Goodness Has Nothing To Do With It

Oh, my goodness. John McCain has criticized his only President, his Commander-in-Chief, George W. Bush:

In the Washington Times interview, McCain listed a number of disagreements with the Bush administration, including, “spending, the conduct of the war in Iraq for years, growth in the size of government, larger than any time since the Great Society, laying a $10 trillion debt on future generations of America, owing $500 billion to China, obviously, failure to both enforce and modernize the [financial] regulatory agencies that were designed for the 1930s and certainly not for the 21st century, failure to address the issue of climate change seriously.”

It’s not all Bush’s fault, of course: McCain also blamed “the liberals”:

“They put a trillion-dollar debt on future generations of Americans, then allowed the liberals to expand it so they're paying my — they're paying for my prescription drugs. Why should the taxpayers pay for my prescription drugs?” McCain said.

This bit was an attack on Bush’s Medicare prescription drug plan. Funny, though – I’d have thought that as a veteran and a member of Congress, McCain’s prescription drugs are already paid for by the taxpayers. For that matter, I would expect that Medicare only covers McCain’s medical costs if he applied for the benefit, and a rich guy like him wouldn’t bother. (Would he?) But I don’t mind if my tax dollars pay for his drugs, as long as they’re also paying for the drugs of those who need the help.

According to the same article, the White House brushed aside McCain’s criticism in Christlike fashion, turning the other cheek. (Of the face.) Spokeswoman Dana Perino told the press that the President “supports John McCain, and he still believes that he can and should win. And he'll continue to support him until Election Day.”

I think it can safely be said that McCain has become desperate, seeing defeat yawn before him like the Grand Canyon, and he'll say anything to try to escape that fate. Not that I assume his defeat is a safe bet: there’s plenty of reason to believe that the Republicans (via) are going to try (ditto) to steal this election, as they did in 2000 and probably in 2004. But I doubt that McCain would have resorted to such an extreme measure as denouncing Bush if he weren’t really afraid that he’s going to lose. I certainly hope he does.

(Photo swiped from Whatever It Is, I'm Against It.)