SENATOR JOHN McCAIN IS THE NEW “FLIP-FLOPPER-IN-CHIEF”

Every American should be concerned that this man is at the helm of one of the most powerful committees in the US Senate.

 

It really is time for Senator John McCain (R-AZ) to pack up his office, turn in his Senate robe, and retire to one of his wife’s 6 or 7 homes.

Even though our basic political beliefs are counter to each other, as with many other Democrats, I previously had a fundamental respect for the former military officer that had spent 5 years in a POW camp in North Vietnam.

But since the senator lost his run for the White House in 2008, he has embarrassed himself in how he has turned himself into the same hypocrite that so many of his conservative party have become.

The latest turn-about in his commitments is in regard to the closing of the Guantanamo Bay Prison.

As recent as last month, in mid-December, McCain had been saying that he backed the president’s effort to close the prison. But McCain abruptly announced last week that he and other Senate hawks would be co-sponsoring a bill that bars the White House from releasing prisoners who have never been charged and the US military has cleared for release.

McCain’s has for years had a focus on closing the military prison.  In November 2013, McCain read a letter from 38 retired military officers on the Senate floor.  The letter said, “The prison is a symbol of torture and justice delayed.  More than a decade after it opened, Guantánamo remains a recruiting poster for terrorists, which makes us all less safe.”

But now McCain says he wants to join those that will do anything to keep the president from following through on a campaign promise made in 2007 for closing the Cuban island prison.

You will remember that during the 2012 presidential campaign, we all had a great time in calling Mitt Romney the “Flip-Flopper-in-Chief” for all the areas where he changed his basic beliefs, just to obtain the 2012 GOP nomination.

Well, based on all the major changes in beliefs of Senator McCain, that “Flip-Flopper” title can today be moved over to Senator McCain.

Being a long-time McCain watcher, myself and many others are shaking our heads as to what the senator is claiming today. Those reporters that covered the 2008 presidential campaign, which was mistakenly called the “Straight Talk Express” they have compiled dozens of flip-flops that have shown an ever-accelerating turn to the far-right.

CNN.com’s Sally Kohn wrote: “First he flip-flopped on immigration reform…Then he flip-flopped on legislation meant to address the dangers of climate change… And now we have Bowe Bergdahl.  McCain was all for bringing the captured soldier home in a prisoner swap with the Taliban…..until he wasn’t.”   The Washington Post has said that this has earned him an “upside-down Pinocchio”, which constitutes another flip-flop.”  MotherJones.com wrote in 2010, when McCain beat his Tea Party challenger. “….. his transformation from an aisle-crossing, party bucking maverick, to cookie-cutter conservative has been years in the making.”

MotherJones focused on four issues illustrating McCain’s high-level hypocrisy: “He was for comprehensive immigration reform before he wasn’t; he was an advocate for stricter gun controls before he wasn’t; he wanted to end the military’s ban on gay soldiers but then didn’t; and he backed a cap-and-trade system for climate change emissions before he changed his mind.”

MotherJones’ Suzy Khimm wrote: “His choice of Sarah Palin as a running mate was the final blow for some of his truest believers who saw it as political pandering at its worst.  But the failed White House run was just the beginning of McCain’s transformation into an ideologue.”  

Reporter Steven Benen, now with MSNBC, had listed 61 flip-flops in 2010 by McCain on almost every issue in an extensively documented report. Of these, 18 flips concerned national security policy, foreign policy, and military policy.  These are all areas that are touched by the Armed Services Committee that McCain will now chair.

McCain has made 180° turns in areas of national security, foreign policy and military policy.  Here is a small selection:

·       He said Gitmo prisoners deserved some kind of trial, then he changed his mind.

·       He wanted to ban waterboarding—until he changed his mind.

·       He slammed the White House’s use of military drones in Pakistan, then decided to support it.

·       McCain was against warrantless wiretapping until he was for it.

·       McCain was for kicking Russia out of the G8 until Obama pushed for that after war broke out in Ukraine.

·       He supported normalization of relations with Cuba, but now opposes it.

·       He was against divestment from South Africa, but now says he backs it.

·       He claimed that he was the “greatest critic” of Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld’s Iraqi policy, until he reversed course a year later.

·       Before the Iraq invasion, he predicted the war would be short and easy, but now he says it is hard and unending.

·       He repeatedly lambasted Obama’s announcement of troop withdrawals, but then took credit that most troops would be home by the end of 2013.

·       He opposed expanding veterans benefits in the GI Bill before he reversed course.

·       He called Texas Sen. Ted Cruz a “wacko bird” for Cruz’s efforts to derail Obamacare, before he favored its repeal?

·       He flip-flopped on reproductive choice i.e.: pro-Roe v. Wade, before favoring repeal.

·       He was against offshore drilling before being pro-drilling.

·       He agreed on tax cuts for the rich, opposed them before they passed under George W. Bush, and then rejected their repeal.

So, what does all this show?

Senator John McCain’s judgment is as opportunistic as it is unreliable. It is astounding and frightening that a senator like this is now one of America's top civilian military commanders.

Even the ex-Fox nut-case, Glenn Beck has a problem with the senator from Arizona. 

Per Beck, “He’s an anarchist.  I’d like to call him the good senator from Arizona, [but] I think he’s a lousy senator from Arizona – when the lousy senator from Arizona decides, ‘Oh, wait a minute. Now the political winds have changed, now he wants to jump on [whatever bandwagon presents itself].”

The reality is that the newly empowered Senator McCain is as unpredictable as he is dangerous. He now has a Senate chairmanship podium of the Senate Armed Services Committee and the power of the Pentagon purse at his disposal.   

Every American should be concerned that this man is at the helm of one of the most powerful committees in the US Senate.

Buyer Beware!

Copyright G.Ater  2015