Failure means we come back. Failure means they follow us home." Someone needs to take him home, give him some warm milk and his meds and tuck him in.

(Photo courtesy of Jesus' General)