I’ve previously reported about presidential hopeful Senator John McCain’s (R-AZ) lack of political character. (See: "General George Casey Becomes Senator McCain’s Scapegoat" 2/4/07) I first became disillusioned with the Senator when he made a one hundred and eighty degree turn to embrace George Bush and his polices after a long an bitter political feud with Bush and his administration. He made the sudden U turn for the wrong reason – in order to try to gain political support for himself.

In the 2000 primaries McCain ran against Mr. Bush and lost. From that point there was an ongoing feud with the Bush administration. For example, in December 2002, McCain accused Mr. Bush of breaking a written promise regarding the speedy appointment he wanted to the Federal Elections Commission. The delay allowed the Republicans to gain an advantage in fund raising before the new McCain sponsored fund raising restrictions went into effect. After complaining about Bush’s duplicity, McCain said he would, from then on, assume assurances and promises by this administration were insincere. However, after months of bitter feuding, in 2004, McCain decided to campaign for his old political foe, Mr. Bush and criticized his long time friend John Kerry. McCain had political aspirations and decided he needed to put principles aside to improve his chance of election.

His flip flop on his position about the Iraq war and his attempts to rewrite the history of his changing positions is equally troublesome. Joe Klein, writing in the Huffington Post, documents these switches in position. During 2002 and 2003 McCain kept insisting the war was going well and the U.S. would win "easily. For example, on September 24, 2002, during a CNN interview, McCain said "I believe that success will be fairly easy. On September 24, 2002, during a CNN interview, he said "I believe we can win an overwhelming victory in a short period of time." On September 29, 2002, on CNN, he said "We’re not going to get into house-to-house fighting in Bagdad. We may have to take out building, but we are not going to have a bloodletting of trading American bodies for Iraqi bodies." On January 22, 2003 he said on MSNBC "But the point is that, one, we will win this conflict. We will win it easily."

But now he sings a different tune. Recently, on MSNBC McCain insisted that he always knew the Iraq war was "probably going to be long and hard and tough." He said he was sorry for the Senators who voted for the war thinking it would be "some kind of an easy task." His attempts to rewrite the history of what his position has been by ignoring previous statements is untruthful. This inconsistency probably explains why he blamed General Casey for the status of the war in the recent Senate hearings.

He has also taken inconsistent positions on sending more troops to Iraq. On September 24, 2006, speaking on Face the Nation, McCain said "20,000 to 30,000 more troops were need. A month later on October 26, 2006 in a speech in New Hampshire, McCain called for the United States to send "another 20,000 troops" into Iraq. But, on January 5^th McCain, on CNN, was quoted as warning "reported plans of a temporary surge of about 20,000 troops won’t work because it’s not enough." He now took the position that 35,000 troops were needed. It appears he is covering his bases regarding potential failure.

Then there are the reports about his notorious outbursts of anger and profanity. Senator Bob Smith (R NH) who served with him on the Senate Armed Services Committee has reported an angry explosion with profanity directed at colleagues because they disagreed. This does not sound to me like someone who should lead our country. Senator McCain demonstrates to me the hypocrisy of a man who wants to become president at any cost, including his own integrity.