Sen. John McCain recently raged against Obama’s Iran deal by calling Secretary John Kerry’s handling of the project "delusional." On Monday's Morning Joe, National Journal’s Ron Fournier was visibly vexed at McCain for attacking Obama’s sacred cow and described the former Vietnam POW’s comments as "beyond the pale. Kind of reminds me of the swift-boating of John Kerry in 2004, which I thought was outrageous."
Oh, yes. The old "swift-boating" accusation. Remember that one? No one can criticize John Kerry without being guilty of smear campaigning, not even John McCain, who was one of many POWs slandered and maligned by John Kerry’s own baseless smears before Congress in 1971. One would think that after eleven years, the media would learn a new tune.
Hillary-boosting specialist Anne Gearan of The Washington Post also jumped on McCain, invoking groupthink to shame him for his comments: "pretty much everybody has been saying for the last three days that John McCain did take it too far."
At the same time however, she claims that he speaks for "a pretty strong strain within the Republican Party and something that certainly many Republican candidates are picking up on and trying to use against Obama and then by extension, Hillary Clinton."
So which is it? Does virtually everyone condemn McCain for going too far or does a bulk of the Republican Party believe him to be right? Does Gearan produce any stats to prove either case? No. It’s just easier to make baseless assertions. One might call it "swiftboating."
Finally, Steven Rattner reminded everyone of John Kerry’s wisdom to see that the Iranians were merely repeating their tactics of accusing the United States of dishonesty, "this is a sort of deja vu all over again moment of Iran, as you say, trying to see what they want to see it there it, but eventually the words will speak for themselves."
While the condemnation of McCain’s comments seemed to be shared amongst much of the Morning Joe cast, it never occurred to Rattner or other media defenders of the Iran deal that this "deja vu all over again" is proof that they cannot be trusted to honor the agreement.
Transcript below:
JOE SCARBOROUGH: But this is -- I don't understand -- beyond the pale, isn't it?
RON FOURNIER (National Journal): No. I agree. That’s where I was going to, that’s where I was going to go.
SCARBOROUGH: Yeah.
FOURNIER: I think it’s a step too far to say, especially considering how close friends the two of them were in one respect and they share the bond to the Vietnam service. This is beyond the pale. Kind of reminds me of the swift-boating of John Kerry in 2004, which I thought was outrageous.
SCARBOROUGH: Yeah. Anne Gearan, obviously some very tough words. This seems very personal from two former friends.
ANNE GEARAN (Washington Post):Yeah, it's really remarkable the degree to which that, you know, that old comedy of the Senate can fall apart. And I mean, pretty much everybody has been saying for the last three days that John McCain did take it too far. And yet he is speaking for a pretty strong strain within the Republican Party and something that certainly many Republican candidates are picking up on and trying to use against Obama and then by extension against Hillary Clinton.
SCARBOROUGH: So Steve Rattner, I probably don't understand this, maybe I just don’t understand it, but I didn't think there was any hard fast written deal. I thought there was general understanding. John McCain saying when we see the actual writing of the deal, we will see that's the case. But we just had, we, and it was, we've talked about this for a couple of weeks. The whole idea was you have something general enough--
BRZEZINSKI: A framework.
SCARBOROUGH: –that, a framework general enough that Iran can go back into exactly what it’s doing, and the United States can do exactly what its doing, and it gives you until June 30 to reconcile these big differences.
STEVEN RATTNER: Sure. I think what --
SCARBOROUGH: And it will be in writing.
RATTNER: – Yeah. I think John Kerry made two other points over the weekend that are worth remembering. The first point he made was that Iran did very much the same thing when the interim accord came out last November, which is to say “this isn't true and that isn't true” and it turned out that what we had said was in it was in fact true. And the second point Kerry made over the weekend was that the Russians have said that the way we the Americans have represented what’s been agreed so far is the accurate version. So I think this is a, this is a sort of deja Vu all over again moment of Iran, as you say, trying to see what they want to see it there it, but eventually the words will speak for themselves.
