John McCain used to be widely regarded as a saint. That was a long time ago. These days he’s reduced to pimping the Republican Party’s most vile and unconscionable lies about healthcare reform. Make that “pimping with malice aforethought”, even though his thought processes passeth all understanding.
Last Sunday, on ABC News‘ “This Week“, George Stephanopoulos invited him to disavow Sarah Palin‘s “death panel” garbage. McCain flailed around wildly, but in convoluted defense of the “death panel” garbage rather than convoluted disavowal:
STEPHANOPOULOS: The president also says that the debate has been infected by falsehoods. And probably the most notorious one is the one made by your former running mate, Sarah Palin, who said that his bill would encourage death panels that would encourage euthanasia. He called that an extraordinary lie and he is right about that, isn’t he?
MCCAIN: Well, I think that what we are talking about here is do – are we going to have groups that actually advise people as these decisions are made later in life and …
STEPHANOPOULOS: That’s not in the bill.
MCCAIN: But – it’s been taken out, but the way that it was written made it a little bit ambiguous. And another thing …
STEPHANOPOULOS: I don’t think that’s correct, Senator. The bill, all it said was that, if a patient wanted to have a Medicare consultation about end-of-life issues, they could have it at their request and the doctor would get reimbursed for it, no panel …
MCCAIN: There was a provision in the bill that talks about a board that would decide the most effective measures to provide health care for people, OK? Now, we had amendments, we republican have said that in no way would that affect the decisions that the patients would make and their families. That was rejected by the Democrats and the health committee.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But that’s not a death panel.
MCCAIN: So what does – what does that lead to? Doesn’t that lead to a possibility, at least opens the door to a possibility of rationing and decisions made such are made in other countries?
STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, every single independent group that looked at it said it just wasn’t true.
MCCAIN: Well, then why did the Democrats turn down our amendments that clarified that none of the decisions that would be made by this board would in any way affect depriving of needed treatments for patients? I don’t know why they did that then.
STEPHANOPOULOS: So you think Sarah Palin was right?
MCCAIN: Look, I don’t think they were called death panels, don’t get me wrong. I don’t think – but on the best treatment procedures part of the bill, it does open it up to decisions being made as far – that should be left – those choices left to the patient and the individual. That’s what I think is pretty clear, which was a different section of the bill.
Tuesday found him obediently reciting the party line on the prospect of the healthcare bill being passed in the Senate under budget reconciliation rules:
At a town hall meeting yesterday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) criticized the prospect of using reconciliation to pass health insurance reform. “It would be a drastic change in the way that the United States does business,” he said.
Last night on Fox News, McCain doubled down on his comments, telling Greta Van Susteren that the use of reconciliation would set a “terrible precedent” that would “blow up” the Senate. “I think it would fundamentally change the way the institution functions,” he declared.
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McCain, however, seems to be playing dumb. As Fox News‘ Shepard Smith pointed out yesterday, “Republicans used this in 2001, 2003, and 2005 to pass then-President George Bush‘s tax cuts.” In fact, McCain conceded in March that the “terrible” precedent” had already been set when the GOP was in power:
I fully recognize that Republicans have in the past engaged in using reconciliation to further the party’s agenda. I wish it had not been done then, and I hope it will not be done now that the groundwork has been laid.
So what if he accidentally spoke the truth in March? That’s no impediment to lying about it now.
Completing the trifecta, McCain applauded the purveyors of the “death book” nonsense on Fox News‘ Hannity on Wednesday:
HANNITY: … And then we had the Obama administration that brought back this book that the Bush administration had gotten rid of, “Your Life, Your Choices.” They go through a series of scenarios with veterans at VA hospitals and nursing homes, which basically says, well, you know, you don’t want to be a burden to society, to your family.
Is that the kind of death panel that maybe people were afraid of when they read pages 425 to 430 of the House bill?
MCCAIN: Yes, but I think they’re also concerned because they’re well read, they’re well informed, they’re knowledgeable.
When McCain started his slide into the gutter during the 2008 campaign, his friends and admirers (in the media, though that phrase may be redundant) would regularly pen strained apologia, essentially arguing that McCain was somehow unaware of what was being done in his name, or aware but somehow not responsible. Even when he was wallowing full-time in the gutter, they argued that McCain had somehow allowed ambition to lead him to follow tactics and strategies that he actually abhorred, that some time after the campaign was over, he would come to his senses and recoil in horror at what he had done, and then go on to reclaim his saintly persona.
For some reason, we still have to suffer McCain’s utterly unprincipled lies and distortions with some regularity, because the media insists on putting him on to put out his garbage, but at least we don’t have to listen to claptrap in his defense from his friends and admirers any more.