McCain Battles the Man He Was

Arianna Huffington, HuffPost

 Still think John McCain is the straight talking reformer of
2000? This week, huge chunks of that facade fell away. His multi-layered lobbying
problems sent the reformer chunk tumbling. His one-two rejection of agents
of intolerance John "Hitler Was Doing God's Work" Hagee and Rod
"Islam is Anti-Christ" Parsley, whose endorsements he actively
pursued, revealed the calculation behind his faith-based outreach -- and down
came the straight-talk stucco. And his refusal to join the 75 Senators who
voted for the new GI
Bill (or even show up for the vote), transformed his endless talk of honor,
duty, sacrifice, and owing our troops a debt we can never repay into
hypocritical dust. No matter who the Democrats nominate, it's increasingly
clear McCain's toughest foe in 2008 will be the man he used to be.