Friday, March 7, 2014

Sullivan on McCain: "Why Does Anyone Still Take Him Seriously?"

Posted By on Fri, Mar 7, 2014 at 4:30 PM

After Public Policy Polling releases a survey showing that Sen. John McCain is the least popular senator in the country, Andrew Sullivan unloads on Arizona's senior senator:


The buffoon from Arizona is one of the most frequent guests on cable news and on the Sunday morning talk shows. He was dead wrong about Iraq, Afghanistan and has never copped to it, clinging to his fantasy that his beloved “surge” made it all worthwhile. It didn’t, as the resilient sectarian warfare in that benighted country demonstrates day after day. He caved to Karl Rove on the torture question in 2006, leaving the CIA program in place. He picked a delusional maniac to be a vice-presidential candidate after close to no vetting whatsoever. He was jumping up and down trying to foment a war with Russia over Georgia in 2008. This week, he was dyspeptically assaulting the president of the United States at a time when, one might imagine, wise souls in Washington might see the benefit in a temporary united front vis-a-vis Putin. He is determined to sabotage any deal with Iran, which would necessitate another war in the Middle East, a war for which there is close to no public support, and which could have incalculable consequences in the region and the world.

A simple question: why does anyone still take him even faintly seriously? Why does David Gregory defer to him? Why does CNN have him on to discuss foreign affairs when he has demonstrated catastrophic judgment time and time again? McCain was on the Sunday morning shows 24 times in 2013 — far more than countless other Washington figures with far better records. The year before, he was invited on 21 times.