From The Young Turks: Republican Sexcapades with Cliff Schecter.

  Hi folks, sorry to be a bother, but just wanted to invite you intrepid C&Lers who live in the DC area to join me Friday night at a book event for The Real McCain at the AFL-CIO. Below are all the details, and I look forward to meeting you!

Join author/blogger Cliff Schecter in a book discussion about

THE REAL McCAIN: Why Conservatives Don’t Trust Him and Why Independents Shouldn’t

Sen. John McCain opposed making President George W. Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy permanent.
Now he supports this boondoggle for the rich.

McCain, a POW, stood against torture.
This year, he voted to allow water boarding.

McCain once was a campaign finance reformer.
Now, he’s a candidate whose campaign is run by lobbyists.

Please join Cliff, Jane Hamsher and others on Friday, May 30, 2008 from 6–8 p.m. at AFL-CIO Building, 815 16th St., N.W., Washington, D.C.

Please R.S.V.P. by calling John Goltz at 202-508-6938.

  I was heartened when George Stephanopoulos--for all the heat he has taken over the ABC debate--asked John McCain a question on This Week this past Sunday that I have been waiting to hear the media ask the "straight-talker" for a long time now. To paraphrase, Stephanopoulos wondered why if government health care has been good enough for McCain to receive his entire life, it is not good enough for the rest of us?

That's right, John McCain, the son of an Admiral, has had his healthcare taken care of by the government for the last seven decades at taxpayer expense. Yet, when asked this question, he was only able to muster a lame joke in response recounting the years he was being taken care of in a different country (where else but the Hanoi Hilton--which McCain wields like Giuliani did 9/11). In fact, McCain doesn't even feel compelled to explain why he voted against the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), so that countless children would lose the very government health care on which he has relied upon long enough that diapers have become bookends.

This wasn't the first time I heard this question. It was brought up to me when I was speaking to a real straight-talking vet, Paul Hackett, for my book The Real McCain. But it was the first time the media brought it up, that I am aware of. And it shouldn't be the last.

As for the rest of us, just remember this the next time McCain throws out some bogus charge about elitism at any Democrat, while lounging at one of his wife's 8 homes. Or goes on a Barneys bender.

Cliff Schecter is the author of The Real McCain: Why Conservatives Don't Trust Him And Why Independent's Shouldn't. It is only $10, and for that low-low price you can help defeat McCain and keep Cliff's kid in diapers--a pretty good deal for all.

...or perhaps it could be called the McCain mantra. Just ask him what the difference is between Sunni and Shiite, and watch the blank stare and mental scrambling begin.

When I sat down to write my book on McCain, I spoke with many figures who one could fairly say know a bit about this arena. This list included three-decade Hill Staffer Winslow Wheeler (worked for Sens Pete Domenici and Nancy Kassebaum, among others), who fought for years to reform military spending, and Iraq War vet and Executive Director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, Paul Rieckhoff.

Both are political independents, and Wheeler was a longtime Republican (forced out of his job by McCain, when he opposed him). Yet, what they had to say about McCain in my book, The Real McCain, should tell you all you need to know about the danger a McCain presidency presents.

Rieckhoff when talking about McCain's Iraq policy, had this to say:

It's half-assed, it's not going to work, he's being inconsistent in supporting it, and yet still seems to support it for political reasons.

Ouch. So not so much "straight-talk" from McCain on Iraq. We knew that. But hearing a nonpartisan military expert, and one who fights for veterans every day say this, well you can guess how truly bad Mr. McCain must be.

Wheeler's quote was even more foreboding:

It's frightening to think of a man with his temperament with all the things a president has at his fingertips--the IRS, CIA, FBI...

Wheeler is no conspiracy theorist. He now resides at the Center for Defense Information. Not exactly a countercultural outfit. As George H.W. Bush would say, message: Be afraid, be very afraid...

NOTE: Just a short pitch to pick up a copy of The Real McCain. Only $10! You'll make the birds sing, me smile and you'll help push the message out into the media about McCain, so people get to know The Real McCain. Already the response from progressives has been overwhelming, and has led to coverage at US News & World Report, Fox (who asked McCain questions directly from my book), Vanity Fair and Glamour, to name a few. But let's keep the momentum going, so when we finally choose a nominee, the battle will be already joined...