McCain Degenerating

Allahpundit displays his moral obtuseness this morning by failing to challenge the equating of ethnicity (an immutable, morally neutral trait) with sexuality (an most definitely volitional and morally charged "orientation).

The proximating story was RINO usurper John Sith McCain's baffling decision to go on the Ellen Degeneres program (yes, THAT Ellen Degeneres) and subject himself to pro-homosexual "joshing":

Allegedly, Lord Queeg opposes sodomarriage.  Personally, I'm suspicious of any right of center position to which he stakes a claim, because there's not a one he's ever held that he hasn't betrayed.  In this case, given his past blithering hostility to Christian evangelicals, his claim to a traditional view of marriage is even less credible.

But for the sake of analysis, let's say his devotion to preserving societal recognition of institutional matrimonial sanctity is genuine.  What, then, does he gain by going on the talk show of an avowed lesbian who is congenitally incapable of going an entire program without beating the drums for her retrograde cause?  Sure, that's a little hyperbolic, but stick an allegedly Republican presidential candidate in the guest chair and even that occasional exception evaporates.

If he's true to what he believes, he answers Degeneres' attempt to parallel ethnicity and sexual orientation as I did above: one is inherent, the other is a moral choice - and she has made the wrong one.  If that drives her into conniptions, it reveals her to be intolerent, not Maverick.

Of course, he wasn't.  Not wanting to offend, he tried to punt, and then muffed even that by wishing Degeneres "every happiness" on her impending "nuptuals" with her latest carpet-munching "girlfriend," which will be retroactively annulled after the California Supreme Court misruling imposing sodomarriage is corrected (yet again) by a fresh ballot initiative in November that is expected to pass handily even in that people's republic.  Why would he give something his blessing that he supposedly doesn't believe in?

It's not like he has to walk onto the set, point a finger at her, and exclaim, "Repent, sinner!"  But then again, it's not like he had to walk onto the set at all.  Doing so isn't going to make evangelicals more likely to vote for him; probably less, in fact, while his half-hearted "stand" for marriage guarantees it didn't make any inroads in the sexual confusion vote.  It, contrary to AP's fantasies, it won't "disarm" left-wing demagoguery aimed at Sailor - unless, of course, they know he's really one of them, as all of us should.

Perhaps that's why McCain was so eager to accept the extended endorsement of the first preacher foolish enough to do so.  A little vetting would have revealed some less than Scriptural views (A lust for Armageddon rivaling Adolph Ahmadinejad's; a, shall we say, presumption to know the mind of God that would have had Job shaking his head and saying, "Come ON, Dude..."; a rather {*ahem*} curious hypothesis that the Holocaust was God's way of incentivizing Jewish migration to the Holy Land; and the classic anti-Catholic slur that the "whore of Babylon" from the Book of Revelation refers to the Vatican); ironically, bearing considerable overlap with utterances of the very same Rev'rund Pat Robertson who was McCain's designated evangelical boogeyman eight years ago.

Today the Arizona senator apparently finally felt he had enough justificatory ammunition to cut the ties with Rev'rund Hagee.  Either that, or he felt that having Hagee in his corner undermined the condemnation of Barack Hussein Obama's quarter-century discipleship under Jeremiah Wright that he has already disavowed any intention of making.

That's all fine and good, I suppose.  But what explains repudiatee #2?:

But McCain wasn’t finished rejecting endorsements from ministers. He also repudiated Revrend Rod Parsley, an Ohio preacher who had made derogatory comments about Muslims, calling Islam “an anti-Christ religion that intends through violence to conquer the world.”

“I believe there is no place for that kind of dialogue in America, and I believe that even though he endorsed me, and I didn’t endorse him, the fact is that I repudiate such talk,” McCain said in an interview with the Associated Press. “I reject his endorsement.”

Um, what's wrong with Reverend Parsley's "dialogue," Senator?  Islam IS "an anti-Christ religion"; it's even more anti-Semitic, but both Christians and Jews are derided in the Koran as "the people of the Book," and consigned to second-class citizen status at best in Islamic society.  At worse, they are to be put to death if they don't convert to Islam.  Ditto Hindus, Buddhinsts, Shintoists, agnostics, atheists, etc., etc., etc.  And the Koran DOES preach the spread of Islam world-wide by the sword via "holy war".  That is why it is Islamic FUNDAMENTALISTS who are our avowed enemies.

Reverend Parsley's "dialogue" is the pure, unvarnished truth.  He simply refuses to "dhimmize himself down".  He clearly understands the enemy better than Lord Queeg does, or even wants to.  Something that ought to be extremely concerning to every American who still realizes what's at stake in this war.

So what does this endorsement housecleaning mean?  IS McCain clearing the decks for a personal go at BO over Uncle Jerry?  Or is this the 2000 Christophobe feeling the coast is clear for his reemergence, on the old chestnut of "Where else are those snake-handlers going to go?"

Looks like my steadfast prediction of a McCain-Huckabee ticket - and total electoral disaster in November - still occupies the inside track.

Speaking of which, my adjoining forecast of a Maverick-led wipeout at the hands of Rodbama is now starting to dawn on bigger but dimmer blogospheric fish:

Once optimistic about John McCain’s prospects for the fall general election, Republicans are increasingly concerned that he could wind up badly outgunned, saddled with serious deficiencies of money, organization and partisan intensity against the likely Democratic nominee, Barack Obama.

After making a promising debut as their nominee, McCain has worried many Republicans by seeming to flounder during the past few weeks.

The campaign has been rattled recently by fallout from McCain’s determination to purge his campaign of lobbying conflicts. The departure of five staff members has provided ammunition to Democrats and produced a snarl of damaging news coverage questioning McCain’s reformist image.

It’s a troubling development, because when Obama likely finally captures the nomination and begins to consolidate his party, there’s yet another matter for Republicans to lose sleep over — the polling bump the Democrat is expected to receive.

Of course, it's going to be Hillary Rodham Clinton the Sith Master will face, and get thrashed by, not False Messiah.  Some conventional wisdoms die even harder than others.  Such as the faux optimistic spin of the 'Pubbies quoted in this Politico piece.  North Carolina Senator Richard Burr's was emblematic:

“Clearly, Republicans are going to have to do a fantastic job of turnout programs, and probably have to focus more on conservative Democrats and independents than on Republicans,” Burr said. Of the McCain operation, he said: “They’re doing more things right than they are wrong.”

They couldn't be more wrong in their focus.  The "state-of-the-art, $300-million wonder" that was the Bush-Cheney'04 juggarnaut was based upon one core objective: energize the GOP base and ever last Pachyderm to the polls on Election Day.  The unkillable RINO chimera of "reaching out" and "across the aisle" and "to the center" is the diametric opposite of what Team Sith needs to be doing.  John McCain, of all people, can least afford to take for granted the conservative base he has spent the past decade screwing like a three-dollar whore in favor of stroking his "maverickness" in their faces one more time.  He's got to spend every last cent he'll never raise and every last moment of the next five months mending those fences, and gather in those "Independents" by highlighting and attacking Rodbama's hard-left extremism, not flogging the umpteenth version of Donk Lite.

A one-legged horse would have a better chance of winning the Triple Crown than the above seeing the light of day.  Ditto, consequently, the odds of a McCain administration outside of the funny pages.  And the carnage will extend all the way down the ballot in every state in the country.

Sic semper maverickus.

The silver lining, if there is one, is that if there's enough of a GOP left to salvage after the coming electoral nuking, perhaps they'll have learned for another generation to never, EVER again nominate a Democrat as the party's presidential standardbearer.

But I still wouldn't take bets on it.