Flagging Down the Forked-Tongue Express

If the campaign continues this way, John McCain may lose not only an election but the respect earned over decades as an honorable soldier and straight-talking politician.

More in sorrow than anger, a New York Times editorial points out what has been clear for weeks now:

"On July 3, news reports said Senator John McCain, worried that he might lose the election before it truly started, opened his doors to disciples of Karl Rove from the 2004 campaign and the Bush White House. Less than a month later, the results are on full display. The candidate who started out talking about high-minded, civil debate has wholeheartedly adopted Mr. Rove’s low-minded and uncivil playbook."

There has been something distant on McCain's face and in his voice ever since as he parrots Rovian attacks on Barack Obama's patriotism. His body language raises questions about whether he can watch the scurrilous 527 commercials without gagging over the sophomoric smears that blame high gas prices on Obama, accuse him of using wounded troops for political gain and denounce him for being popular.

McCain, says the Times editorial, "used to pride himself on being above this ugly brand of politics, which killed his own 2000 presidential bid. But he clearly tossed his inhibitions aside earlier this month when he put day-to-day management of his campaign in the hands of one acolyte of Mr. Rove and gave top positions to two others. The résumés of the new team’s members included stints in Mr. Bush’s White House and in his 2004 re-election campaign, one of the most negative and divisive in memory."

Rove, cited for contempt today by the Senate Judiciary Committee over refusing to come clean about political misuse of the Justice Department, has made a fine art of devising election campaigns based on contempt for voters' intelligence.

The irony now is that the man he destroyed in 2000 to the point that McCain considered switching parties is surrendering to those tactics.

One of the low blows Rove's minions have devised for McCain is the charge that Obama would be willing to lose a war to win an election. How much of himself is John McCain ready to lose?