Monday, December 21, 2009

So's John McCain


     Thanks to Rachel Maddow for ferreting this out after McCain said he'd never in his twenty years in the Senate seen a senator denied an extra  minute or two to finish his remarks. On October 10, 2002, McCain reacted to the anti-war speech of then-Senator Mark Dayton (D-MN) by objecting to Dayton's request for unanimous consent to speak for an extra minute or two.
      Shame on McCain for his hypocrisy, which exacerbated the Franken-Lieberman brouhaha. You're dragging the Senate down, Senator.

2 comments:

Jack Marshall said...

Which still doesn't change the fact that it is an unprofessional and unethical thing to do. This isn't about McCain, it's about Franken, and since McCain was correct in objecting to Franken's conduct, McCain shouldn't be criticized now. Improving one's conduct isn't hypocrisy, it's growth.

You shouldn't encourage Maddow, who, good, biased liberal that she is, was rushing to defend undeniably unethical conduct by "her" team. What she should be doing is calling out Franken, just as McCain did. Wrong is wrong. (I will probably not have the time, but I'd love to check and see what Drayton's remarks were. My guess is that McCain found them personally offensive, and it would be interesting to know why.)

Bob said...

I agree with you about the major point: it's unethical to defend unethical conduct by one's own team. My highest award, the mythical Niebuhr award, goes to people who criticize such conduct. This month, to Bob Barr.