St John McCain
by digby
“When someone says waterboarding is similar to harsh interrogation techniques used against the mafia in New York City, they do not have enough experience to lead our military,” McCain said Sunday night at a town-hall meeting here.
Actually that's not true. They don't have enough common sense or morality to lead our military. Decent people don't have to have been in the service or tortured themselves to know it's wrong.
McCain's position in this torture debate is very complicated and interesting. On the one hand he sold his conscience down the river when he signed off on that monstrosity of a Military Commissions Act, either through stupidity or ambition, neither of which speaks well for him. On the other hand, if he had fully jumped on the sadistic GOP bandwagon on this issue he could have done himself a lot of good among the Republican Neanderthals who thinks this stuff is some sort of a game. He is the one person in the race who could have lent a veneer of legitimacy to the argument that there are times when torture is justified. But (rhetorically at least) he has never allowed himself to do that.
McCain is a bloodthirsty right wing warmonger. But he's not an outright sadist. That is the range of what passes for morality among the GOP candidates.
And by the way, he's losing because of it.
H/T to bb
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