Apparently the good folks at the WaPo liked my look into McCain’s voting record, and specifically the angle of who he voted with, so they looked even deeper and came up with some interesting additional tidbits. As a respected journalistic endeavour, they were also able to go where I wasn’t and get some good quotes from respected ‘McCain campaign surrogate Sen. Lindsey Graham’. That phrase just slays me, I still laugh every time I read it, but I digress.

More than half, 55%, of McCain’s political partners on legislation during the past two Congresses were Democrat. Specifically, since 2005 there were 82 bills for which McCain was chief sponsor and 120 out of the 220 co-sponsors of these bills were Democrats. Not only that, but McCain openly revels in his stances that defied in his own party, as recently as last month telling the folk at a values forum at Saddleback Church in California his list is extensive: "Climate change, out-of-control spending, torture." The WaPo even noted that “He could have added campaign-finance overhaul, immigration, a patients' bill of rights, gun control and tax cuts as other areas on which he's broken with the majority of his party.” I guess I must have missed the patients’ bill of rights, but then again I don’t have the research staff that the WaPo does.

According to ‘McCain campaign surrogate Sen. Lindsey Graham’, bipartisanship is a frequent issue on the campaign trail, and the standard by which a candidate should be judged is: “how often someone takes leadership on an issue in defiance of his own party - a measure by which Mr. Obama falls short and Mr. McCain clearly excels.” So leadership means defying your party and its base. I guess this makes sense in much the same way that patriotism means rooting for American defeat in Iraq. Holy liberal logic Batman. Oh wait, I forgot, Grahamnesty is a liberal, never mind then. You know, Graham does have a point though. Obama may be a lot of things, but at least he’s not stupid enough or so arrogant as to stick it to his own base repeatedly then brag about it publicly.

And it gets even better, or should I say worse: “In a memo to reporters, his campaign points to bills he worked on that gained near-unanimous support from both parties.” I guess we really can all just get along. Say, I think my leg is starting to tingle, how about yours?

And you can just tell how much McCain loves being the Maverick, oops I mean ‘bipartisan’, given that “Mr. McCain on the campaign trail cites his own frequent Democratic legislative allies such as Mr. Lieberman, with whom he's worked on gun control and global warming; Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, who was his partner for immigration and patients' rights; Sen. Russell D. Feingold of Wisconsin, who worked with him on campaign finance; and Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, who was the top Democrat on the Indian Affairs Committee when Mr. McCain was chairman.” What a long list of dubious friends and shady associates. You’d almost think that after spending years, and in some cases decades, very willingly associating and working with such people he might have come to share some of their beliefs. Well, assuming that he didn’t do so already.

He sure does works well with the Dems to get liberal legislation passed doesn’t he? But wait, that’ll all change once he has his ‘road to Damascus’ moment when he’s sworn in as President, then he’ll fight the good fight. Or else Sarah will very sternly say ‘On this issue, I’ll have to agree to disagree with the President’, and then use the ‘make Vice-President disappear now’ machine that Herr Rove designed for Cheney for his use whenever Bush did something stupid/liberal he disagreed with. As you may have noticed, or not noticed as the case may be, this machine has been extensively field-tested, especially during Bush’s second term.

And speaking of legislation that McCain wants passed, the only ones of those listed above that he hasn’t yet been able to pass are immigration reform and climate change, so look for those to be the top priority of America’s first Hispanic President. And just look at who he’s been working with on globaloney: 14 of his 16 co-sponsors are Democrats, including Democrat VP nominee Joe Biden. Given his record, can you honestly say that McCain wouldn’t rather work with Dem controlled Houses than Rep controlled ones? Perhaps an indication of that might also be gleaned by looking at how much support the McCain campaign been providing Republican candidates for the Houses in order to help them regain the majority? I mean aside from enough rope to hang themselves with.

Well, they didn’t give me a by-line, but if you’re going to borrow, you might as well borrow from the best I always say. Which is more than the New York Times can say, at least.

Thanks again to Pasadena Phil for bringing this article to my attention.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/sep/15/records-show-mccain-more-bipartisan/?page=3