XDA

John McCain started on This Week with George Stephanopoloosechangeus. He is showing I think a complete inability to see where his views lead. He also says this mistreatment by the North Vietnamese makes him an expert on the subject of prisoner treatment. I think the emotion of those memories robs him of much of his judgment in the matter. He says we have held to the Geneva Convention of 1949. That's true. However, none of our enemies since that time have. McCain said he was treated better in Hanoi for reasons unknown but he was using that argument to buttress his support of giving POW-like status to the illegal combatants that the Jihadists are. Complete lack of understanding. He says we are putting our boys at risk by clarifying what common article 3 means. What a fool. Our boys are at risk of being beheaded and dismembered every time they are captured. How could it get any worse? (It can't). He also voices some worries about our boys who fight out of uniform (CIA types do this, I don't believe special forces do, but I might me uninformed about uniforms). Guys who fight out of uniform are spies and can be executed. That's what should happen to all al Qaeda types and would happen to our CIA spies (again no worse off than what our uniformed troops face now). The CIA types are as aware of this as Nathan Hale was 230 some years ago and they regret they have but one life to give in the service of their country. In contrast to this exquisite realism is the stupid utopianism without a single whiff of common sense from John McCain.

McCain should recuse himself on this subject.

Stephen Hadley, the new NSA, made good points in a completely bloodless, well tempered, statesman-like way. I've already forgotten what he said.

Sam Donaldson should go back to his ranch in New Mexico. He states the bleeding obvious, but not in a good way, and he reveals his liberal roots with every word. Will, as usual, is very smart but he only gets in little snippets. Three to one is ABCs idea of fair and balanced. I'm still watching though. Now Cokie is talking about the history of religion in America. Is this really an important question? Sam is completely wrong; he says people face more and more problems so they turn to religion. We have so few real problems our lives seem a constant struggle for meaning and some turn to religion for what civilization has removed from the so called day to day struggle.

Ann Richards is dead and not from liver problems. Oriana Fallaci too, that's a bigger loss, I think. I try to care about lady golfers but I don't care about male golfers so I fail completely. 16 soldiers, etc., killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Better than last week, but still a lot.

Oh boy, Jewell talks about political things. Has anyone there at ABC read her poetry? It is difficult to take her seriously if you have. She looks great though and when you think about it she does have some expertise about breasts. Yeah, let's mandate expanded coverage, that health insurance must fund, for a small subset of the population and drive up costs for all of us. Brilliant. Who will save your soul, indeed?

Over at Fox Sunday they have the Pope story first, Negroponte on the stupidity of some Republican Senators and Boehner for Republican strategy. Negroponte has to be as vague as Hadley had to be because it is stupid to tell the enemy what you do during war time. I think he's doing a good job and it's certainly not a puff piece interview from Chris Wallace. They're quoting Colin Powell at his least thoughtful and taking him seriously. Let me say again that our troops in uniform and completely covered by the Geneva Convention protections have not been the actual recipient of those protections since May, 1945. And Powell is worried about future treatment? Christopher Hitchens says Colin Powell is the most famous mediocre man in America. Could be. Negroponte fends off the cryptic chickenhawk question from Wallace but he didn't answer it. Combat doesn't make you smarter about anything other than how to stay alive and be effective in combat. At least that's my chickenhawk view.

Boehner defends his true statement about those who seem to have a inordinant interest in the rights of the Jihadists. He's giving good examples of Democrat failure on the issue of protection in war. Now he has to defend himself from fuzzy thinking Republicans like Graham and McCain. Boehner doesn't want to talk about the truth of the political fall out from the so called rebellion of the egoist Republicans (I know that formulation doesn't rule out many). Boehner promise the House will not back down from enforcement of border first. I hope he's serious about that. Ethics and the Congress completely bore me. The very idea of professional lobbiests makes that an impossible subject for reform. They don't want it reformed really and the electorate just doesn't care.

Panel time! They start with Bush at his best. Brit Hume demolishes McCain (which as I suspected wasn't that tough). Moira places the focus properly on Virginia Senator Warner. What is up with him? Hume predicts doom for McCain's chances for the Republican nomination in '08 if he doesn't immediately back down; I think he had no chance to start with. Bill Krystol continues to voice my opinions that McCain et al. will loose on this one because they don't really provide cover for Democrats to support this weakness. Colin Powell's reputation continues to be eroded. OK, I've reached saturation on my ability to take in this palaver with interest.