Update on Senate Races/Thoughts on McCain

Quick post today, as I cannot rouse enough indignation to fulminate against anything save John McCain's disregard of the Constitution of the day after the tragic death of Tim Russert.

1. A quick perusal of the latest indices of polls on RealClearPolitics.com should brighten the day of any Democrat in America. Even the Al Franken race in Minnesota, and the challenge being mounted to Elizabeth Dole non withstanding, the Democrats are poised to pick up 7 more seats from the GOP in the Fall Senate elections. Amongst the GOP stalwarts that are in dire straits; Ted "Tubes" Stevens of Alaska and the buffoonish Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

But perhaps the Senator in trouble whom incurs the most wrath of the Democrats would be John Sununu of New Hampshire. Sununu was implicated in a massive phone jamming scam against their election opponents during his hotly contested 1st run for the Senate in 2002. Sununu, who trails by as many as 18 points in some polls, appears to finally be getting his comeuppance from New Hampshire voters.

It's almost a certainty that the Democrats will gain on their razor-thin majority. If they were hypothetically to gain 7 seats, as postulated above, or even 5, their caucus, and their ability to maneuver in the Senate would be drastically heightened.

For one, they could finally expunge John McCain's favorite lackey, Joseph Lieberman, from any sort of committee chairmanships. Many powerful Democrats don't want Lieberman any where near the chambers, much less as the head of a powerful committee. They will finally get their wish.

Most importantly though, a caucus of 58 members is a mere 2 votes short of invoking cloture, and thereby obviating the threat of filibusters. Time after time, the Senate Democrats have been unable to instigate any substantive debate on global warming, health care reform and Iraq. If they succeed in obtaining the new Senate seats, they will finally be on the threshold of tangible reform.

2. The last 2 days have exemplified perfectly John McCain's transformation from an independent politician to someone who capitulates incessantly to the demands of the fringe, autocratic right wing.

Just 2 days ago, McCain was guarded when responding to questioning concerning the Supreme Court decision to rebuke the runaway, unconstitutional detention policies of the Bush Administration. McCain simply said: "It obviously concerns me . . . but it is a decision the Supreme Court has made. Now we need to move forward. As you know, I always favored closing of Guantanamo Bay and I still think that we ought to do that."

Fast forward 2 days, and abracadabra, McCain offers, in his characteristic pandering hyperbole, a completely contrary position: "The Supreme Court yesterday rendered a decision which I think is one of the worst decisions in the history of this country."

For someone who accused his primary opponents of "surrendering" and "flip-flopping", those two quotes seem to be in diametric opposition, and they were spoken in a mere 48 hour interval. McCain, yet again, proves that he is willing to forsake any semblance of integrity and consistency in the name of winning this election.

Hopefully the media will see through the ruse that is John McCain as a "maverick", and start to hold him accountable, not only for substantially altering his positions for political gain, but also for the very logic and reason behind said positions.

Speaking of the logic behind McCain's views on the Supreme Court decision of earlier this week, let's now turn to that.

McCain and his cadre (Scalia, WSJ editorial page) allege that this decision will make the country less safe. And yet, he can not come up with any legitimate reasons to justify that assertion. His lame justification that the Supreme Court will now be "inundated with challenges" is pure sophistry. Guantanamo Bay houses a mere 270 prisoners at present. Annually, the Supreme Court receives more than 7,000 petitions. You do the math; it is unlikely that 270 makes a dent into the deluge they already receive. This canard on behalf of McCain is yet another example of his fealty to the most non-democratic, autocratic segments of his party.

In actuality, McCain's lame excuse is just political cover to prevent the GOP base, who unabashedly endorses the detention policies of George W. Bush, from revolt. Unfortunately for these people, from the outset, the Framers provided that habeus corpus is an inimical right to all peoples, and can not be vitiated, even in time of peril. McCain simply comes across as an enemy of the fundamental precepts of the Constitution when he inveighs against a decision to restore what has been a fundamental right for more than 200 years.

What's most puzzling is McCain's indignation about the decision if he believes the prisoners are guilty. If they are abominable, and guilty of terrorism related charges, why can McCain simply let them be prosecuted in court? If their guilt is so imminent, what can be so frightened of and outraged at?