Obama "Directly Responsible" for Orlando Murders, says McCain

This used to the be image of the two wings of the Republican Party. Independent minded war hero John McCain of Arizona, and, to his right, Alaska governor Sarah Palin. McCain chose Palin to run with him in 2008 against Barack Obama in hopes of winning the votes of Republicans who felt he was too liberal, or too much of a "maverick" to earn their support.

I resist the urge to say that Palin was selected to win over more "conservative" voters, because I do not wish to dishonor legitimate conservatives. Palin was, and remains, a part of the growing sector of Republicans who portray themselves as conservatives but are in fact either lazy politicians allergic to facts or opportunists who build their careers on encouraging ignorance. That Palin lives and dies by this is no surprise - her inability or unwillingness to think things through even got her fired from Fox News, no small feat. Some call it "shooting from the hip", which Donald Trump has elevated to an art form. President Obama called it "making stuff up", which I second, substituting a shorter and stinkier S word.

The news is that Palin's former running mate, the senior Senator from Arizona, a man whose name is half the moniker for our one standing piece of campaign finance reform (McCain-Feingold), has joined the fringe. As if Donald Trump's victory in the Republican primary process was not enough to convince us, John McCain's surrender to the fantasy land created by Fox News and nurtured by folks like Palin confirms - the moderate wing of the Republican party is dead.

McCain yesterday called President Obama "directly responsible" for the massacre in Orlando. Then a few hours later he mentioned that he "misspoke". Misspoke? Misspeaking is when you get the capital of Ohio wrong, it's when you confuse the budget deficit with the national debt, it might even be when you say, as Donald Trump did, that the murderer who shot up the Pulse nightclub was born in "Afghan", wherever that is.

When you call the sitting President an accomplice to mass murder at the very moment he is consoling the survivors, that is no misstatement. It is a clear statement of McCain's beliefs. And his core belief is this - that without the support of the crazy people in his party, he cannot win his sixth term in the Senate. Eight years ago a similar calculus pushed him to pick Palin, but we had the good sense to kick her to the curb. Whatever once passed for decency and common sense even among principled conservatives is no longer viable in the age of Trump.

Don't be confused by McCain's subsequent apology for his misstatement. All he needs is that tape of himself blaming Obama to serve up as red meat to the lunatic fringe, while the mainstream media allows him to "walk back" his story.

And all the rest of us are left to do is to watch as the party of Lincoln and Rockefeller, Jacob Javits and Dwight Eisenhower, tumble into incoherent rambling divorced from the truth and the serious business of running a country.