MSM Beginning To Turn Ugly On Its Favorite Maverick

Well, that didn't take long. The LA Times has an editorial critical of Sen. John McCain and Kevin Drum at the Washington Monthly's blog has jumped on it as a wooden paddle to smack around the MSM's favorite Republican.

Matt Welch, a contributor to the libertarian magazine Reason, is sounding the warning bells about the Arizona Senator.

McCain, it turns out, wants to restore your faith in the U.S. government by any means necessary, even if that requires thousands of more military deaths, national service for civilians and federal micromanaging of innumerable private transactions. He'll kick down the doors of boardroom and bedroom, mixing Democrats' nanny-state regulations with the GOP's red-meat paternalism in a dangerous brew of government activism. And he's trying to accomplish this, in part, for reasons of self-realization.

Remember how the folks in the MSM liked to gush over this "independent-minded" fellow who's not afraid to break with his party? That old routine seems to have become played out. To read Kevin Drum's response, you'd think McCain is now all of a sudden the country's worst nightmare.

This doesn't get nearly the attention it deserves, but despite his soothing speaking style McCain may literally be in the 99% percentile of hawkishness. That is, he may be more hawkish than every single one of his fellow senators. Some "centrist."

McCain has been the focus of some moderately bad press lately because of his notable lack of straight talk ever since he got serious about running for president in 2008: pandering to Jerry Falwell, switching his views on Roe v. Wade, caving in on the torture bill, and abandoning his long-held views on campaign finance reform. And that's all well and good. He deserves to get beaten up for this stuff the same as ordinary mortals do.

It's as if Drum has suddenly decided that McCain is no longer that political rock star who rode the "Straight Talk Express" six years ago and is giving us a "hey, wait a minute" analysis. But then, this shouldn't really come as any surprise. Now that the exploratory campaign has officially launched, the Senator's duplicitous "friends" in the media are going to spend the next two years giving him more than "moderately bad press" - with an eye toward crippling his candidacy.

There are things about John McCain that I like. And there are things that I don't particularly like. But the Senator from Arizona has been used by the MSM as a foil for President Bush ever since the 2000 election. Unfortunately for him, McCain was only too happy to accept their disingenuous praise. Now he'll have to deal with their scorn. Because, frankly, he looks like the one candidate that could handily close the door on Her Shrillness' Presidential hopes.

And the MSM can't have that, now, can they?

Posted by: Gary at 08:34 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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