1115.org

The story so far: the campaign John McCain has been running has been described far and wide — not only by those evil people on the left who have nothing better to do than to vilify war heroes who seek only to dedicate themselves to the country’s service, but also by his own former ardent supporters — as the sleaziest, most thoroughly despicable presidential campaign anyone has ever run.

There’s Elizabeth Drew on September 17:

I have been a longtime admirer of John McCain.
[…]
I admired John McCain as a man of principle and honor.
[…]
McCain’s recent conduct of his campaign – his willingness to lie repeatedly (including in his acceptance speech) and to play Russian roulette with the vice-presidency, in order to fulfill his long-held ambition – has reinforced my earlier, and growing, sense that John McCain is not a principled man.

In fact, it’s not clear who he is.

Or Richard Cohen, also on September 17:

Following his loss to George W. Bush in the 2000 South Carolina primary, John McCain did something extraordinary: He confessed to lying about how he felt about the Confederate battle flag, which he actually abhorred. “I broke my promise to always tell the truth,” McCain said. Now he has broken that promise so completely that the John McCain of old is unrecognizable. He has become the sort of politician he once despised.
[…]
McCain has turned ugly. His dishonesty would be unacceptable in any politician, but McCain has always set his own bar higher than most. He has contempt for most of his colleagues for that very reason: They lie. He tells the truth. He internalizes the code of the McCains — his grandfather, his father: both admirals of the shining sea. He serves his country differently, that’s all — but just as honorably. No more, though.
[…]
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.

The Chicago Tribune’s Steve Chapman, one of whose previous columns was quoted in a McCain campaign ad:

Now politicians are not saints, and campaigns are not conducted under oath. We all expect a certain amount of deceit from people running for office, in the form of fudging, distortion, exaggeration and omission. But the McCain campaign’s approach, as (the “lipstick on the pig”) episode illustrates, is of an entirely different scale and character. It is to normal political attacks what Hurricane Ike is to a drive-through carwash.
[…]
Why does McCain insist on running such a mendacious campaign? There is plenty an honest conservative might say in opposition to Obama: He’s wrong about Iraq. He’s wrong about Iran. He’s wrong about offshore oil drilling. He wants to raise taxes. He favors abortion on demand. He would appoint liberal judges. He would impede school reform.

But McCain has concluded that a fact-based case about Obama isn’t enough to prevail in November. So he has chosen to smear his opponent with ridiculous claims that he thinks the American people are gullible enough to believe.

He has charged repeatedly that his opponent is willing to lose a war to win an election. What’s McCain willing to lose to become president? Nothing so consequential as a war. Just his soul.

Thomas Friedman on September 14:

I respected McCain’s willingness to support the troop surge in Iraq, even if it was going to cost him the Republican nomination. Now the same guy, who would not sell his soul to win his party’s nomination, is ready to sell every piece of his soul to win the presidency.

Michael Kinsley on September 10:

… the routine acceptance of obvious lies now corrodes our politics as much as the money that was the subject of McCain’s famous act of Republican apostasy: McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform. McCain has described his motive for McCain-Feingold as a giant mea culpa for his involvement in the Keating Five scandal. Maybe when this is over, one way or another, McCain will swear off corrupt lying the way he has sworn off corrupt money.
[…]
He says he’d rather lose the election than lose the war. But it seems he’d rather lose that honor he’s always going on about than lose the election.

Well, apparently the McCain all these people are describing is the good McCain. We’re now going to start seeing his ugly side. The Washington Post brings us an article called “McCain Plans Fiercer Strategy Against Obama”:

Sen. John McCain and his Republican allies are readying a newly aggressive assault on Sen. Barack Obama’s character, believing that to win in November they must shift the conversation back to questions about the Democrat’s judgment, honesty and personal associations, several top Republicans said.
[…]
“We’re going to get a little tougher,” a senior Republican operative said, indicating that a fresh batch of television ads is coming. “We’ve got to question this guy’s associations. Very soon. There’s no question that we have to change the subject here,” said the operative, who was not authorized to discuss strategy and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
[…]
McCain hinted Thursday that a change is imminent, perhaps as soon as next week’s debate. Asked at a Colorado town hall, “When are you going to take the gloves off?” the candidate grinned and replied, “How about Tuesday night?”

Yes, the man is actually looking forward with glee to sinking even deeper into the cesspit he’s been mucking around in.

Hilzoy’s comment on this story:

Sometimes, I try to imagine what it will be like for John McCain when this campaign is over, and he realizes how completely he has destroyed his character and his honor. I cannot imagine that it will seem worth it come December.

Swami Sarabeth, as usual, has a fearless prediction: death by suicide.

Isn’t that what officers and gentlemen have traditionally done when required to face up to the fact that they have trampled what used to be their honor? And McCain carries the burden of the family honor, the guilt of all those admirals spinning in their graves. And he’s trampling on the family honor with hobnailed boots. He’ll have to devise some unusually painful method of suicide, that’s for sure.

*** Update, 6:18 a.m. ***

Nice to see that McCain sometimes does keep his word. He’s started to deliver his promise to make his campaign even more stupid and ugly and dishonest and contemptuous of voters’ intelligence. Here’s Tucker Bounds, with what should really be an out-of-bounds statement:

The last four weeks of this election will be about whether the American people are willing to turn our economy and national security over to Barack Obama, a man with little record, questionable judgment, and ties to radical figures like unrepentant domestic terrorist William Ayers. Americans need to ask themselves if they’ve ever befriended an unrepentant terrorist, or had a convicted felon help them buy their house — because those aren’t smears, those are true facts about Barack Obama.

Even as we speak, bloggers throughout the land are compiling their favorite lists of unsavory characters McCain has befriended. And judging by McCain’s past record, there are sure to be questionable people who helped him buy his house one or more of his countless houses.

We’ll bring you the best of the “In your face, McCain!” stuff later.