Infinite Monkeys

You can answer your own question if you change the title of your post to: John McCain *is* crazy.

I don't listen to talk radio much anymore, but since it was "Super Duper Tuesday" yesterday, I turned on Hugh Hewitt on my way home from work, and not only was he feeding the "McCain will destroy America (and, more importantly, the Republican party)" machine, he had Dr. James "God is a Republican" Dobson on to talk about this press release (in the form of a letter) that he wrote saying that he wouldn't vote for John McCain in the general election if he were the Republican candidate. Dobson repeatedly emphasized that these were "his views" and not the views of Focus on the Family, and that people could do whatever they wanted to do, but it was a matter of personal conviction for him.

Well, Dr. Dobson, if you're not trying to influence people, why in the world are you releasing a public letter and going on talk shows to discuss it?

Institutional Republicans HATE John McCain. I'm no fan of McCain, but I have to confess more than my fair share of schadenfreude last night as McCain was wiping the floor with Romney. And hearing Romney's people whine about the West Virginia caucus was a source of sheer delight, particularly since my candidate was part of the deal brokered to give Huckabee the win.

Particularly galling is hearing all of these folks (including, by my own ears, Hewitt, Dobson, Hannity, and Coulter) proclaim that John McCain is "wrong on torture." Why is he wrong? Because HE OPPOSES IT! Who would have thought, eight years ago, that the Republican establishment would be demonizing a major candidate because he OPPOSES torture?

To be clear: I'm not voting for McCain in the fall, either. But I never pretended to agree with the "Painting the Map Red" philosophy of party loyalty. I registered Republican in December so that I could vote for Ron Paul in the primary, that's all. But it's hilarious to watch all of these notoriously "party over principle" people finally find a candidate they can't stomach, and even more hilarious to watch them twist themselves into knots trying to explain why Romney would actually be an acceptable candidate while McCain is not.

Dobson was particularly rich - he bashed McCain for not voting for a federal amendment defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman, and for supporting stem-cell research, yet complimented the candidate (Romney) who not only supported gay rights during his campaign for governor, but also abortion rights when he was governor of Massachusetts not so long ago. [sorry for the awkward sentence there, hopefully you can parse it]

It seems that the REAL standards of these hypocrites have nothing to do with the issues, and everything to do with loyalty to institutional Republicans. And to that, I say, "Give 'em hell, John."