John McCain: America’s Most Butch Passive-Aggressive Drama Queen
By From this morning’s ABC chat show:
Stephanopoulos: “What role did you play? How were you helpful do you believe in the process?”
John McCain: “I will let you and others be the judge of that. I did the best that I could. I came back because I wasn’t going to phone it in. America is in a crisis of almost unprecedented proportions. should be doing whatever little I can to help this process. I’m a Teddy Roosevelt Republican. I got to get in the arena when America needs it, and if that judgment wants to be made whether I helped or hurt, I’ll be glad to accept the judgment of history. But I’m never going to not get engaged when the taxpayers and middle class of America are in danger of losing everything literally that they’ve worked all their lives for. I’m going to be out working on it. I won’t claim a bit of credit, okay, if that makes them feel better. “
Except it turns out McCain was in fact quite literally phoning it in:
“Asked why Mr. McCain did not go to Capitol Hill after coming back to Washington to help with negotiations, Mr. Salter replied that “he can effectively do what he needs to do by phone.’’ (h/t Yglesias)
How many hours did McCain spend on Capitol Hill saving the Republic after he ostentatiously “‘suspended” his campaign? He spent Wednesday morning having tea with Lady de Rothschild. He spent Wednesday afternoon chatting up Katie Couric while blowing off David Letterman. He spent Wednesday evening in a New York hotel sitting in a specially designed Barca Lounger while eating Doritos and watching the replay of the Giants-Bengals game on the NFL Network (this latter assertion is speculative, but under the circumstances it would be irresponsible not to speculate).
He spent Thursday morning in New York City giving a campaign speech. He finally parachuted into DC on Thursday afternoon, where he attended a meeting at the White House with Bush and Obama, and promptly threw a monkey wrench into delicate negotiations which to that point he appears to have contributed exactly nothing. He flew down to Mississippi on Friday morning, flew back to Virginia on Saturday morning, spent all of Saturday at his Virginia condo, and then spent this morning doing the chat show circuit, when the bailout deal was being announced.
Did he ever actually go to Capitol Hill? I suppose even Sen. Straightshooter wouldn’t be brazen enough not to have put in a token appearance on Thursday evening. But assuming he did, that’s the sum total of what his crucial in-person contribution to the negotiations added up to. That he’s now emphasizing that he’s happy to not take credit for not doing things he didn’t do if it will make his critics happy just adds to the surreal Circus of the Absurd that is the McCain-Palin Clown Show.
[Edit: Thanks to aimai in the comments for the right title. I should also mention that the quote from the ABC interview was emailed to me and no doubt 10,000 other media types this morning by the McCain campaign itself. Apparently they want to highlight these comments!]