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McCain finds Corsi hatchet-job funny, then backpedals

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Much of the week has been spent responding to Jerome Corsi’s new book, “The Obama Nation,” and its lengthy list of transparent falsehoods. Yesterday, the Associated Press asked John McCain, who was on route to a meeting, what he thought of the right-wing hatchet-job. McCain responded, “Gotta keep your sense of humor.”

The Obama campaign was not amused.

“The old John McCain used to boast about honorable politics, while the new John McCain finds Roveian smears funny. Honor is not a laughing matter. What does John McCain think is funny about an intolerant smear artist who called Pope John Paul II senile and claims the government lied about 9/11? McCain has said he wants to run an honorable campaign, but his belief that these smears are funny makes people question whether he now approves of the same reprehensible politics used to smear his own character eight years ago

,” said Obama campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor.

The DNC’s Rapid Response Team added, “Despite pledging to run a respectful campaign, McCain is just standing by while Corsi and his publisher, former Dick Cheney aide Mary Matalin, poison this presidential race.”

Soon after, in an interesting twist, a McCain spokesperson said McCain “actually did not hear the question, and would not be commenting on the book.”

Now, ask yourself, have you ever thought to respond to a question that you didn’t hear by saying, “Gotta keep your sense of humor”? Isn’t that kind of specific as a response? As a rule, if I’m asked a question and didn’t hear the questioner, I might say something like, “What?” Or maybe, “Could you repeat that?” If I was at a distance, I might point at my ear and shake my head. It wouldn’t occur to me to respond, “Gotta keep your sense of humor.”

But even if we accept the campaign’s truly ridiculous spin at face value, I have a follow up question: why isn’t McCain commenting on the book?

No matter what one’s ideology or party preference, it seems pretty obvious that Corsi is an unhinged smear artist who lies about those he attacks. Indeed, four years ago, when Corsi was lying about John Kerry’s heroic military service, McCain spoke out publicly to defend his Senate colleague and dismiss Corsi’s work.

Yes, the circumstances are slightly different now. This time Corsi’s target is McCain’s direct rival, not just the nominee of the rival party. But the underlying point remains the same: Corsi is lying, McCain knows it, but he refuses to say so because the lies may benefit him politically. It’s the difference between honor and whatever’s left of McCain’s character.

Time’s Joe Klein argued the other day:

Back in the day, John McCain was the sort of politician who would stand first in line to call out this sort of swill. (As, I’m sure Barack Obama or John Kerry would do, if some hate-crazed, money-grubbing left-winger published a book claiming that McCain had been successfully brainwashed in Vietnam — as Kerry did indeed do when a group of spurious Bush-backing Vietnam vets tried to claim exactly that about McCain during the 2000 Republican primary in South Carolina.)

Ultimately, the first and last question McCain asks is, “Will this swill help destroy my opponent?”

Comments

  • danimal

    says:

    He really wants to run a clean campaign, but the realities of modern elections do not allow him to run the respectful, issue-based campaign that McCain longs for. Of course he would like to denounce the book, but that would alienate his supporters. You have to feel sorry for John McCain, he dives into the sleaze even though we really know he’s an ok guy.
    –Washington pundits

  • angry young man

    says:

    Eric Burns pointed out on Countdown this week that the Corsi book was on the NY Times bestseller list with a dagger, meaning bulk sales were reported by bookstores and, thus, the actual consumer reach of the book couldn’t be trusted.

    The new list is out and the dagger is still there. What I find interesting is that other two conservative books also have daggers, THE CASE AGAINST BARACK OBAMA by David Freddoso and FLEECED by Dick Morris.

    For a paper reviled as the libuhrul Bible, conservatives certainly seem anxious to suck at the tit of its credibility by using bulk sales to drive books onto its list. I guess it’s the same mindset that causes those who believe in creationism to cast their religious beliefs as the “science” of intelligent design.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/24/books/bestseller/besthardnonfiction.html

  • MsJoanne

    says:

    He didn’t hear the question but yet responded as he did. He’s either a liar or we just got another glimpse into a President McCain’s presidency. Diddy hear you and don’t care…this is what I have to say and FU if you don’t like it

    Swell.

    Get a hearing aid, pops…and get off that lawn.

  • JohnR

    says:

    This reaction is really disturbing. More and more it looks like McCain is just a hollow shell being manipulated by his handlers. What Faustian bargain has he made that he allows himself to be used as such. And you thought Bush was a puppet of his handlers? You ain’t
    seen nothing yet.

  • zhak

    says:

    Is it me or is it a really bad sign that the McCain campaign would lie about something this silly & puerile?

  • Capt Kirk

    says:

    It was dismaying to see this blowhard, Corsi, given time on c-span this morning. His logic is basically similar to the “exposés” in the early 70s that deciphered satanic messages by playing the White Album backward. There’s no real way to have a discussion with people this dense.

    I was surprised when a caller asked Corsi about his military service and he spent five minutes explaining that he couldn’t get enlisted because he has excema.

  • N.Wells

    says:

    Reporter: “Senator McCain, what do you think about George Bush lying to get America into a war with Iraq that has resulted in the deaths of over 4000 American soldiers and around 100,000 Iraqi civilians?”

    McInane: “Gotta keep your sense of humor”

  • stormskies

    says:

    Why is it that the Corporate Media to date , via all their cable/pundit/pimps, have not had any discussion on the two books about McBush ? McCain’s Media by David Brock, and, of course, The Real McCain by Cliff Shecter ? These books are actually based on documented facts versus the delusional/ evil/ make believe by Corsi. So how come we get all this focus by the Corporate Sluts about Corsi’s evil book and ZERO attention at all to the books on McBush ? Yet one more example of how the Corporate / Repiglican/ Media=Mafia operates in their increasingly desperate efforts to get their CORPORATE STOOGE called McRove installed as President so that the Corporate Agenda to maximize their profits, and fuck you to the COMMON GOOD , can be sustained.

  • Shalimar

    says:

    McCain has no honor, nor does he have any values, as evidenced by numerous events throughout his life. He used to fake it for the media, but now he has given up even that pretense.

  • Shalimar

    says:

    8.On August 16th, 2008 at 10:22 am, Capt Kirk said:
    I was surprised when a caller asked Corsi about his military service and he spent five minutes explaining that he couldn’t get enlisted because he has excema.

    At least he had enough sense not to talk about his genital warts.

  • stormskies

    says:

    At least he had enough sense not to talk about his genital warts.

    ******************

    those genital warts are actually his head ……….

  • Capt Kirk

    says:

    “So how come we get all this focus by the Corporate Sluts about Corsi’s evil book and ZERO attention at all to the books on McBush ?” -stormskies

    These publications you reference are such obviously partisan and the news media prides itself on it’s fair and balanced approach, therefore, they present us with Corsi.

    Behold the aura of the amazing John McCain, it functions as a force field to protect and coddle the thoroughly unquestionable integrity of superhero John McCain. So what if Clark Kent is a flawed philanderer, the US voter is only interested in Superman.

  • bcinaz

    says:

    I’ve been wondering why one of the better financed left leaning think tanks does not emulate the right; purchase, in bulk, and distribute to every media outlet, the most recent spate of books critical of McCain. Deliver them with the author’s cliff notes outlining sourced content.

    Then challenge CNN, MSNBC, Meet the Press, This Week etc – Jerome Corsi scholarship v. Cliff Schecter, Matt Welch et al.

    There is no cure for the conservative disease, just homeopathic remedies.

  • JohnR

    says:

    Well here is a link to very eloquent (abet long) synopsis by Lewis Lapham in Harpers this month, where he comments on the overblown media reaction to Tim Russert’s death. He is the only one I have seen with the guts to point out that Russert was almost elevated to sainthood and described as a hard hitting journalist, when in fact he was just another corporote shill trying to preserve his 5 million a year job. All the talking heads ..they’re not like us. They all breath that rarefied air of multi million dollar corporate jobs and know who their masters are . You need not question why you see Corsi all over the airwaves, it is a plain as the nose on your face.
    Here is the link (this may not be available until you sign in)
    Titled: Elegy for a Rubber Stamp
    http://www.harpers.org/archive/2008/09/0082168

  • JustBeingFrank

    says:

    Interesting. My first reaction was that maybe he slipped and was saying the Corsi book was a ridiculous POS that shouldn’t be taken seriously.

    Then I thought about all the other things he’s (mis)said recently. Oh well, one more to add to the pile.

    One further thought: Lately, an awful lot of people (on both sides) have been applying the words confused, misunderstood, ‘didn’t hear’, misspoke, mixed-up, etc. to John McCain. It brings to mind the descriptions of Ronald Reagan toward the end of his presidency. One thing I know, it seems to keep reminding me of his age, which I’ve been trying hard to ignore. (There are so many other important issues, really.)

  • stormskies

    says:

    which is why we have the pundit corporate pimps like chuck todd pronouncing that their corporate created ‘narratives’ are MORE IMPORTANT THAT THE ACTUAL TRUTH OF SOMETHING: OBAMA ……….

  • burro

    says:

    I could see running an entire “campaign” on “Gotta keep your sense of humor”.

    Don’t worry, be happy. McProzac nation. “It was only a joke!!.” “Don’t fight it, lay back and enjoy it.”.

    Torture, crumbling infrastructure, gov’t corruption, fantasy war(s), black hole economy……….It’s all OK. And if you can just replace that frowny face with a smiley face and realize that stupidity and calculated dishonesty often isn’t fatal, you’ll be happy just like McBush.

    You won’t be as conveniently rich as McBush or as brain dead as McBush but some of us will just have work harder to find our blanked out bliss.

    And McBush is, (almost-kinda-sorta), living proof that it’s possible.

  • Larry Craig

    says:

    Mary Matalin, the publisher of this swill, is married to Democratic operative James Carville. Old snake eyes as Mary lovingly calls him. What does it say about Carville that he is married to this woman?

  • ericfree

    says:

    To call these books bestsellers is nearly like saying that Mel Gibson’s Jesus torture move broke boxoffice records when most of the people who saw it were bussed in by their churches. The difference is that people actually saw, or at least slept through, the movie; apart from the media, I doubt anybody is reading these books.

  • Janet

    says:

    I really think you Bots are overreacting to this comment of McCain’s. We Repubs have put up with your downright satanizing of McCain’s life over and over on the blogs and websites. Hope this just gives you another reason to call him McSenile. From what I have heard, he is squeaky clean in his thinking and ideals compared to Obambi. Thank God or next Pres has a sense of humor!

  • doubtful

    says:

    We Repubs have put up with your downright satanizing of McCain’s life over and over on the blogs and websites. -Janet

    I think what you meant to say is the progressives have had to put up with the media downright sanitizing McCain’s life.

    Seriously, we aren’t the ones who cheated on our first wife and left her for a younger, richer woman because she was handicapped and we wanted to be “25” again. We also aren’t the ones who referred to that home wrecker as a cunt in front of the national media. All of that was McCain.

    And you know, we’d be more than happy to leave it go, save for you ‘family values’ types throwing any Democrat’s indiscretion in our faces. It’s like you’re begging to have an argument you can’t win.

    After all, you’re the party of homosexual bathroom trolls and underage page molestation.

  • Gladys

    says:

    I like this picture: http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2008/08/the_real_reason_mccains_age_mi.html
    He looks so cute with his short arms. He’s a little pale, but he’s not a bad looking guy. He aged well.

    He seems sharp to me, but if he’s such as ‘expert’ as he claims to be on foreign policy, why doesn’t he know that the first war was in Afghanistan, and the Czech Republic is non-existent?

    Why is he so angry? To be so rich and so well off, why is he so cantankerous? Oh, that’s right, sometimes that comes with getting, what shall I say? “OLD!”

  • BlueLou

    says:

    It will be interesting to see if the lazy, lame MSM will even challenge Corsi as he makes his book tour, since the FACT CHECKS are already done! MSM continues to be part of the problem … no guts.

  • stinger

    says:

    McCain did the same thing when a supporter referred to Senator Clinton with a nasty word. First he laughed, then he backpedaled. Obviously, this is a very mean man. And he doesn’t even try to hide it until he gets called on it.

  • woody, tokin librul

    says:

    What does it say about Carville that he is married to this woman?

    that he married the only person on earth sleazier than he?

    I met Carville once, and I have never met any individual who made me queasier. His eyes never stop moving, like a lizard’s. You expect his tongue to flicker in and out of his mouth.

  • Anthony Look

    says:

    “he didn’t hear the question”
    Damn it, I knew it!
    The old wind bag is deaf. That’s why his answers alway appear to be out of sort.

  • toowearyforoutrage

    says:

    I think you all are being a bit harsh.

    McCain said the book was a humor piece. Perhaps like Colbert.

    This is actually doing well for McCain. A month back he would have said “He has a right to his opinion.” or the like.

    Remember the question about whether Obama was a socialist (or whatever dopey right wing charge it was.) and McCain said “I don’t know. I don’t know” suggesting it WASN’T to be laughed off?

    I call this progress.

    If this keeps up, he could be a viable presidential candidate by February.

  • olo

    says:

    @ 20. On August 16th, 2008 at 12:25 pm, Larry Craig said:

    What does it say about Carville that he is married to this woman?

    It says he’s a pussy-whipped putz.

  • Shalimar

    says:

    20.On August 16th, 2008 at 12:25 pm, Larry Craig said:
    What does it say about Carville that he is married to this woman?

    I think it says that both Carville and Matalin think of politics as a game rather than a social responsibility.

  • Bruno

    says:

    How about someone using some video of McCain with a dubbed voice where the question is actually asked about what his thoughts are on the Corsi book. Then the dubbed McCain forcefully denounces the book. Use some of his language used to denounce the Swiftboaters.

    Now McCain will have to respond by either, 1) allowing the ‘Youtube video’ to keep on playing – by agreeing with it – and hopefully the media picks up on it. But that would make his base made. or 2) He needs to denounce it forcefully as he does not approve of that message, thereby confirming that he believes Corsi’s drivel.

    Either way, if he accuses the left wingers of pulling this stunt, we already have the answers ready:
    Straight from McCain’s mouth:

    “Gotta keep your sense of humor.”

    or as Lieberman said:

    “Relax, and enjoy it”

    or as Graham said:

    “You’re a bunch of whiners.”