John McCain's Multi-Front Wars

In this ass-kissing profile of John McCain over at ESPN.com, the crusty Arizona senator takes on all the tough issues that government is there for: steroid use in baseball, the pressing need for a national boxing commission, and beating back the dread menace of gambling on college sports.

Read it all here. And then wonder what the hell senators do for their pay.

Courtesy of Hit & Run regular Ari Spanier.

Comments

[matt]

Possibly the worst article I've ever seen on ESPN.com.

[Captain Awesome]

We have to destroy sports in order to save it.

[Twba]

McCain can do anything he wants so long as he does not piss off the many retired veterans living their last days in Arizona. He has a free pass courtesy of Vietnamese torture ordeal, which trumps the many idiotic pursuits of the Maverick Republican.

[Ignorant Law Student]

I don't know if boxing needs a national commission, but the free market sure has to stop supporting some of the worse state commissions.

[Skip Oliva]

If McCain were a declared presidential candidate, would the ESPN article fall under McCain-Feingold's clutches? I bet some "creative" lawyer could make that case.

[James B.]

McCain makes me ill.

My local Gannett rag the Wilmington News-Journal editorialized for the federal college sports gambling ban. The argued that although it was already illegal under Delaware state law, making it a federal law would make gamblers think twice before placing their illegal wagers. All the while the NJ's sport section prints the point spreads for college football and basektball games.

Currently the feds have in place a nationwide ban on sports gambling passed in the early 90s. States that already had sports gambling on the books are grandfathered in (Nevada, Oregon, Montana & Delaware). NJ is looking at sports gambling as another source of gov't revenue as is making noises about suing to revoke the ban.

[anon]

What's funny is that the name of the guy who wrote the article is Keating

[crimethink]

"I'll push for boxing reform until it passes," McCain told ESPN.com in an interview at his Phoenix office. "The thing that gets me so involved is the exploitation of the boxers who, with rare exception, come from the lowest rung on our economic ladder, are least educated and are left many times after some years in the sport mentally impaired and financially broke."

Umm, maybe they should try to get a job that doesn't involve bouncing their brain around their skull like Jell-O.

[Mac Daddy Hoon]

I am not a particularly interested in politics. Even so, I have nightmares that the 2008 presidential race will be McCain-Someone vs. Clinton-Someoneelse. As if Bush vs. Kerry wasn't bad enough...

Of course there is hope that if John McCain quit pretending to be a Republican, the race could be between Republicans vs. McCain-Clinton (or Clinton-McCain), which would almost certainly be an easier choice.

[thoreau]

Heresy Alert

Even though I disagree with him so much nowadays, I still have a soft spot in my heart for McCain. Believe it or not, he was a useful waystation on my journey away from the left. (And yes, I know, many would argue that McCain is on the left, but just hear me out.)

You see, in late 1998 I became so disgusted with Clinton that I stopped calling myself a Democrat and started calling myself an independent. Then, in late 1999 I learned about McCain and campaign finance reform. This was when I still naively supported his version of it. Nowadays my stances on CFR have diverged considerably from McCain's, even if they aren't quite purist libertarian.

So I campaigned for him in the primaries. This was a big step for me: It was the first time in my life that I supported a Republican politician. It was a boost as I dared to venture beyond the left.

Of course, other things have changed my opinions on the issues, and I disagree with McCain on a great many things. But I still have a soft spot in my heart for him. I get the impression that he's at least doing what he believes, and that I can have an honest (but strong, mind you) disagreement with him.

Anyway, just my $0.02 worth on the guy.

[Rick Barton]

Sen. McCain, thank you for helping bring thoreau over our way. But pleaase, on these other matters, learn to MYOB!

[Brian]

I've got a sentimental thing for McCain too. But watching him put on fishnets, heels, and lipstick for Bush during the election was pretty nauseating. Dude. How could you whore for that guy? So he can run in 2008 I guess.

[Rick Barton]

Brian,

Gag me with a spoon!

[Ruthless]

First, thanks to McCain for delivering to us the stone still in the very rough and raw, thoreau. H&R will take it from here assuming the job of polishing him.
Now:
"wonder what the hell senators do for their pay."

That got me pondering.
Most of us here can empathize with the philosophy of Big Big Slacker. We MYOB/MOOB, as Rick Barton suggested, except for having a modicum of fun here.
Politicians, on the other hand, can't resist interfering in the lives of others. They are the equivalent of hired guns.
Remember the old TV show, Palladin? "Have gun. Will travel."

Interfering in the lives of others pays well, because there are always those who see interfering in the lives of others as a sort of shortcut to their own personal happiness, and are therefore willing to pay professionals.

Here's the end of Ogden Nash's "The Anatomy of Happiness":
Because then everybody would be happy except the people who pride themselves on creating their own happiness who as soon as they saw everybody who didn't create their own happiness happy they would probably grieve over sharing their own heretofore private sublimity,
A condition which I could face with equanimity.

[dead_elvis]

" "There's going to have to be another scandal, and there probably will be."

"That's McCain: waiting for the next, inevitable burst of bad news to come along, to present an opportunity not only to excoriate wrongdoers but to corral the powerful into doing the right thing."

That's McCain, waiting for the next inevitable burst of bad news to come along, so he has an opportunity to appear nationally important. For him the fight and publicity is obviously more important than any actual issue. Isn't this guy's fifteen minutes up?

[Dimmy Karras]

McCain voted for DSHEA, the 1994 law that gutted the federal government's authority to oversee supplements -- and that triggered the explosive growth in the sale of everything from horny goat weed to bee feces.

Horny goat weed?

[Gary Halpin]

I didn't even have to read the article, the headline told me everything I could possibly suspect was true. The arrogance of these folks is utterly amazing. And will people stop calling the media biased and correctly start labeling them as ignorant, particularly when it comes to politics and individual liberty.

[purple flower6]

This is one super duper site6