The Wrath of Cohen

Richard Cohen is a typical conservative nuisance. Although not as smug as Bill Kristol, nor as brash as Jonah Goldberg, or as stupid as Sean Hannity, he rarely fails to test my patience.

You can imagine my surprise, then, reading his column today in the Washington Post, the appropriately titled "The Ugly New McCain." My oh my. If you thought my words were harsh, well sugar, you ain't seen nothin' yet.

So, Mr. Cohen, the floor is all yours...

McCain has turned ugly. His dishonesty would be unacceptable in any politician, but McCain has always set his own bar higher than most. He has contempt for most of his colleagues for that very reason: They lie. He tells the truth. He internalizes the code of the McCain's -- his grandfather, his father: both admirals of the shining sea. He serves his country differently, that's all -- but just as honorably. No more, though.

Dayum! Sorry, Senator, no manufactured outrage this time, buster.This is not Barack Obama, a Democratic stooge, or even a frenzied Daily Kos blogger questioning your poisonous stranglehold on "honor" and "country first." What will be the McCain Campaign's response to this hiccup? I'm sure Steve Schmidt will think of something absurd or vindictive, like that Cohen's mind has been overtaken my Al-Qaeda with help from Nanci Pelosi.

What's that Mr. Cohen, there's more? Oh, carry on.

McCain has soiled all that. His opportunistic and irresponsible choice of Sarah Palin as his political heir -- the person in whose hands he would leave the country -- is a form of personal treason, a betrayal of all he once stood for. Palin, no matter what her other attributes, is shockingly unprepared to become president. McCain knows that. He means to win, which is all right; he means to win at all costs, which is not.

Oh Snap! Even the faithful have finally realized that Palin is a total joke. That euphoria lasted as long as a school-girl crush, did it not? Those shameful conservative "intellectuals" still praising Palin, still clinging to their pathetic fantasies, are either diabolical or dense. They have lost all credibility long, long ago.

Frum, Brooks, and Cohen: congrats, you're sane. Wrong on countless issues, mind you, but sane.

Anyway, Cohen saves the best for last. Oh yeah, it's good.

Karl Marx got one thing right -- what he said about history repeating itself. Once is tragedy, a second time is farce. John McCain is both.

Uh, Senator McCain, you just got Marx'd. By Richard Freakin' Cohen!