McCain Proves Himself Utterly Tasteless

by brownsox

Sat Jun 14, 2008 at 09:14:59 AM PDT

If you were watching MSNBC's coverage of Tim Russert's untimely passing last night, you may just have witnessed John McCain's naked attempt to make the death of this institution all about himself.

Apparently, McCain thought the time was right to make self-aggrandizing jokes about Russert's technique:

When asked yesterday by reporters what it was like to be interviewed by Russert, McCain said with a smile, ``I once told him I haven't had so much fun since my last interrogation at prison camp.''

Good God.

McCain's ravenous eagerness to reference his time as a POW at every opportunity is well documented, of course. It can be said of McCain that he comes from the Giuliani school of campaigning: each statement is a noun, a verb and Hanoi.

But I never thought the Senator would be quite so tasteless as to compare being on Meet the Press to facing interrogation in a prison camp...while eulogizing a Washington icon just hours after he passed, at a time when the nation was still in shock, still in mourning for one of its most prominent journalists.

I understand that John McCain was making a joke. I really do understand that. And I would posit that it's frankly shocking that he would use this occasion to crack wise. If Tim Russert were being roasted at a dinner, or receiving an award, it would be perfectly appropriate (well, almost appropriate) for McCain to have made this comment.

But Russert just died.

And McCain is busy with self-promotion at Russert's expense before the autopsy is done, using a joke he has used dozens of times before in a highly cavalier fashion.

McCain will use his military experience as a punchline. He has used the line, "I haven’t had his much fun since I was in Hanoi" on a number of occasions. Even more, after watching the Arizona Diamondbacks lose a game to the New York Yankees in the World Series he said, "I hadn’t had so much fun since my last interrogation in Hanoi."

Apparently, this national occasion of mourning deserves the same level of consideration as a baseball game.

Senator McCain, for once in the year, this is not about you. You are the Republican nominee for the presidency of the United States, and I understand that for most days out of the year, every interview and every speech you give will be about you.

But yesterday was about eulogizing Tim Russert, and this self-promoting reference is truly egregious and supremely tasteless.

Tim Russert deserves better at your hands.