April 26, 2007

Somebody Needs to Put a Lid on McCain’s Straight Talk Express

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I know people seem to like John McCain’s candid manner of speaking, but come on, there needs to be some sort of filter on the Straight Talk Express, right? Last month, as I’m sure all of you remember, McCain took a fair amount of heat for claiming the Baghdad market was safe enough for a leisurely afternoon stroll. Sure, sure, everything is safe with a cadre of more than 100 soldiers. But, I think our aging Senator has really hit a new level of carelessness, er… candidness.

On Tuesday, McCain made a guest appearance on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, during which Stewart asked about the aforementioned shopping excursion. McCain replied, “I had something picked out for you, too — a little IED to put on your desk.” Not really funny, right? Am I being too uptight? Well, I’m “sticking to my guns” and going with “end the war slowly” John Murtha on this one. The Rep. from PA was livid when he heard about McCain’s cracks about explosives. But there’s more, McCain’s response to Murtha was as straight-talking as one can get. On Good Morning America this morning, McCain sent this message to Murtha: Lighten up and get a life. The video is right here. Really? Lighten up about a war that costs this nation $1.9 billion a week and has taken more than 3,000 American lives? I think what upsets me the most is I can remember all too well a straight-talking presidential candidate that talked his way to the White House, twice.

Update: Apparently, McCain is too busy straight-talking to vote on the Iraq war spending bill that just passed in the Senate. This is the fourth Iraq-related vote the senator has missed.

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It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

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