Photo by Chris Dunn

Well, there are "McCain Moments," and then there is the "McCain of the Moment." The former raises questions about his grasp of reality; the latter about his grasp of principle.

We saw "the McCain of the Moment" in action a couple of days ago on Chris Matthews' Hardball, when he proclaimed thus:

I was in Baghdad over Thanksgiving last year. I met with a high-ranking member—former high-ranking member of al Qaeda. I asked him, I said, How did you do so well after the initial military success that the Americans and the coalition forces had? He said two things. One was the lawlessness that—and the environment that took place after the Americans and their allies won the military victory. He said, but the second was Abu Ghraib. He said, Abu Ghraib was my greatest recruiting tool. Everybody here knows what Abu Ghraib was.

So my point is that for the future of this country, we have to make sure that we remain a nation that does not do things that our enemies do. And I promise you, my friends, I‘ll close Guantanamo Bay and we will never torture another person in our custody again.

(APPLAUSE)

MCCAIN: And I know we have a full hour, but I‘ll make my further answers shorter, but that‘s a very important question about what kind of a country we are and what kind of country we‘ve been and what kind of a country we‘ll be in the 21st century.

That's positively stirring, isn't it? Makes you want to stand up and cheer.

It also makes you wonder whether he wasn't saying this on the floor of the Senate as well, when it might have counted more.

Well, no. As Digby observes, this outburst of decency is really just whatever McCain is saying today -- in fact, McCain has flopped on the issue once again. Or is that flipped?

Of course this is Matthews so McCain the manliest man, unlike those hippy Democrats Barack and Hillary, needn't be questioned any further. For instance, there's no need to ask why he just voted two months ago to allow the CIA not to follow the Army Field manual interrogation guidelines. Certainly, there's no need to question why he helped the Bush administration pass the Military Commission Act which allows the US to not follow the Geneva Conventions at the president's discretion.

I have one of those straight-talk aphorisms for John McCain, one of I'll bet he's heard and probably used too: Actions speak louder than words. You can make pretty speeches all you like; but when it came time to act in a way that made a difference, you caved. Why should anyone believe you wouldn't do so again?