BernieHund: The Political Watchdog

When Karl Rove says the Republicans… the McCain campaign… has gone too far, that pretty much sums up the status and the quality of the McCain/Palin campaign.

On “Fox News Sunday,” Rove, the former Bush adviser, had a response to Democrats slamming his campaign strategy. “I demand a royalty every time they mention my name,” said Rove. “Maybe 25 cents per mention, a buck per mention.”

Rove, though, made some news of his own when he conceded that McCain, in his attack ads, had “gone one step too far, and [is] sort of attributing to Obama things that are, you know, beyond the 100 percent truth test.” [emphasis added]

My God!  It’s got to be the trashiest campaign in history for Rove to concede the “one step too far.” 

What is most peculiar about the McCain campaign is that aside from lowering the bar for the campaign John McCain had said he would run, McCain can look his interviewers in the eye and lie about it.

According to CNN, McCain lied about tax cuts:

What is equally amazing is that the media, who once loved John McCain so much that they edited his bloopers… remember the Katie Couric piece that made YouTube, but was edited by the time it made the nightly news… remember how the media kind of skipped over McCain’s gaffes in the Middle East when he confused the Shi’as and Al-Qaeda operatives… well, according to many of those journalists and reporters who have known McCain as an “honorable” man are now openly questioning the integrity of his campaign.

McCain once said that Obama would rather lose the War in Iraq than lose the election… a clear distortion and twisting of the facts.  However, from all appearances it seems that John McCain, the honorable war veteran, has little integrity left beside his name.  The ads that have been most distorted or outright lies aren’t those of some underground group of people trying to Swift Boat Barack Obama.  These ads are McCain ads with the four required seconds of John McCain’s face and the statement, “I am John McCain and I approve this message.”

As it turns out, Palin’s record of visiting the National Guard in Iraq, has been stretched across the border.  Palin actually visited Kuwait.  But, who cares where her feet stood?  The fact is that on something so very insignificant the McCain campaign found the need to embellish Governor Palin’s actions.  She visited the Alaskan National Guard in Kuwait.  Most anyone would have been proud of her for doing that.  So, rather than applaud her actions, such as they were, the Republican campaign found the need to embellish her trip.  (As if no one would question it!)

Remarkably this morning, I watched four women on “Face the Nation” argue their cases for their candidates.  The claim that John McCain has voted for women was shredded.  No matter how one tries to spin it, McCain opposed the Lilly Ledbetter Act, guaranteeing equal pay for equal work for women.  The votes are in the record!  All the votes!  And, please… we all heard John McCain say that women need to be better educated to earn better pay when questioned about equal pay for equal work.  It was not an educational issue.  It was an issue of a woman doing the exact same job a man was doing and getting paid less.

As all the weekend political talk shows have shown, both Democrats and some Republicans have now come to realize that John McCain, as a man of honor, has disappointed many of his adversaries who respected him and surprised many of his supporters… even Karl Rove.

If a man will lie to our faces, look us in the eye and continue to lie when called out, what could we expect of him as President of the United States?