DID McCAIN JUST THROW HIS LITTLE MINI-ME LINDSEY GRAHAM UNDER THE BUS?

McCain stands for one thing, really: war. That's his campaign and that's why he's running for president. He must feel he missed out on Vietnam, sitting in prison the whole time, and wants to make up for it before dies. But the damn voters want to talk about issues he doesn't care about or understand-- like the economy. So, when Carly "Fuzzy Math" Fiorina isn't around or when Phil Gramm is busy swindling Americans out of their life-savings on behalf of the crooked Swiss bank he works for, poor old McCain has to trudge out there and answer questions himself. Invariably, he botches it and sticks his foot in his mouth and flip-flops all over himself and his campaign's messaging. But if there's one thing Americans do know about McCain's economic policy agenda it's that he is one of the most virulent pro-out sourcing members of Congress. In fact, if you believe in outsourcing American jobs to cheap overseas labor, John McCain is the man for you.

Recently he said "I buy flowers a lot cheaper when they are grown in Colombia than when they are grown in South Carolina." Lindsey Graham (R-SC), one of only two of his fellow senators who can stand being in the same room with him, must have had a coronary. The greenhouse, nursery, turf, and floriculture industry in South Carolina accounts for over 300 million dollars in annual receipts and ranks as South Carolina's second largest agricultural industry. As for Columbia's flower industry, it's largely run by the Dole Food Co, a big campaign donor of John McCain's. Last year Graham joined Democrats in co-sponsoring a bill with Byron Dorgan to protect the American flower industry from unfair trade in low wage countries, especially Colombia. Slave wages and horrendous working conditions make those Colombian flowers McCain likes to buy a real bargain-- while wrecking the flower companies in South Carolina nd in the rest of the U.S., where workers get are paid a minimum wage.

The second part of McCain's statement-- denigrating people who work in textile plants-- is typical of a multimillionaire elitist. As you know, McCain married a wealthy gal who owns 8 homes and they have a huge staff of servants. But regular Americans used to have decent jobs in textile factories-- in both North and South Carolina and that industry has been wrecked by so-called "free" traders like McCain, who have encouraged plants in America to shut down and move to low wage countries. "It has never been my ambition for any child to grow up to work in a textile factory," he brayed. "I would much rather have them work in a BMW plant..." I wonder if he realizes he's running for the presidency of the United States, not for president of Colombia or Germany. Like Bush he makes the hollow promise that "we can provide the training and education [for] other kinds of employment." I wonder why Mini-Me doesn't tell him what the former textile mill workers in the Carolinas think of that hogwash. Watch Mr. Double Talk Express: