The latest from Andrew Sullivan on the McCain lie.

[kstewart33]

The Cross In The Dirt, Ctd
18 Aug 2008 04:43 pm

Many readers have noted that versions of this story - attributed to Solzhenitsyn by Chuck Colson - have been a staple of evangelical sermons for a very long time. They aren't always attributed to Solzhenitsyn, but this sermon, preached by Father Luke Veronis, is a classic of the genre. It's a trope, a kind of urban legend in evangelical circles - and, of course, rooted in deep spiritual truth. Used in a sermon as a way to talk about Christ's redeeming power is one thing. Actually saying it happened to you in a specific place and time is another.

And of course, none of this would be salient were it not for the obvious motive for coopting the story. McCain has never been a very devout man. He doesn't come across that way in his first account of the story; and he doesn't come across that way now. But as the Christianists took over the GOP, he must have understood that this was a problem - especially against Bush in 2000. So in 1999, the story, already poignant and true in its particulars, changes into a much more grandiloquent and sectarian affair, echoing deep evangelical themes and tropes.

And it would not be salient if McCain hadn't deployed the anecdote in his own words - with a misleading image - in a campaign ad, and used it again in front of an evangelical audience Saturday night. And it would not be salient if religious fanatics had not a strangle-hold on the Republican party, seeking doctrinal assurances and echoes of their own type of faith in political candidates.

Here are the perfectly legitimate questions reporters should now, in my opinion, ask McCain:

why did you not mention this transcendent story in 1973? Why, in discussing three Christmases in captivity in Vietnam, was this story - far more powerful than any of the other anecdotes - omitted? How was it possible for the gun guard of May 1969 to be present at Christmas that year when McCain had been transferred to another camp? Is it possible that McCain's memory has faded with time and that he has simply fused his own memories with other stories - as Clinton did with Bosnia sniper fire and as Kerry did in remembering another Christmas he could not have actually witnessed where he said he did?

And why are we not allowed to ask these questions, when they relate to one of the most important questions anyone can ask about a president: the question of integrity? If McCain has fabricated a religious epiphany for political purposes, it is about as deep a betrayal of core integrity as one can imagine, and the latest example of how pernicious the religious domination of political life in America has become.

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/

[Sparkly]

1. Fair game.

:kick:

[Spazito]

2. Sullivan makes some excellent points AND poses very good questions....

Thanks for posting this.

Recommended.

[LSparkle]

3. More kudos to Sullivan ...

His coverage of Obama -- and the eloquent reasons he's given
for his support of the candidate -- has turned me into a fan.

[Hope And Change]

4. K & R!

[immoderate]

5. Andrew Sullivan??

Dayum! :wow:

--IMM

[KittyWampus]

Yes, now we have the NYTimes quoting McCain recounting this story as someone else's experienceoqo

Why was he co-opting it as his own personal experience?

It's a fair question.

[Avalux]

6. Go Andrew!! These are precisely the questions McCain needs to be asked.

I predict if it ever happens, he plays the victim, or makes a joke. He will not have a plausible explanation because he's a fucking LIAR.

[GoesTo11]

9. It will never happen

And that is a litmus test of whether we have a functioning press. No.

[pinto]

7. "the question of integrity" - Sullivan makes a good point here. n/t

[Motown_Johnny]

8. The fact that he was transferred that year is a good one. but what about the NYT article where he

said it had happened to someone else? now we are supposed to believe that it happened to him.



http://blog.beliefnet.com/stevenwaldman/2008/08/the-mccain-cross-in-the-dirt-s.html


Snip



Several contributors to the comment thread on my first post have pointed to this rather stunning New York Times piece from 2000 in which McCain tells the story - but about someone else!

Many years ago a scared American prisoner of war in Vietnam was tied in torture ropes by his tormentors and left alone in an empty room to suffer through the night. Later in the evening a guard he had never spoken to entered the room and silently loosened the ropes to relieve his suffering. Just before morning, that same guard came back and re-tightened the ropes before his less humanitarian comrades returned. He never said a word to the grateful prisoner, but some months later, on a Christmas morning, as the prisoner stood alone in the prison courtyard, the same good Samaritan walked up to him and stood next to him for a few moments. Then with his sandal, the guard drew a cross in the dirt. Both prisoner and guard both stood wordlessly there for a minute or two, venerating the cross, until the guard rubbed it out and walked away

[Sparkly]

10. I think he was referring to himself. nt

[Median Democrat]

11. I Imagine The McCain Campaign Will Try To Preempt By Claiming Liberal Bias Again

Then, Big Media will dutifully back-off.

[McCamy Taylor]

12. "McCain" "cross" "POW" is what McCain WANTS you to talk about. Try "McCain cheats" instead.

[progressoid]

13. The McCains lieS.

Plural.

[NoFederales]

14. K&R

NoFederales