1115.org

Back in 2008, when John McCain was running for President, he managed to set the all-time record for flip-flopping on previously held positions. He flip-flopped on absolutely everything under the sun. Steve Benen’s Official McCain Flip-Flops list had him at 76 significant flip-flops by October 2008.

It was the most abject and craven performance ever turned in by any politician. But at least it was understandable. The man may have compromised every last principle he once claimed to hold dear, but he was doing it in the deluded belief that it would give him a real shot at being elected President.

The pathetic thing, though, is that McCain is still at it, when there is no possible reason for continuing to do so:

Sens. Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman have been working overtime to craft a climate bill that can attract significant GOP support. But they aren’t exactly scoring points with their mutual best friend in the Senate, John McCain.

“Their start has been horrendous,” McCain said Thursday. “Obviously, they’re going nowhere.”

McCain has emerged as a vocal opponent of the climate bill — a major reversal for the self-proclaimed maverick who once made defying his party on global warming a signature issue of his career.

Now the Arizona Republican is more likely to repeat GOP talking points on cap and trade than to help usher the bill through the thorny politics of the Senate.

McCain refers to the bill as “cap and tax,” calls the climate legislation that passed the House in June “a 1,400-page monstrosity” and dismisses a cap-and-trade proposal included in the White House budget as “a government slush fund.”

Former aides are mystified by what they see as a retreat on the issue, given McCain’s long history of leadership on climate legislation. McCain and Lieberman authored their first climate bill in 2003 and reintroduced the legislation in 2005 and 2007. “The only reason we are debating climate legislation in the Senate right now is because of the leadership he showed three Congresses ago,” said Tim Profeta, a former staffer for the Connecticut independent on climate issues who is now a professor at Duke University.

“I wouldn’t be here on this issue without him,” said Graham, a South Carolina Republican who spent much of last fall campaigning for McCain. “He’s the guy that introduced me to the climate problem.”

McCain’s spokespeople have evidently reached the point where they don’t even begin to try to make sense when they defend or “explain” McCain’s reversals. This was the best that McCain spokesman Brooke Buchanan could do: “This really hasn’t been done in a bipartisan fashion.” She’s talking about the climate change bill put together by a Democrat (John Kerry), a Republican (Lindsey Graham) and a political transvestite (Joe Lieberman).