Senator John McCain joked, in his 59th lifetime appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press, that he “supports the first amendment rights of every member of my family.” Apparently, those of us who heard Cindy McCain say, on the NOH8 video, that our government, specifically the military, discriminates against gays and lesbians by prohibiting open service? We misheard.

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) insisted on Sunday that there was no rift of opinion between him and his wife over the issue of repealing the military’s ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ policy. Cindy McCain doesn’t endorse immediate repeal despite recording an ad accusing political leaders of forcing gay servicemen to live a lie, her husband stressed.

Watch Cindy again here and tell me how, exactly, her statement supports her husband’s filibuster against DADT repeal:

Cindy McCain: “Our political and religious leaders tell LGBT youth that they have no future…. they can’t serve our country openly. Our government treats the LGBT community like second-class citizens. Why shouldn’t they [bullies]? [cont'd]

And then John McCain got even weirder about DADT repeal, slamming the careful study being conducted by the Pentagon about the impact of repeal on troop readiness and America’s warfighting and defense capability:

That study’s findings were reported last week. And the preliminary data showed that service members would have little to no problem with openly gay colleagues. Even then, however, McCain was not sold. The study was leaked, he stressed (arguing that he couldn’t be sure about its veracity) and it didn’t measure the right issues. And even if the right study was conducted, McCain went on, Congress would need time to examine and debate it.

“You and I have not seen that study,” he said of the leaked findings. “And this study was directed on how to implement the repeal not whether the repeal should take place or not.”

“A thorough and complete study of the effects, not how to implement a repeal, but the effects on morale and battle effectiveness, that’s what I want,” he added. “And once we get this study we need to have hearings, and we need to examine it, and we need to look at whether it is the kind of study that we wanted.”

See how that works? Any study that provides results McCain disagrees with is a flawed study. We need another study, hopefully one that will support what McCain wants. And if that study doesn’t? Well, he’ll probably want another study. And then a bunch of sensationalized hearings, with non-experts prattling about showers and bunk arrangements.

Do we really need another set of hearings to drag Congresscritters through submarine living quarters while witnesses fantasize on live CSPAN about butts-to-nuts bunks?

This is what happens when you convene a study to determine how to stop discrimination: bigots and homophobes find a way to knock it down. They demand another study. Then they act as if they never said that they’d take an honest look at repeal when the military brass said it was time to do so.

John McCain is dishonest about DADT repeal: dishonest on television, dishonest at home, dishonest in the Senate. His fellow Senators need to stop attending to this bigot’s views. He’s lost any credibility he may have had on DADT repeal.