“Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?” ~ John Belushi (1949-1982), National Lampoon’s Animal House

Did the normally restrained President Obama learn some “ya wanna a piece of me” South Shore bluster from his pre-Election Day Hurricane Sandy bromance with Joisey Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.J.)? Or did our Chief Executive stand up for a competent staffer instead of throwing her under the bus for cheap political points?

It was rather rich when Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) grandstanded before media cameras calling for U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice’s head, publicly screaming for Benghazi tragedy ‘details’ by playing hubris hooky from a classified Congressional briefing. The “tough-guy” echoes of Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) sounded about as “macho” as Marcus Bachmann auditioning for a Rambo commando film sequel.

Never mind that Ambassador Susan Rice has the difficult diplomatic duty of representing the U.S. at the United Nations. A very, very smart woman. A Truman scholarship grad of Stanford. A Rhodes scholar doctorate from Oxford’s New College in Cambridge. We aren’t talking of Jersey strip mall “Oxford” coursework on 2010 Tea Party clown Christine “I’m not a witch” O’Donnell’s padded resume. Let’s not expect reality and fact to mess up a pompously partisan political character assassination.

If one patiently waits too long for facts and reports in volatile, once “denied” theaters to be carved in stone, it’s history, instead of intelligence. Intelligence is perishable and often subject to later correction.

Geriatric Sen. McCain has become the crotchety Gramps who really ought to have his car keys finally taken away from him after making that shortcut to adult day care through the elementary school playground. I’m used to getting angry reader mail when I note that McCain was a hero once, in Vietnam. A few dozen years ago, in a day just prior to the Disco Era, when polyester ruled the fashion world. Our “fighter jock” from the Grand Canyon State’s latter-day kamikaze pilot schtick shows he is losing it. Shades of Sen. Jim Imhofe (R-Okie Air Force) landing his private plane on a closed runway with paving workers on it, and getting cranky when the FAA took a dim view of such lapses in airmanship.

Remember the late Admiral James Stockdale, Indie candidate billionaire Ross Perot’s running mate in the 1992 Presidential campaign? Admiral Stockdale also demonstrated Hanoi Hilton heroism, but really should have remained on his honored patch of pasture instead of trying for an ineptly tardy “second career” in national politics.

McCain had once been a voice of statesmanship and reason, even if he and I didn’t quite agree on everything. Politics is the art of compromise. The veteran Senator lurched far off the Righty margin of the page in a heated 2010 Arizona Republican nomination primary fight with former Rep. J. D. “Dumbest Member of Congress” Hayworth (R-Huckster) but forgot to roll back to moderation afterward.

Susan Rice has shown more smarts and diplomatic competence than Bush Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, herself a highly educated African-American scholar, when she wasn’t a pliant Cheney conspiracy chorus girl. Remember Condi’s shrill warnings about mythical Iraqi nuclear weapons?

McCain is irked that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) knows painfully little of the nation’s business is getting accomplished due to Republican obstruction without making things worse with a “Watergate-in-search-of-a-crook” select inquisition committee for Benghazi. Aren’t Repubs the “small government” mob?

It’s time for McCain to be put out to pasture after his latest rant, including angrily berating reporters for daring to question his skipping a classified briefing about Benghazi to tilt at windmills. He needs to take a genteel retirement to rail against the palleted brew cases in one of his beer distributor heiress wife’s warehouses, or making finger paintings and pot holders with Gov. Jan Brewer (R-Ariz.)’s son in a desert rubber room.

Ambassador Susan Rice is way out of McCain’s loony league.



