John McCain is notorious for being a major Washington player. Think Mitt’s slick? He’s a piker next to Maverick the RINO, who has been involved with politics for 30 years. “Close friend” of John Kerry, Hillary Clinton and Ted Kennedy, McCain co-sponsored [with Kennedy] the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007, ~SHAMNESTY~ which would have allowed tens of millions of illegal immigrants already in the United States a path to citizenship.

He can further boast: McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform, the Gang of 14 and the McCain Detainee Amendment.

Shamnesty won yesterday, and will probably continue to win, especially in border states.

I found myself longing for dubya and the campaigns of the past. Though I don’t agree with all his positions, he is who he has always been; a good man. Someone I could look in the eye. I still respect him after all these years and would vote for him again. But that’s just me.

Is there anything I like about McCain? Yes. I appreciate the fact that he’s a -mostly- unabashed asshole. He’s uttered some of the most politically incorrect things in Washington and most of the time refuses to apologize. A few instances plucked from wiki:

* In his 1986 senate campaign, he referred to the Leisure World retirement community as “Seizure World”, where “97 percent of the people vote and the other 3 percent are in intensive care,” a joke whose offense he made worse, as he later conceded, when he did not forthrightly apologize for it.

* In 1998, McCain was chastised for making an off-color joke at a Republican fundraiser about President Clinton’s daughter, Chelsea, saying “Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because her father is Janet Reno.” McCain later apologized to President Clinton and Clinton accepted his apology.

* McCain openly used the term “gook”, in reference to his Vietnamese torturers during the Vietnam War, even since his return as a POW. During the 2000 presidential campaign, he repeatedly refused to apologize for his continued use of the term, stating that he reserved its reference only to his captors. Late in the primary season, with growing criticism from the Asian American community in the politically important state of California, McCain reversed his position, and vowed to no longer use the term in public.

* In March 2007, McCain apologized for using the term “tar baby” in response to a question in Cedar Falls, Iowa, about overturning divorce court decisions. Although he was not using the term in reference to African Americans, he agreed he was wrong to use a term that some view as having racist overtones.

* During a campaign appearance in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina on April 18, 2007, McCain was asked a question about possible military action against Iran. He responded by singing “Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran” to the melody of the Beach Boys’ song “Barbara Ann”, reminiscent of a 1980 parody by Vince Vance & The Valiants. When later confronted about the matter, McCain stated, “My response is lighten up, and get a life.” Asked whether the joke he made was insensitive, McCain retorted, “Insensitive to what? The Iranians?”