JOHN MC CAIN IS AN HONOURABLE MAN

The Rev. Dana Prom Smith, S.T.D., Ph.D. (5/19/08)

“But Brutus says he was ambitious; / And Brutus is an honourable man.” And so it is with John McCain. He doesn’t even need Shakespeare’s Mark Antony to tell us that he’s an honorable man. He tells us himself that he’s an honorable man. Brutus had just slain Julius Caesar because he claimed Caesar was an ambitious man. McCain claims he’s an honorable man just after five of his aides have left his campaign for conflicts of interest. People, politicians in particular, tend to proclaim their honor after they have been found morally compromised, like itchy fingered. McCain’s aides weren’t just ordinary aides, but lobbyists who peddled corporate and foreign influence to senators. Of course, McCain’s an honorable man. He merely associates with dishonorable men, men who’ve lobbied for Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the Myanmar military junta.

In a previous time McCain became an honorable man after behaving dishonorably. ‘Twas l’affaire de le Cinq Keating, an affair in which a morally enfeebled senatorial ethics panel found him guilty of “questionable conduct.” The questionable conduct was a non-too-subtle attempt to pressure federal banking regulators to go easy on his friend, Charles Keating, who was later sent to prison. McCain had accepted $115,000 from Keating and his allies and nine vacations of Keating’s jets gratis. After being found morally wanting, he championed ethics reform.

Senator McCain habitually discovers his honor after having been exposed as dishonorable, honor being a cover for immorality. Richard M. Nixon said it best, “I’m not a crook.”