LENO: Welcome back, Sen. McCain, for one million dollars, how many houses do you have? (Jay laughs, McCain squirms and chuckles)MCCAIN: You know, could I just mention to you, Jay, and a moment of seriousness. I spent five and a half years in a prison cell, without-I didn't have a house, I didn't have a kitchen table, I didn't have a table, I didn't have a chair. And I spent those five and a half years, because-not because I wanted to get a house when I got out.
I wished that he had this conversation with Republicans in Congress and with Bush when they passed, with his vote, pro-torture bills. Instead he has courageously saved it for a comedy show. That is character.
And McCain, who married into wealth, goes on to say that he is very proud of his self-made his father-in-law. That is the Republican Party for you: the party of self-made men...
I'm very proud of Cindy's father, he was a guy that barely got out of high school, fought in World War II in the Army Air Corps, came home and made a business and made the American dream and so somehow. You've had Cindy on this show.
McCain is, and always has been, an opportunist. His endorsement of preacher John "Piggy" demonstrates this (until it became inconvenient). His marriage to Cindy was opportunistic, and his POW experience incorporated this philosophy as well. His ambition knows no end and he will kiss any behind to accomplish it.
Wasn't he being tortured in that camp, at a minimum denied medical care for broken bones, kept in isolation and placed in stress positions?
I am horrified and embarrassed that we engage in these tactics ourselves. In fact, I hope Obama's election is seen as, among other things, a repudiation of this immorality of the Bush Administration.
Whatever he said under those circumstances is utterly irrelevant to me, and I hope to any decent person. I don't care how often or inappropriately he trots out this experience as a defense to criticism.
If you want to know how some of his fellow POWs feel about the POW mantra he keeps repeating you should look up the writings of Philip Butler, who had almost NINE years in Hanoi and is now a peace and justice activist. He's also a graduate of the Naval Academy and his war record is impeccable. Butler wrote a column in March about why he would not support McCain as President.
I would like very much to see Butler say something about McCain's use of his POW status as justification for everything.