First Time for Everything: I Agree with McCain

As I am clearly on the record with respect to free speech, politics and the Internet, one would assume I hate John McCain with a passion generally reserved for neo-cons who place empire over sovereignty and political contol of dissent over freedom of speech.

This said, I also try to give credit (to either side of the traditional aisle) where credit is due.

McCain gets the credit on this one:

WASHINGTON – Sen. John McCain, a prisoner of war who was tortured in Vietnam, said Sunday he will refuse to yield on his demands that the White House agree with his proposed ban on the use of torture to extract information from suspected terrorists.

“I won’t,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” when asked whether he would compromise with the Bush administration. He is insisting on his language that no person in U.S. custody should be subject to “cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment or punishment.”

BTW, I’ve met him before, and actually ignored him when I last saw him (passing by at the Atlanta airport). He is much smaller shorter than I expected. He gets an “F” for his restriction of free speech, but at least he will oppose Dubya on torture. I guess that makes him a loser with a conscience.

posted Dec 5th, 2005 by Stephen Gordon
  • http://thedefeatists.typepad.com/apoplectic/ rev. quitter

    the LA times reported, over the weekend, that mccain is in “negotiations” with andrew card (and others) on language that the white house finds acceptable. one might assume this will include exceptions of some sort.

  • Charles Jordan

    I seen him in person too. At a rally for Mike Pence in the summer of 2000. He’s very short.

    Free speech. McCain worked on McCain-Feingold a long time before it became law….I always knew McCain supported restrictions on free speech. Which is why I didn’t suport him in 2000. What I didn’t know is that George Bush supported restrictions on free speech UNTIL HE SIGNED THE LEGISLATION. He signed it in early in the morning, quietly. I guess he didn’t want us to notice he was betraying us.

  • Joe

    Watch out folks, McCain may be caving in. Backroom talks with the White House may exempt guilty CIA torturers from prosecution, and keep intact Bush’s legally suspect detention practices for “enemy combatants” (real people, many being held with no real evidence or charge against them). This issue important to you? Call McCain’s D.C. office at (202) 224-2235
    and urge him NOT to cave in on these points. If he does, he (and his original amendment) becomes a token.

  • http://swmolibertarianparty.blogspot.com Keith Rodgers

    First: Does McCain count “fluffy pillow application” as “torture”?

    Second: The day McCain atones for his horrid McCain-Feingold Incumbent Politician Protection and First Amendment Evisceration Act, is the day I will have a modicum of respect for him.