When explaining his position on Iraqi reconciliation, John McCain told an audience last year, “One of the things I would do if I were President would be to sit the Shiites and the Sunnis down and say, ‘Stop the bullshit.’”

As Brendan Nyhan noted, McCain’s approach to the debate over surveillance laws is awfully similar, though less vulgar.

Senator John McCain of Arizona, the Republican presidential hopeful, weighed in on the debate. When Mr. McCain learned that the House had voted down a 21-day extension and that the powers were likely to lapse at midnight Friday, he said: “That’s too bad. That’s very unfortunate. It’s symptomatic of the gridlock of partisanship here in the Congress.”

To break the gridlock, Mr. McCain said, “people that are patriotic Americans need to sit down together and work this out.”

Oh, is that all. Why didn’t anyone else think of that?

Remember, when McCain went after Barack Obama earlier this week, he told reporters, “I respect him and the campaign that he has run, but there’s going to come a time when we have to get into specifics.”

The irony is rich.