'Tis the season where people retreat to their respective political tribes and attack anyone who dares to attack their tribal leaders, especially if one of them is seen as a hero.

Well, get ready to attack me, because I'm going to attack Sen. John McCain.

This morning, the senior statesman (cough, cough) was on the Barry Young show on KFYI, the leading conservative talk-radio station in Ariz.   He was talking about the CBS show "60 Minutes" withholding the truth of what Obama had said about the Benghazi tragedy.  Expressing shock over the brazen media bias, McCain said, "I've never seen anything like it."

Actually, he has seen something like it.  He saw it up close and personal when he got the press to withhold information that would have been damaging to himself.

Years ago, when McCain's wife Cindy was caught stealing drugs from the nonprofit she supported in order to feed her drug habit, McCain met with the senior editors of the Arizona Republic, a conservative newspaper at the time, and asked then to not break the story for a day or two until he had a chance to do damage control.  Amazingly, they obliged. 

Well, maybe it wasn't so amazing, given that the newspaper previously had helped to launch McCain's career by giving him a column to express his opinions.  And a muckety-muck there was a close friend of McCain.  The guy was also a big phony.  He had lied that he had been a fighter pilot like McCain, even to the extent of sometimes wearing his old uniform.   McCain would have us believe that he didn't see through the charade, although the two of them must have shared war stories.    

Is that a spear in your hand?

Mencken's Ghost