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Politics = Torture

McCain says the Keating Five ordeal was like torture in North Vietnam. Only different:  

 ”I faced in Vietnam, at times, very real threats to life and limb,” McCain told The Associated Press. “But while my sense of honor was tested in prison, it was not questioned. During the Keating inquiry, it was, and I regretted that very much.”

I can see that.  Though I think I’d take being called a crook in the media* over being dangled from a hook in the ceiling for five years any day.  But that’s something I like about John McCain.  I feel very strongly that all politicians should be hung by their thumbs. John McCain already has been. Figuratively and literally.   

Seriously, though:

“A lot of people talk about my experience as being terrible in prison,” McCain says. “I was privileged to observe a thousand acts of courage and compassion and love, and those that I know best and love most are those that I was in prison with.” McCain maintains that he clings only to the ennobling nature of men who suffered for their country, that he “left the bad behind and moved on.” His biographer, fellow Vietnam veteran Robert Timberg, believes him.

“He has always said after he got out (that) whatever life has in store for me, good or bad, I would have achieved that — prison or not,” said Timberg, author of “Nightingale’s song,” and “John McCain: An American Odyssey.” “The only stories I have heard him tell about prison, without ripping it out of him, have been funny stories. … He tends to brush off the questions.”

…

It’s notable that McCain’s resurgence in the Republican primaries roughly coincided with a POW line he used in a debate. Criticizing Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., for asking taxpayers to fund a museum commemorating the 1969 Woodstock festival, McCain deadpanned that he had no personal knowledge of Woodstock because he was “tied up” at the time.

… 

McCain had spent roughly half of his imprisonment in solitary confinement, had been frequently bound and beaten and at one point signed a false confession after a particularly brutal interrogation — an act he has acknowledged and regretted …

There are ugly Internet postings questioning McCain’s courage and false confession, suggesting more to come. But fellow POW’s lavishly praise McCain’s conduct and resistance.

Air Force Col. Bud Day, a fellow POW and McCain’s commander in prison, says he most remembers McCain for how he seemed to spring back after the worst beatings.

“They were perpetually trying to pick him apart,” said Day, 81, …

Timberg recounts a story about a Christmas celebration that McCain purposely disrupted by cursing and offering middle fingers to a camera to prevent the celebration from being used as a propaganda tool by the North Vietnamese. The small victory invited more brutality.

Chuck Raasch goes on to say that heroism has to be made relevant to voters, especially those to whom it is ancient history, or I’d add, has negative associations.

“The biggest lesson to be learned from Dole’s campaign is that heroism is admirable but it also has to be presented in a way that is relevant to the voters,” said Dan Schnur, McCain’s former communications director.

Schnur said McCain uses his POW experience to talk about “serving a cause greater than yourself and the importance of working together toward common goals.”

…

“McCain’s experience is real world proof behind the concept that Obama talks about,” Schnur said. “Obama talks about conciliation, putting aside differences to work toward a common goal. You might as well be highlighting McCain’s biography.”

* Come to think of it, I already have been called a crook in the media. All the way from the Boston Globe to Pravda … a shorter trip than you’d think, with stops at the New York Times, Al Jazeera, Cuba Socialista and others along the way. Partial roundup here. Hardly torture, but unpleasant enough at the time. I know what you mean, John, about having your integrity questioned. Especially by hypocrites.  Susanna at Cut on the Bias had fun with that. Then she put a bow on it.

Topics: pols, McCain

  Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:04 pm on Sunday, March 23, 2008

4 Responses to “Politics = Torture”

1. CaptAmerica Says:
   March 23rd, 2008 at 8:47 pm

   McCain is 300 years old and the only option for president. He is so afraid to show any emotion that could be construed as anger so he comes across as limp wristed and bland. No, we can’t call the opposition for what he is, that might be too offensive….please.

2. Don Surber » Blog Archive » Should all politicians go to hell? Says:
   March 23rd, 2008 at 9:50 pm

   […] Well, one’s been there, done that. Jules Crittenden has the details. […]

3. Ben Says:
   March 24th, 2008 at 9:27 am

   McCain was dragged into the Keating 5 because the Keating 4 were all Democrats.

4. materialist Says:
   March 25th, 2008 at 1:01 am

   It’s late to respond to this post, and I am not John McCain (the politician’s) biggest fan, but it struck me that, while Barack Obama and his “spiritual mentor” pontificate at great length about slavery without having the foggiest personal knowledge of what it is or was, John McCain quite literally spent some years as a slave, under masters so much more cruel and devoid of conscience than Simon Legree could ever have been, even in the fertile imagination of his creator. When the subject of slavery surfaces in this electoral campaign, Obama and his mentors should shut up, and listen, and learn.

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