McCAIN:  Republican Presidential Debate, November 28th: I would hope that we would understand, my friends, that life is not 24 and Jack Bauer. Life is interrogation techniques which are humane and yet effective. And I just came back from visiting a prison in Iraq. The army general there said that techniques under the army field manual are working and working effectively, and he didn't think they need to do anything else. My friends, this is what America is all about. This is a defining issue and, clearly, we should be able, if we want to be commander in chief of the U.S. Armed Forces, to take a definite and positive position on, and that is, we will never allow torture to take place in the United States of America (APPLAUSE)

RACHEL MADDOW: Big round of applause everyone.  John McCain’s against torture! (Fake Applause sound effect) And what a position of moral high ground to stand on from which to make that case. The man was torture! He was a prisoner of war and the North Vietnamese tortured him. John McCain is against torture. John McCain says to an audience of republicans even applauding him for this, John McCain says the army field manual is the appropriate standard for American interrogators!  John McCain is for banning torture as a matter of American principle!

Also?  John McCain just voted against banning torture.  What? Yeah. Specifically on the grounds that he doesn’t think the army field manual is the appropriate standard for all American interrogators. That’s his explanation.  That clip that I just played of John McCain being against torture was from November 28th. That was from not that many weeks ago. He was against torture then, now he’s for it.

At what point do we stop saying that John McCain is a straight talker?!

The headline in the rightwing Washington Times today, I kid you not.  This is the headline, quote,  “McCain refuses to pander.”(laughter)

That issue of the Washington Times came out this morning,  which means that someone’s job at the Washington Times was to okay that headline, as John McCain, was pandering to the republican right by voting in favor of torture. 

John McCain voted against the bush tax cuts twice until he decided to pander to the right by reversing himself and voting to make them permanent.  John McCain campaigned on passing an economic stimulus package quickly to counteract the recession!  Until he decided to pander to the right by not showing up for that vote.  John McCain campaigned as the anti torture guy; the one anti torture guy in the whole republican field!  Until he decided to pander to the right and vote against the exact torture ban that he’d proposed.

And then the headline in the rightwing press, in the Washington Times this morning – “McCain refuses to pander.”

Does the word pander mean something other than what I think it means?  Because otherwise?  I’m confused.