McCain and the Torture Veto--maybe he's consistent?

[vixengrl]

Current events and my own, utterly disgraceful vanity, led me to reconsider whether John McCain's vote against the ban on torture as relates to intelligence personnel and President Bush's subsequent vetoing thereof (and McCain's lauding of same)--were not actually proofs of a flip-flop, as I suspected not long ago, but were in fact...consistent.

It would help in reading this post to bear in mind that I am a raving egomaniac. I believe I am right with depressing frequency and I also cherish the opinion that I write very well. It's distressing to me, but it is nonetheless a fact that I read things I have written previously, sometimes even years ago, just for the litle ego-boost it gives me to know I have left a footprint. Sick. I admit it. For which reason I love the Google search option DU has now--so I can totally search myself. Navel-gazing goes electric! So I was reading...me, and came across a weird thing I wrote:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2802610

And one last thing. If I had to look for a successor to George Bush the Nihilist, I would need look no further than John McCain. He was against torture before he was for it. He can "believe" 20,000 extra troops will make a difference. He's the nihilistic front-runner, unless Jeb runs. No one does "empty" like a Bush.


What the hell did I mean by that back in 2006? I drink a wee bit, so I just don't really remember what article made me say that...so I searched, since, probably because of the aforementioned drinking, I linked to a Google search. So what the hell was going in 2006....or was it 2005?

Oh, yeah, he was against the idea of any agency working for the US torturing http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/10/26/mccain_fights_exception_to_torture_ban/, originally. And then, well, a concession had to be made: http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/12/15/torture.bill/ and a person could reasonably make the defense, under this bill, that they were acting under orders. Because if your government tells you to do it...

Wait, wait, that was back in 2005. I was writing in 2006. Damn that demon, alcohol, or my memory would be better...I know, I was thinking about the Military Commissions act, probably http://www.outragedmoderates.org/2006/10/military-commissions-act-overview.html . Yeah. That was probably it. So, um, maybe this just led up to, you know, the recent vote for CIA enhanced interrogations, and supporting Bush's veto.

So, I apologize to John McCain. He isn't a flip-flopper. He knows torture is wrong. And he simply has a nuanced position on when it might be allowed.

(Disclaimer: Thinking aloud. Tequila is involved.)