MUST READ article on McCain - The Bushification of John McCain

[blm]

THIS ARTICLE WILL BE A GREAT TOOL FOR DEFINING MCCAIN NOW BEFORE HE GETS ANY FURTHER WITH HIS BS.


http://www.alternet.org/story/28266 /

The Bushification of John McCain

By Ari Melber, AlterNet. Posted November 15, 2005.



The bad blood between the two men has been infamous since 2000, when Bush's campaign lied about McCain's family and war service, and McCain told Bush to "get out of the gutter."

But during Bush's reelection in 2004, McCain strained to embrace his former rival -- literally. In their first joint appearance, they hugged dramatically before 6,000 soldiers at a Fort Lewis rally. Those events made for great campaign visuals. Yet while most Americans saw McCain's big heart, Republican leaders saw hungry ambition.

Rich Lowry, editor of the conservative magazine National Review, recently described that campaign bear hug as nothing but proof of "the senator's presidential ambitions." Lowry argues it's just part of McCain's scheme to get "the Right to stop loathing him." In targeted moves since the election, McCain has continued his Bushification by changing positions on conservative priorities like creationism, gay marriage and tax cuts.


.........

As the costs of Hurricane Katrina mounted, McCain went on national television and told Chris Mathews the Bush tax cuts must be maintained. But McCain voted against those tax cuts.

In fact, he was one of only two Republicans to oppose Bush's signature 2001 tax cut. Given the surging costs of Katrina, Iraq and Medicare, there is no policy rationale for reversing his position now. The only rationale is political pandering. And that's exactly how some influential conservatives see it. Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, recently said that although McCain has "flip-flopped on a number of issues," he is still "anti-taxpayer" because "he's voted against every tax cut."

Yet the mainstream media is so attached to McCain's maverick image, most journalists didn't cover the tax reversal.

..............

Ari Melber served as a national staff member of the John Kerry presidential campaign and as a legislative aide in the U.S. Senate.

[Stand and Fight]

1. Interesting. n/t

[Charlie Brown]

2. I can't believe McCain endorsed intelligent design

He lost any chance of getting my vote with that idiocy.

[blm]

3. He's been BUSHIFIED. Heheh....we MUST haunt him with his BUSHIFICATION.

.

[SammyWinstonJack]

7. I wouldn't vote for him, with a borrowed vote!

:evilgrin:

[MH1]

10. He lost my vote on the day

he hugged *.

Okay, to be fair he never had it. But he sure sealed the deal then.

[stanwyck]

26. That image will cost him

the nomination. The look on McCain's face as he humiliated himself by licking his master's boots will haunt him forever. That is the moment of his destruction. That moment right there. Closing his eyes and passionately hanging onto Bush like a man drowning.
What a spectacle.

[NanceGreggs]

4. ... Bush's campaign lied about McCain's family and war service ...

And knowing that, McCain shilled for him in 2004. I don't care what McCain's 'political ambitions' are -- he's just another Judas Goat, leading the sheeple to the slaughterhouse.

[The Backlash Cometh]

5. That's what happens when you let a goomba suck your birthday

cake icing off of his thumb.

[blm]

9. And we have the pictures to prove it.

.

[izzie]

6. I think this after reading his book.

He is another boy that got there on his father's name and then his father made him live up to his name and McCain did as well as he could. It has been a pretty good try. He makes errors and seems to step up and tells us he does. Such as with the Keaton(SP) 5. As a middle of the road GOP I am not to up set with him. I am not sure what makes him such a star but that seems to really get to his party and he is a star. Some people just seem to be special.

[blm]

8. Evidently he went to Pat Robertson about his "errors" and begged

forgiveness. Then he promptly endorsed the teaching of Intelligent Design.

Sorry, but even his "step ups" are opportunistic BULLSHIT.

[Disturbed]

13. John McCain, Hypocrite

John McCain, Hypocrite
by Doug Ireland

John McCain, the media's darling, has found a clever way around his own campaign finance reform law to take big corporate bucks in furtherance of his political ambitions while carrying water for the corporate mammoth providing the dough. But the national press is ignoring the story.


The Associated Press first ran the story of John McCain's odorous but lucrative Senatorial service to the communications giant Cablevision on the afternoon of March 7. But, while some local papers in McCain's home state (like the East Valley Tribune) have run the story, nothing has as yet made it into the print editions of the New York Times, the L.A. Times, the Washington Post, or any of the half-dozen other big city dailies I checked (although, if one searches the hundreds of AP stories available on the Post's website on its Politics page by clicking on "Latest Wire Reports," one can find it there--but how many readers would bother to do that?) One notable exception: the Kansas City Star.


Here's what the AP's investigation found:


McCain repeatedly intervened on behalf of a policy Cablevision favored -- one which "congressional and private studies conclude could make cable more expensive" -- while his chief political adviser, Rick Davis (who's masterminding McCain's probable '08 presidential rerun) solicited $200,000 in contributions from Cablevision to an institute that promotes McCain and pays Davis a $110,000 annual salary.


The Reform Institute was set up to promote McCain and his issues--especially campaign finance reform, embodied in the famous McCain-Feingold law. This Institute is "a tax-exempt group that touts McCain's views and has showcased him at events since his unsuccessful 2000 presidential campaign," and it "often uses the senator's name in press releases and fund-raising letters and includes him at press conferences," the AP says. And, of course, it provides a cushy sinecure with no heavy lifting for McCain's main man, Davis, as he prepares the pontificating Senator's next presidential run. Cablevision's contributions account for a whopping 15% of the Institute's budget.


http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0309-35.htm

[Nothing Without Hope]

11. Very important. The GOP is likely to push McCain for either POTUS

or de facto leader of the party. (He may be too old for POTUS, but I think he will try for it.) The glorification and re-framing of McCain has already begun with TV movies, glowing testimonials, and on and on:

For example:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1818584
thread title (May 30, 05): Framing for the presidency: TV Movie is pure pro-McCain propaganda

In all this propaganda, McCain is portrayed as a man of integrity and steadfast leadership, a hero, a speaker of the truth, and he even liked his father. Sound like the opposite of Bush, right? Well, that's quite deliberate. Bush is toxic and the GOP wants to keep power. So the new rounds of lies have already started - McCain as a manly, respectful, always-truthful & wise Mr. Clean (with a bit of hair).

Thanks. Will add to my growing list of McCain propaganda/debunking/electioneering bookmarks.

Recommended.

[karynnj]

19. You have to admit the movies are a good idea

It would have been great if the Democrats had done this in 2002 for Kerry. (Going Up River came out way too late.) Who is actually cleaner than John McCain and stood up against his whole party on BCCI.

[Nothing Without Hope]

21. Oh yes. They are a good idea. Someone saw the writing on the wall and

moved to set up McCain as the "clean and wise" savior of the GOP. The propaganda campaign has already been under way for some time.

[blm]

31. If only Butler's movie had come out in 2003.

And that was a DOCUMENTRAY with real life footage, not a pedestal building tv movie.

[ProSense]

12. On point! McCain will support Bush at any cost. Good find. n/t

[Nothing Without Hope]

15. I agree about "at any cost" but not about supporting Bush. McCain is

purely opportunistic and focussed on his OWN ambition. His plans are long-range. He appeases who and when he must, but he wants power for himself. As Bush's ratings and ability to force compliance fall, McCain will jettison him with pleasure. He was just a means to an end.

[ProSense]

22. You're right. Opportunist better describes him.

[blm]

23. I think McCain is trying to work both ends and the media is letting him

by not questioning how he's doing it or any of the details that would normally dog anyone else....any Democrat, anyway.

[Nothing Without Hope]

24. I think you're right. And there is another signal we should be watching -

he's been annointed as a teflon successor to the sinking Bush presidency.

[skipos]

14. I hope McCain doesn't get the nom. He would be hard to beat even

though he bends over for Bush.

[spooky3]

16. He was lying and spinning on Diane Rehm's show today

just like all the other good ol' boys and girls on the * team.

I don't know why some people here like him.

[Festivito]

25. I listened to that spin. McCain's the only CON left of Attila the Hun.

That's why he's liked. He occasionally makes sense. Against torture for one. The rest of the CON dufusses give sheep a bad name when it comes to being followers. A McCain admin would be like walk in the park compared to Bush's filthy mud pit.

Gore or Kerry would have been heaven on earth, BUT, pragmatism suggests that if heaven's seems uncertain, a sure walk in the park beats the chances of a filthy mud pit.

Politics is ugly. Too many do not realize what you realize.

He was smooth.

Did you catch that White Phosphorous end run where he hoodwinked Diane? Kind of said that WP was not a chemical weapon ... that Saddam used. Ignoring that it could be called a chemical weapon. And, then the stuff HE DID NOT KNOW ABOUT YET. Yeah, right.

[blm]

33. He came off completely unbelievable there. You KNOW he didn't believe

what he was saying at that point.

[oasis]

29. Not many folks on DU like him since he's showed his true colors this

past year.

[ikojo]

17. I recall reading an article about how McCain has

used connections over the course of his post POW life to advance his political rise through the ranks.

I cannot remember whether it was in the Washington Monthly, Salon or New Republic.

I wish I could find that article! I should have kept a copy! Grrrr....it was full of good info.

[blm]

30. I hope you find it. We will need good opp research to bring him down.

Media is already trying to portray him as the antiBush when he's actually been BUSHIFIED.

[ikojo]

35. I think this is the article on McCain and how he has used

connections to climb up the social and political ladder, It's a salon.com article from 1999....

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/1999/12/02/arizona/index2.html

...But McCain is certainly not without his warts, and his hometown papers have done a better job than the national media at zeroing in on them.

For all of his talk about campaign finance reform, for instance, the Phoenix New Times recently laid out how many of McCain's most generous donors have business before the mighty Senate Committee on Commerce, Transportation and Science, which McCain has chaired since 1997.

Though he now rails against the Telecommunications Reform Act, the telecommunications industry has donated more than $1 million to McCain's coffers, and another $800,000 came from people who testified before the Commerce Committee since McCain took over the chairmanship.

snip

For all their differences, Bush and McCain enjoy striking similarities. Both come from families of high pedigree -- Bush the grandson of a former senator and son of a former president, and McCain the son and grandson of Navy admirals. Both McCain and Bush have famous tempers (Bush was known as the "Roman candle" for his outbursts during his father's presidential campaigns). Both were occupied with "extra-curricular activities" during their young and irresponsible college days. Neither is a brainiac: recent reproduction of Bush's Yale report card revealed a series of gentlemen's C's, while McCain graduated fifth from the bottom at the Naval Academy in 1958.

[wadestock]

18. McCain only ever said one worthwhile thing....

"I don't believe we should be giving tax cuts to those Americans that benefitted most economically during the Reagan years".

Well....
Yes....he's now shown what he's really made of....
The bottom line with this hollow man is he rolled over when it counted.
He's not in politics to make this country better. He's in it to be in it.
As odd as it may sound...being in the military and enduring unbelievable torture does not necessarily make the man.

[blm]

32. And the media lets him get away with it ALL the time.

.

[jenndar]

20. Good article.

I've felt the same way for a long time, but unfortunately the MSM has pushed him as a "moderate" so hard for so long that a lot of smart Dems seem to like him in spite of his hypocrisy.

[texpatriot2004]

27. That's the exact right words for McCain "Bushified, Bushification"

You hit the nail on the head.

[blm]

28. A Bushification Bump.

.

[texpatriot2004]

34. LOL nm

[ikojo]

36. More on McCain and his marital issues....and pursuit of wealth

and connections....

http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2000/03/06/carol/index.html

But McCain was making bold career moves on the home front, hotly pursuing a 25-year-old blond from a wealthy Arizona family -- while married. Carol, his wife at the time, had once been quite a babe herself apparently, until a near-fatal car accident (while her husband was in Vietnam) left her 4 inches shorter, overweight and on crutches. The couple had three children, whom Carol cared for alone while her husband was in Vietnamese prisons.

McCain's strategy worked perfectly: After chasing Cindy Hensley around the country for six months, he closed the deal late in the year, had a divorce by February and was married to Hensley shortly thereafter. Bingo! McCain was a candidate for Congress by early 1982, his coffers full, his home in the proper Arizona district purchased.