{"id":8914,"date":"2006-10-31T09:44:49","date_gmt":"2006-10-31T14:44:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/8914.html"},"modified":"2006-10-31T09:44:49","modified_gmt":"2006-10-31T14:44:49","slug":"no-one-would-accuse-mccain-of-equivocating-on-anything","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/no-one-would-accuse-mccain-of-equivocating-on-anything\/","title":{"rendered":"‘[N]o one would accuse McCain of equivocating on anything’"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Chris Matthews recently described the national media as John McCain’s “base<\/a>,” he really wasn’t kidding<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In her latest column<\/a>, posted online on October 29 and that will appear in the November 6 edition of U.S. News & World Report, U.S. News contributing editor and CBS News national political correspondent Gloria Borger asserted that “[n]o one would accuse [Sen. John] McCain [R-AZ] of equivocating on anything.” Writing about the prospect of Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-IL) running for president in 2008, Borger contrasted him with McCain, asserting that Obama’s “penchant for wishy-washy is well documented.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Indeed, Borger added, “When Obama backed out of a bipartisan, McCain-led group on lobbying reform-to run the Democratic version-McCain exploded. In writing, which almost never happens in the clubby Senate, the Arizonan blasted Obama for his “disingenuousness” and “self-interested partisan posturing.”<\/p>\n

This is surprisingly foolish and completely detached from actual events. First, Obama didn’t “back out” out of anything; he differed with McCain about how best to tackle lobbying reform. McCain preferred a task force; Obama preferred committee hearings. Borger’s column simply misrepresents the events as the occurred. What’s more, Borger took McCain’s criticisms at face value, but she’s mistaken — McCain’s over-the-top harangue was completely unjustified<\/a>, and Obama deserved credit for taking the high-road<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Second, for Borger to suggest that “no one would accuse McCain of equivocating on anything” is sheer folly.
\n
\nIndeed, I’ve been keeping a list.<\/p>\n

* McCain criticized TV preacher [tag]Jerry Falwell[\/tag] as “an agent of intolerance” in 2002, but has since decided to cozy up to the man<\/a> who said Americans “deserved” the 9\/11 attacks.<\/p>\n

* McCain used to oppose Bush’s [tag]tax cuts[\/tag] for the very wealthy, but he reversed course<\/a> in February.<\/p>\n

* In 2000, McCain accused Texas businessmen Sam and Charles Wyly of being corrupt, spending “dirty money” to help finance Bush’s presidential campaign. McCain not only filed a complaint against the Wylys for allegedly violating campaign finance law, he also lashed out at them publicly. In April, McCain reached out to the Wylys for support<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* McCain used to think that Grover Norquist was a crook and a corrupt shill for dictators. Then McCain got serious about running for president and began to reconcile<\/a> with Norquist.<\/p>\n

* McCain took a firm line in opposition to torture, and then caved to White House demands<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* McCain gave up on his signature policy issue, [tag]campaign-finance reform[\/tag], and won’t back the same provision he sponsored<\/a> just a couple of years ago.<\/p>\n

* McCain was against presidential candidates campaigning at Bob Jones University before he was for it<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Moreover, as Media Matters noted<\/a>, McCain has also equivocated on abortion, intelligent-design creationism, and state support for the Confederate flag.<\/p>\n

At a minimum, Borger is offering us a hint of the kind of glowing adulation McCain can expect from the political press corps as we get closer to the 2008 election. I have a hunch we’ll be doing a lot of fact-checking if this U.S. News column is any indication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Chris Matthews recently described the national media as John McCain’s “base,” he really wasn’t kidding. In her latest column, posted online on October 29 and that will appear in the November 6 edition of U.S. News & World Report, U.S. News contributing editor and CBS News national political correspondent Gloria Borger asserted that “[n]o […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8914\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}