More on the fake nobility of victimhood

There is this constant meme out there that the John McCain running for president in 2008 isn't the John McCain who ran in 2000. Joe Klein mourns the fact that McCain hasn't spoken out against professional liar Jerome Corsi and claiming that, "Back in the day, John McCain was the sort of politician who would stand first in line to call out this sort of swill."

Maybe so. But likely because I'm black, my most vivid memory of  John McCain 'back in the day," was that he endorsed South Carolina's right to literally fly a flag of treason. Then, after he was knocked out the race, McCain flipped and said that the Confederate flag should come down. Now, at the time--like most of the media--I saw a kind of courage in McCain's stand. But the reality is that he did the right thing when it was easiest to do it. McCain showed no courage there. He ran a reverse Sista Souljah on his friends in South Carolina to kowtow to media.

This is why one should be careful about shedding tears for what the Bushies did to McCain in 2000. McCain, if he thought it would work, would likely have done the same thing. McCain wasn't a "maverick" in 2000--he was just the guy who was losing. There's nothing inherently noble about getting your ass kicked.