The "maverick" shoots his own foot
Career Washington politicians such as John McCain sometimes violate the high standards they have supposedly established for themselves.
For instance, here was McCain yesterday, waxing indignant about Barack Obama's Chicago
Career Washington politicians such as John McCain sometimes violate the high standards they have supposedly established for themselves.
For instance, here was McCain yesterday, waxing indignant about Barack Obama's Chicago neighbor, academic William Ayers, the former '60s Weather Underground bomber. During a phone call with some conservative bloggers, McCain played the guilt-by-association game, demanding that Obama say he's sorry for knowing the guy:
"I think not only a repudiation, but an apology for ever having anything to do with an unrepentant terrorist is due the American people."
Yet here was McCain's chief strategist, Charlie Black, talking on MSNBC last month:
"What Sen. McCain has said repeatedly is that these candidates cannot be held accountable for all the views of people who endorse them or people who befriend them....(what) John McCain believes is that Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton should be held accountable for their public policy views, the things we've described before, big government versus smaller government...He believes that people who endorse you, people who befriend you, are entitled to their own views, but you are not held personally accountable. That when somebody endorses you or befriends you, they're embracing your views, the candidates' views, not the other way around."