Beltway Finally Realizing McCain Isn't Bipartisan

[babylonsister]

http://www.mydd.com/story/2009/8/4/2097/58091

Beltway Finally Realizing McCain Isn't Bipartisan

by Jonathan Singer, Tue Aug 04, 2009 at 08:09:07 PM EST


Earlier this week I noted that John McCain was failing to live up to his image (however false it is) of bipartisanship by waffling over the Sonia Sotomayor, the most experienced nominee for the Supreme Court in nearly a century. With McCain no longer waffling, and actually outright opposing her nomination, it looks like the Beltway media is finally beginning to catch on.

McCain's no votes on Sebelius and Sotomayor appear to be head-scratchers to many in Washington, since he preaches bipartisanship and the idea of giving deference to a president.

More from First Read:

Speaking of, here's a line from a speech McCain delivered last year, per NBC's Chris Donovan: "When President Bill Clinton nominated Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsberg to serve on the high court, I voted for their confirmation, as did all but a few of my fellow Republicans. Why? For the simple reason that the nominees were qualified, and it would have been petty, and partisan, and disingenuous to insist otherwise. Those nominees represented the considered judgment of the president of the United States. And under our Constitution, it is the president's call to make... It is part of the discipline of democracy to respect the roles and responsibilities of each branch of government, and, above all, to respect the verdicts of elections and judgment of the people. Had we forgotten this in the Senate, we would have been guilty of the very thing that many federal judges do when they overreach, and usurp power, and betray their trust."

With even the ultra-conservative Pat Toomey supporting the Sotomayor nomination, the extremism and outright partisanship inherent in McCain's positioning is readily apparent.

[countingbluecars]

1. He is a bitter old man who

will never get over losing to Obama.

[Stuart G]

4. Correct..........well said.....

[BeyondGeography]

2. Stands for basically nothing

Whatever "departures" from orthodoxy he has embraced over the years were more about burnishing the faux mavericky image than principle.

[patrice]

3. Hypocrisy - the hallmark of ROYALTY.

[Mike Daniels]

5. So when is Megan going to rip into her dad and call him a dumb-ass

for further alienating people from the Republican party?

She's been pretty quiet lately. I guess she doesn't want to jeopardize her trust-fund life-style by having to acknowledge that "Dad" shares many of the same views as the people that she says are the problem with the Republican party.

It's also possible that someone pointed out to her that "Dad" was the one responsible for putting "dumb-ass" Joe the Plumber into the spotlight during the campaign and that she should be directing more of her scorn towards "daddy" if she wants to comment on what's wrong with the Republican party nowadays.

[asjr]

6. I have always looked upon McCain as a

petty little man who thinks he can be God. There is nothing about him that I can admire. The money spent on his run for the presidency was totally wasted.

[pnwmom]

7. He's never been bipartisan, he's just always been mavrick-y. n/t