Some weeks ago WorldNetDaily editor Joseph Farah was ravaged by some
of our readers for daring to question the honor and probity of Sen.
John McCain.
Some readers sent — shall we say — very disparaging e-mail to
our publication criticizing the boss for calling into question McCain’s
personal integrity.
I’ll admit I too was a little shocked to learn of the things Joe said
about McCain and his actions while a POW in Vietnam. But I’ve known Joe
too long — as have many of his critics — to have simply written off
his McCain characterizations as the rantings of a lunatic or the mere
rumblings of sour grapes. I’ve also known that WorldNetDaily has
consistently taken the lead on many stories and issues that ultimately
prove to be true and accurate. So I gave him the benefit of doubt.
So it was no surprise to me that, once again, Joe was accurate in his
characterization of a U.S. politician. When I learned that the good
senator had illegally filmed a television campaign commercial in
Arlington National Cemetery, every supposition Joe made about McCain’s
shady integrity rang true. Calling a scumbag a scumbag is entirely
appropriate when you’re right, but in today’s world, sounding mean and
intolerant is often considered much worse than actually being
mean and intolerant. That’s too bad because it isn’t true.
Essentially, this is the issue. Arlington National Cemetery, a
hallowed “final resting place” for our country’s most valued and honored
military veterans — and a place already exploited and cheapened by the
Clinton administration — has a rule. That rule says, “We are
not partisan and you cannot use this hallowed place in any
partisan political manner, period.” McCain basically gave the finger to
the Arlington managerial board and filmed his commercial there anyway.
Then, after being called up on the matter and told he violated the
law, he again repudiated the board and decided to air his precious
little partisan commercial anyway. In an extreme act of
lameness, his campaign staff told reporters, “Hey — the senator always
visits his father and grandfather here anyway. We just happened to film
him during one such visit.” Sure — and that film just “happened” to be
edited into a cheap campaign commercial. Please.
McCain broke the law. He did it for the most selfish and
self-serving reason. His actions were entirely “partisan.” He was
filming a campaign commercial, for goodness sakes.
But he is not going to be punished, more than likely, and he is
obviously not sorry that he did it. One tends to think, by his and his
staff’s incessant denials, that they’d all do it again “if necessary” to
win the GOP nomination. I have no doubt they would. I also have no
doubt that this entire stunt reeks of Bill Clinton.
And isn’t this just the kind of president we want following
Bill Clinton into the White House — a self-aggrandizing, exploitative
political animal with no conscience, no sense of decency and honor, and
no respect for the law? In a word, no.
I was suspicious of McCain anyway because I trusted what Joe had
written and because of McCain’s generally favorable treatment by a
mainstream press that ordinarily has little use for anyone calling
themselves a Republican or a conservative. His tacky Arlington
publicity stunt just ices the cake for me regarding consideration of a
future President John McCain — which is to say, not now and not ever.
Furthermore the reaction — or rather, the lack of it — by
the remainder of the Republican Party is, in and of itself, telling.
Where is the outrage? Some of the same people who were ready to tar and
feather Bill Clinton for granting Arlington burial waivers to phonies
and charlatans are now silent about McCain’s arrogant disregard. Can
you say hypocritical?
Is this the kind of politics Americans really want? Does
McCain represent the kind of politician that can bring America back to a
state of relative morality, dignity and honor? Would he be the kind of
president that will instill confidence in our “leadership” among our
allies, win hearts and minds and influence others to emulate our example
of liberty?
No, he isn’t. So why are we still taking him seriously?
It is becoming almost unbearable to listen to liberals and
conservatives alike describe as somehow “harmful to the nation” the kind
of honor depicted by candidates like Buchanan, Keyes, and Browne —
especially when the alternatives are little more than repackaged players
of “The System.” If “The System” is broken — Gore, Bradley, Bush and
even McCain have all asserted that it is — then a company man makes a
poor “savior.” To fix this broken “System” requires somebody who hates
it as much as the creators of that “System” love it.
By his actions, McCain has demonstrated that he is a prodigy of this
“System” — the very same one that gave us Bill Clinton and, to a lesser
extent, Al Gore.
Americans have a choice. They can continue to tolerate the politics
of hypocrisy embodied by the selfish and arrogant exploitations of
people like McCain — and watch this country slowly swirl into history’s
toilet. Or they can proclaim that enough is enough and permanently
strip these people of their ability to trash our country, our
institutions, our culture and any shred of morality we have left. If we
don’t, then we are complicit in the theft of our national soul and we
will be equally responsible for the destructive consequences of our
negligence.
If we cannot do this for ourselves, then let’s at least have the guts
to do it for our children. Let’s leave them a country — and a set of
leaders — they can be proud of. By his own actions, McCain has
demonstrated that his name will not be synonymous with the word “pride.”
To the senator, I say show me some real guts and integrity. Drop out
of the race — today. You’re a national embarrassment. And you
should pay dearly for what you’ve done.
