John McCain — Panderer Extraordinaire

February 14, 2008

The far-right Washington Times, a political enterprise of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, ran an item on the front page today, under the headline, “McCain refuses to pander.”

The point of the piece was to suggest McCain realizes his difficulties with the Republican Party’s base, but he won’t “pander for conservative support.”

One wonders which McCain the Washington Times is talking about. Amanda at TP noted that the Arizona senator was clearly pandering to the GOP’s conservative activists when he abandoned his previous position on waterboarding, which was only the latest in a series of recent pander-fests from the likely Republican presidential nominee.

* Pander On Tax Cuts: In 2001, McCain was one of just two GOP senators to vote against Bush’s destructive tax cuts. Now, however, McCain makes a point of touting his support for making Bush’s tax cuts permanent.

* Pander On Stimulus: For the past few months, McCain has been declaring that passing an economic stimulus package is at the very top of his agenda. Yet when the Senate voted earlier this month on a generous bill providing increased assistance to seniors and veterans, McCain skipped the vote. The bill fell just one vote short of passage, a victory for the far right.

* Pander To Karl Rove: In the 2000 presidential campaign, Karl Rove launched vicious smear tactics against McCain on behalf of Bush’s campaign. Recently, however, McCain has embraced the right-wing political operative. He said that he has “always respected Karl Rove as one of the smart great political minds I think in American politics” and specifically refused to condemn Rove’s partisan smears.

Those are all excellent recent examples, but if we look back just a little bit further, Sen. McCain’s (R-Pandertown) shameless record emerges in even more detail.

* Pander On Immigration: McCain was a co-sponsor of the DREAM Act, which would grant legal status to illegal immigrants’ kids who graduate from high school. Now, to make the nativist elements in his party happy, he’s against it.

* Pander to U.N. Critics: McCain used to champion the Law of the Sea convention, even volunteering to testify on the treaty’s behalf before a Senate committee. Now, to pander to U.N. critics, he opposes it.

* Pander to Abortion-Rights Opponents: McCain used to say he would not support a reversal of Roe v. Wade. Now, to pander to his party’s base, he’s said the opposite.

* Pander to the Religious Right: McCain condemned radical TV preachers like Jerry Falwell as “agents of intolerance” in 2000, but once he began running for president again, he pandered to the religious right by cozying up to the man who said Americans “deserved” the 9/11 attacks.

* Pander to Iowans: McCain was anti-ethanol before the 2008 campaign. Once on the trail in Iowa, he became pro-ethanol.

* Pander to South Carolinians: McCain was against official promotion of the Confederate flag, but in 2000, hoping to curry favor with South Carolinians, pandered shamelessly on the issue, and later conceded that his position was one of “cowardice.”

“McCain refuses to pander”? Given his record, I think he refuses to stop pandering.

The Giant Panderbear

  • What separates McCain from other Republicans is the fact that he takes a principled stand against some bad Republican policy before capitulating and voting for it, whereas the rest don’t need any prodding at all.

  • I’ve written the quote here before, but Lenin said that a lie repeated often enough becomes the truth. It’s a standard tactic that we’ve seen many times before, especially from the Bush Administration and Fox Propaganda.

    McCain’s history of pandering is the greatest weakness of the “maverick.” The Times is trying to nip it in the bud.

    So let’s give McCain a new nickname that I first learned from the late, great Paul Tsongas:

    “Pander Bear.”

  • Would it be fair to consider Sen. McCain’s support of what is essentially an advance on 2008 tax refunds (officially to be seen as “rebates”) as pandering to the Wally World crowd?

    (As in endorsing wasteful, frivolous and shameless consumer spending lacking any healthy respect for practicality or utility. Especially in a vulnerable element not likely to have wise consumer-education skills.)

  • I’d say his most effective pandering is towards the media, who still refuse to admit that the “maverick” is nothing but a phony. But the media bobbleheads can certainly relate to a guy like McCan’t who talks a good game but is nothing but a BS dispenser.

  • Who is the short light stranger there?
    Maverick is his claim.
    Riding the campaign trail to who knows where
    Bush is his companion
    Grumblin’ is his game.

    Maverick (in-name-only) is the legend of the West.

  • sheesh, you mean john solomon isn’t overseeing a journalistic enterprise devoted to asking hard questions and telling unpalatble truths? well i never….

  • I’m sure someone could probably dig up a quote where he’s advocating sensible use of military power, and then contrast that with him singing “Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran”.

    Maybe he’s just being the ultimate maverick by rebelling against his own positions.

  • Don’t stop the memekiller, he’s on a roll.

    All this Republican “we create our on reality” spin gets so damn tedious (“McCain refuses to pander,” my *ss.) The righties need to realize the sweet baby Jesus cries every time they tell a lie.

  • I’m sorry, but if Our Father, Rev. Moon’s paper says it’s so, then it must be correct. They wouldn’t print it if it wasn’t true.
    Your “facts” must be lies.
    Sen. McCain is just like dad’s Big Brother, and I’ve heard that Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia.

    And did you hear that Britney got married?
    Now stop wasting my time, I’m going to go watch “American Idol.”

  • If you have not already seen it take a look at the documentary ” Taxi to the Dark Side” it shows McCain beating up on cabinet members at senate hearings on torture.

  • Wasn’t McCain confronted one time early in the campaign about his pandering when his reply was something along the lines of, “What’s wrong with pandering?” I would love to have that citation and the actual quote. Anybody? It might have been, “What wrong with kissing ass?”

  • THERE WAS A TIME I WOULD HAVE VOTED FOR MCCAIN (ANYBODY BUT BUSH). HE SICKENS ME NOW WHEN I SEE HIM ON TV. IS THIS THE BEST THEY HAVE? RON PAUL IS THE ONLY REP. IN THE “RACE” I COULD VOTE FOR. OBAMA WILL GET MY VOTE IF MCCAIN GETS THE NOMINATION. AT LEAST IT WOULD BE AN UNKOWN THAT OFFERS HOPE INSTEAD OF ONE THAT OFFERS NONE.

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