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Presumptuous Republican nominee sends campaign surrogates to Georgia

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When Barack Obama traveled overseas recently, and drew criticism for appearing “presumptuous,” Obama emphasized his belief that we “only have one president at a time.”

It’s a point John McCain may have forgotten.

At a press conference [yesterday afternoon], John McCain redoubled his efforts to thrust himself into a leadership role on the Russia-Georgia crisis front, announcing that two top campaign surrogates, Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham, are going on a visit to Georgia. […]

The idea is to showcase himself as a man of action during a time of international crisis and to remind people that the world is a dangerous place that’s still filled with aggressive actors, something that the McCain camp presumably thinks will play in his favor.

McCain’s announcement of his key campaign allies’ trip abroad also seems designed to shoulder Bush aside as the primary GOP leadership figure here.

McCain told reporters, “The situation in Georgia remains fluid and dangerous. As soon as possible my colleagues senators Lieberman and Graham will be traveling to Georgia. They’re both members of the Senate Armed Services Committee. I hope that other members of the Armed Services Committee in the Senate will go together.”

Now, to be fair, Lieberman and Graham, as members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, travel to hot spots with some regularity. But in this context, it seems McCain is dispatching his two top Senate surrogates to the middle of a conflict, just as the actual president is dispatching his Secretary of State to the same place.

It led Jonathan Martin to note that McCain’s “declaration has something of a shadow government feel to it, as though he’s sending his own emissaries into the war zone.”

Exactly. And presidential candidates aren’t supposed to have a “shadow government.” To do so would be … what’s the word … presumptuous.

Try to imagine the response if Obama dispatched two of his top campaign surrogates to Georgia to review conditions on the ground. There would be apoplexy — how dare a presumptive nominee act like he’s already president.

But that is effectively what we’re seeing here. McCain is on the phone with Saakashvili on a daily basis — occasionally multiple times throughout the day — having international discussions of an unknown nature. He’s also been taking a rather striking tone in criticizing Russia publicly. Now McCain is sending surrogates overseas.

My friend Adam Serwer

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, with tongue planted firmly in cheek, has a spot-on take.

No doubt this will produce a flood of reports noting how cocky and presumptuous it is for McCain to be acting as though he is already President and should be formulating policy in response to the situation there. These reports will be almost as numerous as the stories noting that McCain does not have the authority to conduct negotiations on behalf of the United States, and that doing so deeply undermines the President’s authority to conduct said negotiations since foreign governments can’t be sure about where they actually stand with our own.

These will be followed by hysterical condemnations by Right Wingers about McCain overstepping his authority, much the same way as they did last year when they accused Nancy Pelosi of “conducting independent negotiations with foreign governments” on her trip to the Middle East when she simply reiterated U.S. Policy everywhere she went.

Of course, Pelosi wasn’t being advised by someone who is being paid by the very government McCain is undermining U.S. relations with to look after their interests. I wonder what exactly the Georgian government thinks they’ve paid for, besides potentially a host of unrealistic promises McCain has no authority to make, but clearly only Randy Scheunemann and his clients in Tblisi know for sure.

The media seems to have decided that the war in Georgia is a terrific development for McCain’s campaign. If reporters could just apply a little more scrutiny, and a little less sycophancy, we’d all be better off.

Comments

  • Wilco

    says:

    If Obama is presumptuous for touting his odds of winning, then of course John McCain is as he has said repeatedly, “When I am president…”
    Obama says he has a good chance of winning and the media jump on him. McCain says it’s an absolute certainty and no one blinks.

  • chrenson

    says:

    One major difference here is that, before Obama’s trip to the Middle East I seem to recall him receiving a great deal of goading from McCain and his surrogates for having not seen Iraq from the ground.

    Apparently McCain has a dandy relationship with the Georgian president. Swell. Still, it’s obvious opportunism. And with Putin now asking us to choose between Russia and Georgia, I get the eerie feeling that McCain is tampering with forces he cannot possibly understand.

    Putin will react badly to this meddling. And that will ultimately make the Russians look scarier which, of course, means four more years.

  • SaintZak

    says:

    Ok, I have absolutely no use for George Bush or Dick Cheney. They both know they’re in the twilight of their moment on the world stage, BUT…I don’t see either of them taking a bullet for the party and letting John McCain begin his admistration while their keisters are still in the drivers’ seats. I have a feeling we may see John McCain and his lackies told to butt out. His behavior is really innappropriate, and inflamitory. The Democrats should tie him to the threat of endless wars and the draft.

  • JS

    says:

    Since McCain and his foreign policy seem to have been bought and paid for by the Pres of Georgia, and since they were in constant communication, I would guess McCain knew all about this war before it happened, in the last day or so I have not heard any more comments relayed from the people over there, that they were promised help from McCain, perhaps his buddies are going over there to try to quieten any rumor of McCain’s involvement. The pres over there seems to be a loose cannon, and I would not be surprised if this was not a ploy to make McCain look in control of the situation, which he certainly is not! I keep up to date on the BBC, and the Russians are firmly in control.

  • Lance

    says:

    chrenson said: “I get the eerie feeling that McCain is tampering with forces he cannot possibly understand.”

    and

    chrenson said: “So, McCain knows how to “win wars.” This makes me wonder if he knows how to avoid them.”

    Excellent points Chrenson. Consider that two perfect tens.

    I’ll try for a good 8.5. Because America elected two Texas Oilmen (well, not really elected, but still) in 2000, their “Energy Policy” (if you can call it that) increased the cost of oil and gas. Because of that, Russia, a country that was bankrupt and unable to pay its soldiers, is now flush with oil money and is going adventuring again.

    If Gore had been inagurated, the Russian Federation would be selling us their loose nukes to pay their bureaucrats. Instead the European Union is paying them to start wars in Europe. And both Boy George II and John Sidney McC*nt have been egging the Georgians on at a time we could actually provide them no real support.

    The media seems to have decided that the war in Georgia is a terrific development for McCain’s campaign. If reporters could just apply a little more scrutiny, and a little less sycophancy, we’d all be better off.

    All we can do is point out that only a war will get Russia out, and we aren’t able to fight a war against Russia. Just another example of truely mindless Bushism.

  • Lance

    says:

    JS said: “Since McCain and his foreign policy seem to have been bought and paid for by the Pres of Georgia, and since they were in constant communication, I would guess McCain knew all about this war before it happened, in the last day or so I have not heard any more comments relayed from the people over there, that they were promised help from McCain…”

    Remember, John Sidney is responsible for winning in Iraq, all by his little ol’ lonesome, so surely he can win in Georgia with a couple of surrogates. 😉

  • Mag7

    says:

    What wars has McCain won? Except for the one against his ex-wife as he flushed her down the toilet and started dating a set of boobs. The Bush administration hinted to Georgia that the US would be along side in its quest for expansion. And George wouldn’t lie. So now we have another GOP catastrophe and we’re sending Lieberman to put out the fire? He won’t even find the place. Any sort of negotiations now that don’t include direct work with Putin just aren’t going to work. Putin check-mates the chimp again. God this is humiliating to watch.

  • citizen_pain

    says:

    Only in modern political GOP circles would an act of war and agression be viewed as an opportunity to grandstand.

    These people are sick in the head.

  • Patrick

    says:

    Heres to hoping that is a one way trip. They ought to take Randy Scheunemann with them.

    John McCain is trying to get us into a war already and he is not even the president. He is a warmonger.

  • Patrick

    says:

    John McCain would rather start a war with Russia than lose this election. He is a traitor to America and will get many Americans killed.
    Oh, and he’s presumptuous too.

  • JS

    says:

    Cheers Lance, so when McCain wins the war by himself, he is going to hold Russia accountable, I am so excited I cannot wait for that showdown.

  • chrenson

    says:

    Citizen: Only in modern political GOP circles would an act of war and aggression be viewed as an opportunity to grandstand.

    Too true. Disaster capitalism is all these people know. Where there’s chaos and catastrophe, there’s cash and lot’s of it!

  • yam

    says:

    If reporters could just apply a little more scrutiny, and a little less sycophancy, we’d all be better off.

    Yeah, and if a frog had wings, it wouldn’t bump its ass hoppin’.

  • BuzzMon

    says:

    Don’t the Republicans need a Boogey-man out there? They need to scare the little sheepies, so they can stand Daddy-Tall and declare “I’ll protect you!”

    Since the “War on Terra” seems to be losing it’s scarey edge, they now need to get back to the big one, the Cold War II, new and scarier, now with bigger nukes!
    And “War Hero John McHero, AMERICAN!!!!” is here to save the day!

    Be frightened, America! Be afraid, very afraid!

    Now, let the Daddy party make it all OK, ’cause those wimp liberals don’t know how to win wars (Kosovo doesn’t count).

  • chrenson

    says:

    Lance: If Gore had been inaugurated…

    I cannot possibly count the thousands of times I’ve said those exact words over the last seven years.

    And you’re dead on. Republicans can’t seem to stop fucking up everything they touch. Like, the response to 9/11, the economy, oil, and now arming an old enemy and poking at it with a stick.

    I’ve been curious about the parallels between our presidents and the Russian leaders over the past few decades. Check it out: Ronnie and Gorby; Clinton and Yeltsin; and now Bush and Putin. There’s always an odd symmetry between them, don’t you think? Like the bigger a dick our president is, the bigger there’s has to be.

  • Racer X

    says:

    If reporters could just apply a little more scrutiny, and a little less sycophancy, we’d all be better off living in a different country where the media wasn’t run by five huge corporations.

    Fixed.

  • acarponzo

    says:

    Last time I looked, McCain isn’t on vacation. Obama needs stop showing restraint and stop text messaging. He needs to get his webBOPPERs focused on the controversy brewing at http://www.BOP-O-RAMA.com. This new On-Line instant poll shows him getting the BOP knocked out of him. Is his base confused? Are they BOPPING the wrong candidate. The http://www.BOP-O-METER.com shows he is about to be BOPPED 200,000 times to McCain’s 130,000. That is quite a spread in the POLL!

  • Lance

    says:

    acarponzo said: “Last time I looked, McCain isn’t on vacation.”

    Last time I looked, John Sidney takes off four day weekends every week and never reports to his day job. Also, last time I looked, both John Sidney and Barack are Senators, not President of the United States.

    John Sidney is not on vacation, he is just undermining the Government of the United States of America. No one has elected him Sherif, but what the hell, it’s not like Republican’ts need any stinking badges.

  • William

    says:

    They’re blowing it (McLame and surrogates). I’m surprised old Douchey hasn’t told them to butt out yet but of course, he’s not that smart as we all know. Saber rattling McLame! Oooh, I’ll bet everyone is trembling in their boots….. (Yawn)

  • burro

    says:

    18.
    On August 14th, 2008 at 9:41 am, chrenson said:

    “I’ve been curious about the parallels between our presidents and the Russian leaders over the past few decades. Check it out: Ronnie and Gorby; Clinton and Yeltsin; and now Bush and Putin. There’s always an odd symmetry between them, don’t you think? Like the bigger a dick our president is, the bigger there’s has to be.”

    Trouble is, this time theirs has a brain to go along with his amorality vs. ours who has a 3 watt bulb.

    From Devilstower at DKos yesterday:

    Bush may have looked into Putin’s eyes and thought he saw a good soul, but Putin looked back and clearly saw a feckless idiot. And he’s acting on what he saw.

    “Russia made clear on Wednesday that despite a ceasefire agreement with Georgia it will do whatever it pleases in the defeated country. … Vyacheslav Nikonov, a Kremlin-linked political analyst, said Russia would allow in peacekeepers from neutral countries such as Finland, but any troops connected to Nato would be seen as a “military incursion”.

    Shruby makes a mushroom look like Einstein.

  • phoebes in santa fe

    says:

    I wonder how many times Joe Lieberman has had to whisper in McCain’s ear that the Georgia that’s in the news is the one in Europe rather than the state of Georgia.

    The old man gets confused easily with world geography…

  • burro

    says:

    When Putin looks at America he sees Shruby and the bellicose fools that surround him and he says, “God, you must truly love the Russian people”.

  • SadOldVet

    says:

    Presumptuous is ok – just as long as he is not ‘arrogant’. Oops, McCain can’t be arrogant – that’s code word for uppity n*gg*r.

  • LowInformationVoter

    says:

    In between spin cycles about John Edward’s sex life, the american public was informed that Russia had invaded Georgia.

    Fortunately the corporate media assured them that we would stop them before they got to Atlanta – so they could go back to watching the Olympics.

  • Wilco

    says:

    From an editorial cartoon in the Cleveland Plain Dealer:

    Condoleeza Rice: Georgia wants help from Washington.

    GW Bush: Isn’t Alabama closer?

  • Megalomania

    says:

    As a former Vietnam veteran I am getting that inside laughable feeling again to know Lieberman and Graham, the two fluid and dangerous air heads are on their way to Russia’s Georgia to observe if America is going to be invaded by the Russian Cossacks. This is all laughable and sort of like Americas long time secret under reported border war with Mexico. This is fun to think about, our long time political deals with Mexico, oil for undocumented twenty million aliens, cheap labor and all the rope you can smoke.

    Now, the Russians, that huge strong threat the Republican party of Reagan destroyed happened to be back doing the Cossack dance through Georgia. This Georgia is a collection of federal states that is a questionable Democracy perhaps not the way the average American knows it is, again, kicked in Americas face by Mainstream Media like a Cossack doing foot kick right up your ass.

    I love that Cossack dance; you know the famous one were they squat and kick their feet out while they yell, Hey!

    But I really think Graham likes the Russian Navy dance it is really sweet.

    As one of the fellow commentators said sometime ago I am disconnected, he is totally right, but it is with a huge laughable and internal thought that the political persons involved are insane and funny to me. The more one Listens to Graham and Lieberman, they appear as the best political comedy team all while trying to deliver serious snake oil. What America needs to do is get Lieberman and Graham sit them down to study snake farming so we can convert it to oil. Get them the heck off the media stage.

    Sheesh.

    So I looked at this Armed Services committee line up of goof balls, all ready for Chris Mathews Racket Ball show and fixed politics, Racket as in corruption, show, fixed for quick bouncing profiteering. Is the best propaganda datum ever modulated on a Fourier waveform. One could wonder how Faraday and Benjamin Franklin would perceive the outrage that is obvious in the manipulation in the public cable electromagnetic spectrum.

    Anyway look for self if you have time and patients. The link is below. My thoughts do pass in to the many short comings of this committee and how our service men still do not have proper amour, or surge, smurge, or is it splurge. As a veteran to reflect on the misery of Vietnam I have an internal anger that wells up and tears at times, so you see, every time I hear the surge worked, well of course it did we needed to do it from the get go, America did not have enough troops from get go and as a man of experience McCain should have been high on the mountain proclaiming this. But he was not. Did he care. Don’t think so.

    http://armed-services.senate.gov/SASC%20Staff%2002-01-08.pdf

    Here is a cartoon of more snake oil corruption and ties of the Bin Laden family that Mainstream Media should be totally be ashamed of for not covering. Bush’s close friend Prince Bandar from the Saudi sand box of secret deals in perhaps billions to trillion dollar secret bank deals.

    However now America swamped in the huge mystery hedge fund traders as Mother Jones said Stock Market deals into the trillions done the with no oversight. How much by Bill Gram close financial friend of McCain another goof ball that is a bigger presents at the Federal Reserve window of public money. Here, cashing in on stupid mistakes made by legions of MBA’s that screwed up calculations. Yes just one slip in and exponential, logarithmic, least square sum and poof all those stochastic error ellipsoids used to determine risk are useless. Then run to the Federal Reserve window, or we have huge collective of MBA’s on the street.

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/cartoons/stevebell/0,,2098418,00.html

    Standing beside George Bush, a close family friend of former US ambassador Prince Bandar, Mr. Blair said it would have “wrecked” the relationship with Saudi Arabia if he had allowed investigations to go on. “This investigation, if it had gone ahead, would have involved the most serious allegations and investigation being made of the Saudi royal family,”

    Bushed again, how about it Olbermann. Sometimes I think Olberman’s is to just there to vent for America to make it seem the media is doing something. With all the stuff that has been vented about Bush and Company each major media should be calling constantly, like chickens roosting, for the resignation of everyone from this administration. But no America is witness to the support of imperial arrogance and criminality. And every Journalist is like not knowing “What is going on”. Gee we Journalist just report we are stupid people we don’t think we Journalist are not at fault. But, when it come to an IMUS contract time to create controversy well Journalist just love it. Yipee America.

  • jhm

    says:

    I still have yet to hear Hon. Sen. McCain President Saakashvil’s name correctly (for an English speaker). Calling him several times a day, you’d think that he’d have that part down.

  • Jack

    says:

    McCain’s remarks sound eerily similar to Alexander “I am in control” Haig who thought it would be a good idea to assume the responsibilities of President after Reagan was shot, notwithstanding the Vice President.

  • Curmudgeon

    says:

    So now Lieberman and Graham are officially McCain’s lapdogs to be sent racing across the planet at a word from their master to save the day from the evil Russkies.

    Just how they plan to do that remains a little vague, but whatever.

    I hope they don’t get drool all over the seatcovers. You know what a mess that is to clean up.

  • Prup (aka Jim Benton)

    says:

    jhm: You beat me to saying it. (Actually it was my wife who noticed it first, and thanks to this campaign for getting her interested in politics for the first time in years.)

    And I wonder how McCain felt when his co-Chair’s main client slapped him in the face?

  • libra

    says:

    […] John McCain redoubled his efforts to thrust himself into a leadership role on the Russia-Georgia crisis front, announcing that two top campaign surrogates, Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham, are going on a visit to Georgia. — TPM, via CB

    Wonder if there are any rug markets in Tblisi…

    Check it out: Ronnie and Gorby; Clinton and Yeltsin; and now Bush and Putin. — Chrenson, @18

    Actually, those are not at all god “fits”. As Burro (@23) pointed out, some of their dicks had better brains than our dicks; that’s certainly true in the case of the Bush/Putin match up. But I also question the other two. Gorbachev was not only smart, but also no dick; the meltdown of the Iron Curtain can be (and probably should be) laid at his door as much as it has been at St Ronnie’s. OTOH, St Ronnie and *Yeltsin* would have made a perfect mirrored pair; he the one befuddled by Alzheimer’s, the other by drink.

  • 2Manchu

    says:

    I still want to know why Saakashvili publicly said the US military was going to take over Georgia’s air space and seaports.

    Was it a misinterpretation of what he was told, or did someone actually say this to him?

  • chrenson

    says:

    libra: 34 Actually, those are not at all good “fits”.

    I guess my point was that Gorby and Ronnie were decent communicators and, for better or worse, seemed kindly and all. Clinton and Yeltsin were both partiers, if you know what I mean, and ultimately their behavior overshadowed their policy. And Bush and Putin are both terse, belligerent assholes who are hungry for power and eager to turn back the clock.

    Sure, sure, Gorby and Putin are smarter than their counterparts. Just, you know, from a personality study kind of way.

  • joey

    says:

    I’ll say it again…

    McCAIN WOULD RATHER START A WAR THAN LOSE AN ELECTION.

    playing president being lobbied to support Georgia so it seems the country is paying the US senator to defend them. McCain oversteps his bounds in his obsession to be a war commander so every one can see how tough he is.

    McCain wants war…any war…anywhere…and all the time. He will get us all killed because he’s never even been good at it. A loud mouth show off without the temperment to be president. How much clearer can it be demonstrated than by his belligerent interference in the Georgian-Russian conflict which he and his Georgian lobbyist campaign strategist enabled if not instigated for financial and political gain…the October surprise in August. So read it loud and clear and pass it on as it is demonstrably clear:

    McCAIN WOULD RATHER START A WAR THAN LOSE AN ELECTION.