Senator McCain taped a segment on Ellen's show to air today, perhaps to show he's hip with the gays. Or the under-112 set. But I digress.

What McCain had to say was interesting in many ways--including his lack of honesty on his position regarding domestic partnerships. He told Ellen he opposed gay marriage--or her "position" on that issue, a strange way to put it when it is not a "position" to her, but an issue that affects her everyday life as she intends to marry her partner now that the California Supreme Court has asserted the legality of the practice.

But then he went on to once again redefine his position on the issue:

McCain, who also opposes an amendment to the Constitution to ban same-sex unions, said people should be encouraged to enter into legal agreements, particularly for insurance and other areas where decisions need to be made.

The problem is that McCain himself not only supported an amendment to the Arizona Constitution in 2006 that would have banned any "legal agreements" including "insurance" for domestic partners, but he cut advertisements for the measure (which failed). He also told prominent campaign supporter the late Jerry Falwell--who blamed 9/11 on gays and lesbians, among others--that if state constitutional measures such as this one were struck down by the courts, he would then support a federal gay-marriage banFrom my book, The Real McCain:

Yet the state constitutional amendment that he stumped for in Arizona that year would have banned not only gay marriage but also all benefits for domestic partners — including hospital visits. In July 2004, McCain also took the position that a fed-eral amendment was unnecessary because the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) already allowed states to refuse to recognize gay marriages sanctioned in other states. For that reason, the federal constitutional amendment was “un-Republican.”42 Three months earlier, he had told Jerry Falwell he would support such an amendment if state constitutional bans were struck down by the courts.

Here is more on McCain's promise to Falwell to support a federal ban.

Here is a description of the 2006 Arizona ban:

Sen. John McCain said Thursday that he supports an initiative that would change Arizona's Constitution to ban gay marriages and deny government benefits to unmarried couples.

Finally, I am unable to find the video right now, but when I do, I'll post an ad McCain cut in Arizona in support of the amendment that would have banned the very "insurance" and other "legal agreements" for domestic partners that he claimed to favor on "The Ellen DeGeneres show."

Update: The "scary judges" advertisement featuring Mccain: