John McCain—The increasingly incoherent senator

Everyone knows John McCain is a liar.

Everyone knows McCain gets unhinged, and is a man unsuited for public service.

Now, we see a man lost and incoherent, as yesterday's Meet The Press shows the nation—John McCain, the whack who can't lie well anymore.

As Steve Benen writes:

Looking back at the tragic and deadly attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi last fall, we know quite a bit about what happened. We also know, thanks to an independent investigation, that "Republican charges of a cover-up" were "pure fiction."

But as Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) argued yesterday, he can't be bothered with facts -- he has a partisan vendetta to pursue. ...   McCain, just a few days after explaining how important it is not to be "disagreeable," became unusually belligerent, asking the host whether he cares about the deaths of four Americans.

Gregory tried to get an answer anyway, responding, "You said there is a cover-up. A cover-up of what?" McCain, unable to think of anything substantive, said, "Of the information concerning the deaths of four brave Americans."

Even for McCain, whose capacity has deteriorated sharply in recent years, this was a pathetic display. ...

The exchange on [Feb. 17, 2013] "Meet the Press" wasn't awkward; it wasn't bizarre; it was alarming.

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Chuck Hagel POed Militarists

Update: See On Chuck Hagel, Neocons Go Off the Sanity Cliff (Again) (Soltz) and The Preemptive War on Hagel (Drew).

Chuck Hagel was critical in 2004-05 of the neocons' Iraq lies that militarists used to convince the American people Iraq was going to cross the oceans and commit terror with WMDs Iraq did not possess.

Should be a fun confirmation battle next year, and a chance to straighten out the record.

Chuck Hegal Should Tell Washington Like It Is, American People Will Rise to His Defense

Former U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel (R-Nebraska)

Update: The Defense of Hagel begins (Foreign Policy)

Impeach the GOP - Smears, lies, defamation and dehumanization are coming fast. What the GOP hates most about possible Defense Secretary nominee, Chuck Hegal, is he is a decorated Vietnam War combat veteran; and the chickenhawks, the geniuses who brought us the Iraq War, are brought into sharp relief about who they are.
Defamation is the way of one fetid American political party: The Republican Party.

Next target of the Republican Party: Former Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel (R), one hopes our next secretary of defense.

Former Vice-President Dan Quayle's chief of staff, and now hack at the Weekly Standard, William Kristol is sounding the alarms.

But James Fallows at The Atlantic and decent players in American politics have already had enough. So should we all.

Writes Fallows: "I'm late to this but want to weigh in, about a tawdry aspect of DC politics that I hope has finally gone so far that it will impeach itself. I'm referring to the 'bigot' accusations about former Senator Chuck Hagel."

Fallows is right.

If Hagel is nominated, and the GOP goes full slime, Hegal ought to appear before the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services and let the mostly Southern senators on the GOP side of the Committee have it. Say it loud and clear, the GOP is slime.

Arizona, Georgia, Oklahoma, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, South Carolina and Texas—the states with the big secession movements now that the black president has been reelected are run by racist, white GOP power structures, and their senators can be expected to lead the opposition to Hegal.

But who cares what they think?

As for the neocons and chickenhawks lining up against Hagel, their credibility on matters of national security and foreign policy is not yet rescued, unless you believe their treatment of Susan Rice is fair and just.

The GOP and its collaborators are slime, and now is a fine opportunity for Chuck Hagel, a decorated Vietnam War combat veteran, to tell it like it is: The GOP is a disgrace and the American people deserve better.

I think it's likely John McCain will do the right thing in this one instance, but again who cares?

Hagel should educate the American people on who and what the rightwing are.