The Death of FrankenMcCain's Monster

For years Senator McCain had a tenuous relationship with the conservatives. Sure, we supported him when we could and we respected and honored the great things he had done such as serving his country honorably in Vietnam and for which he suffered immensely. But when it came down to it most of us kept him at arms length and often held our nose while posing for pictures with him. Some of his ideas were really out there.

No man is perfect and we didn't hold that against him for certain. At least not much. And despite all his quirks, conservatives were still generally willing to invite him to the party and shake his hand even while we weren't willing to vote for him.

This was still true even after the bizarre and still unexplained attempted suicide of John McCain's presidential aspirations in 2001. That was the year of the infamous McCain/Feingold legislation; otherwise known as campaign finance reform; otherwise known as highly unconstitutional. That act caused an erosion in support for him as anything more than a Senator for his home state.

Miraculously however his candidacy for higher office didn't die from the attempt but it was the act that put his aspirations in the hospital and on life support. It was the act that made conservatives get a bigger clothespin for their noses as they questioned their tenuous support for a man that had now shown he would willingly violate the first amendment and author a law which enabled Congress to infringe on the Constitutional right to free speech.

Oh, he was still being invited over for cocktails after he recovered from that blow, but he found that fewer people flocked around him to hear what he had to say. He was, after that faux pas, kind of like the girl that wasn't quite as smart or quite as pretty as you'd like her to be, but would ask to the high school prom in a pinch. And if you could, you would ditch her in a second if the girl you really had your eyes on looked like she was available once you were there.