Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Kudos to John McCain


Kudos to John McCain!

No snark, no sarcasm. Just kudos to John McCain for standing up against the wild McCarthyism of those in his Party. I just heard him speak out against the ridiculousness of calls for an investigation into Huma Abedin.

Huma Abedin is the longtime aide of Hilary Clinton. At virtually every Hilary Clinton function, once the C-SPAN cameras roll out to a wide shot, you can see Huma handling all the logistics for Hilary.

Tea Party Caucus founder Michele Bachmann is once again culling her inner McCarthy via her calls to investigate wether the United States government has been infiltrated by the Muslim Brotherhood. Years ago, she told Chris Matthews that there should be hard-hitting exposes into wether members of Congress are anti-American or not. Today she is acting out Muslim infiltration paranoia in calling for investigations into Huma Abedin for fears that Huma may be influencing our Federal government on behalf of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Huma is a practicing Muslim. Frankly, that scares Bachmann and sends her guilt by association paranoia into overdrive, allowing Bachmann to make unsubstantiated logical leap after logical leap to arrive at a conclusion that Huma might be a threat to America.



Huma Abedin has been in Hilary Clinton's service since 1996. More recently, Abedin gave birth to a baby boy last December. The father is also Huma's husband, ex-NY Rep Anthony Weiner. (Weiner is Jewish.)

In the words of John McCain - "These attacks on Huma have no logic, no basis and no merit, and they need to stop now."

So again I say kudos to John McCain. I have had that sentiment a few times about John McCain. I disagree with him on virtually every policy point, but what is important is that he has put forth real effort to stay centered despite his Party's hard drift to the extreme right. It has been an obvious struggle and strain for him in many instances. He remains conservative in ideology, so I will more often than not find myself battling the real-life meanings of his policy stances, but when his base moves beyond conservative ideology into the dangerous realm of pure unfounded hysteria and personal attacks of fellow Americans, he has on more than one occasion stood to the challenge of holding the ground of sanity amidst a tidal wave of insanity. 

I will never forget the clear strain he showed in seeing the "palling around with terrorists" mantra turning into a hard-to-control monster as people in his campaign stops were yelling with angered fear that Obama is actually a terrorist. I will never forget the true character he showed in taking the microphone back from the old lady who expressed the ridiculous fear over Obama's non-American Muslim-ness. Correcting her blatant inaccuracies and respecting the quality of Barack Obama as a person and family man is an action that has RARELY been repeated in GOP potential candidates amidst similar insanity from the base.

For such character, I find it just as important to make note of such proper actions as I do to make snark of truly improper action.

For that matter, I can say much of the same for his daughter Meghan McCain. Strongly conservative yes, but simultaneously a true stateswoman who does not equate differing political ideology with personal evil and hatred. Her conversations with liberals are ACTUALLY conversations, not just bumper sticker slogans or talking points being screamed back and forth. Those conversations have always been worth listening to, even when the common ground may be small. Unlike her detractors who simply yell that she is fat when she dares to talk in full sentences and complete thoughts rather than repeating the latest Frank Luntz or Karl Rove approved vocabulary, Meghan McCain is respectful at all times.

Unfortunately, such character in political discourse has become truly rare. I tip my hat in thanks to those clear examples of such character.