Wednesday, September 17, 2008

What 'honor,' Senator McCain?


By PAT MURPHY
Express Staff Writer

Of hundreds of former Vietnam POWs, only John McCain exploits and cheapens his imprisonment for selfish gain. Two other POWs in politics, Texas Congressman Sam Johnson and one-term U.S. Sen. Jeremiah Denton of Alabama, were virtual mutes compared to McCain's incessant self-aggrandizement about his 5½-year ordeal 30 years ago.

One ex-POW is fed up. Dr. Phillip Butler, Navy combat pilot, Annapolis classmate to McCain and later an Annapolis instructor who spent two years longer in captivity and is as bemedaled, won't vote for McCain.

McCain's volcanic temper is one reason, yes, but also because McCain distorts the POW years. Butler accuses McCain of creating the impression he was the only POW who refused an offer of early release in exchange for a phony confession. Butler and many other POWs also refused.

This calls into question cornerstones of McCain's 26 years in Washington -- his claimed devotion to "honor" and "straight talk."

The inescapable record is McCain uses "honor" and "straight talk" slogans to advance himself.

The list is shameful.

There's no honor in hypocritically condemning political dirty tricks, then authorizing TV ads documented as cheap lies about Barack Obama and condemned as "sleazy."

No honor, either, in boasting of a secret plan to capture Osama bin Laden, but refusing to reveal it unless he's elected president.

What's honorable about trifling with the fate of the nation by picking a running mate who's a ruthless, self-absorbed political pop star of zero competence, whose first gaffe (okaying Israel's attack on Iran) sent out global alarms, has a tarnished record for lying -- and McCain's life expectancy is questionable?

McCain is dishonorable by falsely promising change in Washington when a half dozen campaign advisers are lobbyists or former Bush White House aides who forged Bush policies and 90 percent of McCain's votes have endorsed disastrous Bush policies?

How honorable was it for McCain to grandstand his opposition to torture of terror suspects, then vote to approve it?

Approving illegal Bush eavesdropping on Americans is no example of honor.

What honor is there in approving Bush decisions relaxing regulatory policing of U.S. corporations, resulting in the calamitous Wall Street meltdown, abuses to the environment and lax inspection of imported foods?

Where's honor in McCain's stubborn hope of extending military action in Iraq?

Finally, honor and straight talk went missing when he poses as a friend of the economically distressed, but insists on permanently showering tax privileges on the wealthy on the advice of former Sen. Phil Gramm, the McCain economic czar who considers Americans out of jobs and facing mortgage foreclosures "whiners."




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