"When people are in close races, I am the first Republican who is asked to come and appear for that person. I am the most sought-after of all Republicans. In this last campaign, I was the one asked by the President to travel and campaign with him.... When you look at the rank and file of ordinary Republicans, I'm extremely popular--it's some of the party apparatchiks who still harbor bad feelings toward me. But it is a little hard for them to do that now, because of my strong support for Bush....Particularly since the 2004 campaign, there has been a great softening of dislike for me."
Do you hear the same arrogance that Palpatine had? Do you hear his disdain for Joe Conservative and his high view of himself, all the same time playing the victim?
McCain is trying to damage the Conservative base of the party. He knows he cannot win. So therefore, he must drag the party down with him. Hugh is going to be writing a column about it and Mark Levin had some interesting comments about McCain and McCain's overbloated image of himself.
Courtesy of Generalissimo Duane, here is an excerpt from the exchange between Hewitt and the Great One, Mark Levin from the show: (emphasis added by me)
HH: What was McCain's motivation, Mark Levin? I've been...I just wrote a piece for the Weekly Standard. It will be out tomorrow. I'll get my say tomorrow. How do you decode what John McCain is up to here?
ML: I think John McCain has a real problem with the party structure, because he can't win in the party structure. I think if you look at McCain-Feingold, it attacks the party structure by limiting soft money. And this money is squeezed out into independent organizations. I am convinced that John McCain holds a very, very deep grudge against the Republican party and George Bush for not nominating him in 2000. That's the man's personality, despite what you say on Meet the Press and Hardball. So I'm convinced that he'll try to take the Republican nomination, and if he can't get the Republican nomination, he's going to damage the Republican nominee, much the way he tried to damage Bush in South Carolina. It wasn't Bush trying to damage McCain. It was McCain trying to damage Bush. He attacks the party structure. He attacks the various legs of the conservative movement. He claims to be a reformer. He claims to bridge...one of the things I do worry about him, even though it's harder to do now than it was, you know, almost a hundred years ago, Hugh, is some possible third party.
HH: Right. Going Perot on us.
ML: Yea. Exactly. I mean he would have to make that decision earlier, because a lot of the state parties, in the state law, in many places, makes that much more difficult. But I think that's a possibility. Otherwise, his behavior can only be called bizarre. And it's not intended to be bizarre. He's very strategic.
A two-faced, egomaniacal, strategic mind who claims to be a reformer, while not reforming corruption in the Senate....Hmm...sounds like Palpatine...well, we all knew Palpatine had an apprentice...who could that be? More from Levin and Hewitt lead us to the answer:
HH: Lindsey Graham. A fresh start for the Senate. As though the Senate could ever have a fresh start with octogenarians and septuagenarians making the deals. Mark Levin, going back to Lindsey Graham...
ML: Yes.
HH: I know you followed his career closely. You were very closely monitoring the impeachment. Are you surprised that Lindsey Graham signed this deal?
ML: Lindsey Graham has messed up so much, it's not even funny. Am I surprised? No. Because he treats John McCain almost like a cult figure. In 2000, he was busy leading is campaign in South Carolina, but Lindsey Graham, the one count where Clinton was caught dead, was lying under oath during his deposition.
HH: Right.
ML: Ultimately, Judge Wright in Arkansas, frankly, I filed the petition to have him held in contempt, held him in contempt.
HH: Yup.
ML: But Lindsey Graham argued and argued, and won the day that that count should not be included among the impeachment counts. And so it wasn't. I am also told that Lindsey Graham was among those who walked over to the Senate side and cut a deal during the trial, where there would be no witnesses, and no witness testimony. I'm told that by one of the House managers. Now, this is a guy who clearly wants to get along more than anything else. My view is, you're talking about one of the most conservative states in the Union. We have a guy here who doesn't act like it. So there's a guy named Ravenel. He's a conservative businessman. He almost beat the junior senator in the primary, Demint. I am definitely going to back him. In fact, I will back any decent conservative running a Republican primary against any of these candidates.
So, someone who reveres the power of McCain/Palpatine, and who subverted truth and justice to "get along" and "get his way." Hmmm....of course, other worthwhile nominees would include Mikey DeW(h)ine and George "Darth Tears" Voinovich.
