I never thought I’d see the day that FOX News would actually challenge John McCain’s campaign over some of the outright lies it’s been spreading in various speeches and campaign ads, but amazingly enough that day has come:
On Fox News today, host Megyn Kelly called out McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds for the campaign’s lies about Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-IL) tax proposals. “I want to hold you accountable for what McCain is doing,” said Kelly. “Has your candidate gone too far, has he stretched the truth with the voters?”
Bounds initially attempted to dismiss her question, claiming that McCain has simply “gone to great lengths to discuss Barack Obama’s record.” “It is true that during a struggling economy, he proposes raising taxes,” declared Bounds.
“Not on the middle class,” shot back Kelly, noting that “virtually every independent analyst” has said that the McCain campaign is lying.
FOX News? Has Hell frozen over? Surely this is a sign of the apocalypse! But they’re not the only ones. Some Conservative pundits are getting in on the act as well. Take, for example, this op-ed piece by Richard Cohen:
I am one of the journalists accused over the years of being in the tank for McCain. Guilty. Those doing the accusing usually attributed my feelings to McCain being accessible. This is the journalist-as-puppy school of thought: Give us a treat, and we will leap into a politician’s lap.
Not so. What impressed me most about McCain was the effect he had on his audiences, particularly young people. When he talked about service to a cause greater than oneself, he struck a chord. He expressed his message in words, but he packaged it in the McCain story—that man, beaten to a pulp, who chose honor over freedom. This had nothing to do with access. It had to do with integrity.
McCain has soiled all that. His opportunistic and irresponsible choice of Sarah Palin as his political heir—the person in whose hands he would leave the country—is a form of personal treason, a betrayal of all he once stood for. Palin, no matter what her other attributes, is shockingly unprepared to become president. McCain knows that. He means to win, which is all right; he means to win at all costs, which is not.
I’ve openly wondered here before if there was a low so low than a Conservative wouldn’t stoop to it. While it appears the answer is a resounding “no” for the McCain campaign, the same cannot be said for all Conservatives and I can’t tell you how much better than makes me feel. There’s at least some out there that consider their integrity more important than winning, unlike John McCain.
The most damning proof that McCain has gone off the deep end, however, comes from no less than Karl Rove himself:
“McCain has gone in some of his ads—similarly gone one step too far,“ he told Fox News, “and sort of attributing to Obama things that are, you know, beyond the ‘100 percent truth’ test.“
When Karl Rove is saying, “Whoa dude! That’s some major league bullshit you’re pushing there.“ then you know you’ve crossed a major line. As someone much smarter than me pointed out, it appears that John McCain would rather lose his integrity than the election.
That does it. If McCain wins, I’m leaving the country.
Oops- I’ve already left the country. Hehe.