What's John McCain Up To?

I confess that I haven't been writing much about John McCain, mainly because I forgot he was still a Presidential candidate. But he's had a couple newsworthy moments of late. First he participated in a political rally on 9/11 where he said the following:

“The important thing about Sept. 11 is that it not be repeated,” McCain told reporters after the event. “And if we leave Iraq, then it will be repeated.”

This is the tired old "they'll follow us home" argument, propagated mainly by the fact that V-22 Osprey transport planes leave a trail of bread crumbs. They'll know the routes! Even General Petraeus was careful to distance himself from a notion that Iraqi insurgents fighting for their own country will get on boats and start car bombing Milwaukee.

Appearing at McCain's side at that campaign event in Sioux City was Col. Bud Day, who he called a longtime friend. Day appeared in national TV ads for the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Yet McCain still has the nerve to claim that he renounced the Swift Boat ads.

McCain began by calling on the Democrats to repudiate the aspersions cast by Moveon.org on the patriotism and integrity of General Petraeus. McCain reminded us that he repudiated what he considered attacks on the patriotism of Max Cleland and John Kerry.

Repudiated the attacks, but appears at campaign events with those who do the attacking.

Finally, McCain, the surge's biggest cheerleader, ought to get his story straight with the White House. While he continues to call for the capture of Muqtada al-Sadr, the US government is trying to negotiate with him.

There's talk of a great McCain comeback in his core constituency, the media. Somebody ought to tell that to the three more staffers who resigned this week.