Combined with his temper and running mate, how would anyone have been able to sleep at night with McCain in charge during the Iran situation?

Onanism - Wow what a beautiful, artful slam at McCain's constant egotistical moral masturbation. Nice biblical allusion too.

I believe that onanism by definition is "hip-shooting." Still, wow. I'm pleasantly stunned by how outspoken Joe Klein has become.

"After getting positive feedback from Iranian-Americans..."

What a concept! I keep wondering why the great champions of Iranian democracy on the American right show so little interest in what the Iranians are actually saying. Well actually, no, I don't wonder, because the Iranians aren't following the script that John McCain and the like have written for them. Just this morning my local NPR station did a report on what Iranian-Americans in this area are saying, and they generally seem to support Obama's approach here.

The nerve! After everything the Republicans have done for them!

What does Klein's comment say about Larry King and all the other media flacks, such as Chris Matthews, who are egging on this egotistical childishness? Isn't it time they stopped asking questions of self-promoters like McCain.

Republicans should be sent to the foreign policy time out corner until they prove they can act like responsible grown-ups.

That's what a football player would call a de-cleater. I'm becoming a big fan of Joe Klein.

What's really funny is that a guy who playfully sang about bomb, bomb, bombing Iran would think Iranians would take him seriously. McCain is an idiot.

so patriotism and "love of country" is really a hollow shell one can fill with whatever ideology, chocolate, nougat or butter cream we want, eh?

what i figgered all along...

Ooooh burn! That's gotta sting. What I don't understand is why anyone would ask a man who joked about bombing Iran his opinion on the situation in Iran.

I also have to agree that Joe Klein has really gotten to be a better and bolder writer since he's been blogging.

Just once, I wish an interviewer would turn the tables on John McCain. When he starts bleating about how aggressive Obama should be towards Iran, the interviewer could ask: "Senator, the Iranian protesters seem to be a very well-connected crowd. They effectively use Twitter and Facebook to get their story out internationally. What do you think that they know about you?" Let McCain prattle on about what a hero he is, and then play the video of him singing "Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran" and then ask him why he would hand Ahmadinijad such a propaganda tool by even appearing in this debate. The man should just slink away in embarrassment.

Ooh, Johnny, want some aloe for that burn? Good for Klein for saying what needed to be said.

Where was Joe Klein during the run-up to the Iraq war? His support of Bush and Bushit's policies or, at best, initial luckwarm dissent on torture lead me to believe he is an opportunist who takes the side of the guys in power. Hardly a reason to champion his views now however supportive of Obama's positions they seem to be. Had McAce won the election my guess is that Klein would be a cheerleader for bomb, bomb, bombing Iran. Nauseating...

An appropriate response from McCain would be to suggest that Klein take his forelock-tugging, power-worshipping obsequiousness and shove it up his ass.

. . . And that's why America's most important cultural goal for the new century is re-instating that old divide between grown-up conversation and twerpish tantrums and snarling fits of temperment. With Obama, we're off to a good start.

and this is unpatriotic how?

Klein gets the symptoms right, but refuses to accurate diagnose the disease, unwittingly pouring sunlight onto America's larger problem: A useless traditional media.

A spade is a spade and a traitor is a traitor. Undermining a sitting US president during an international crisis is traitorous. At least according to the last 8 years of GOP blowhardery.

John McCain is a traitor. Period.

Just look at what he and his tried to do with Georgia when they attacked Russia. "Country first" my ass...it's always been McCain first...always...from birth to now.

Look, McCain is the same guy who during the 2008 election cycle, couldn't figure out where several of the countries in that region are located. He is the same flaming asshole he was then, and the crap coming out of his mouth originates in the same unenlightened skull. Why do we have to react to his blather ?

Joe Klein wrote: "McCain -- and his cohorts -- are trying to score political points against the President in the midst of an international crisis."

Wow, ya think?

Of course it's not just the Republicans who are eager to score political points against Obama.

It's the half-dozen giant corporations that own virtually all of the mass media in America who are eager to score political points against a popular, liberal Democratic president, in order to undermine his ability to govern in the public interest rather than in the corporate interest.

Which is why they give bought-and-paid-for corporate shills like John McCain a platform to recite their scripted talking points.

Sorry, missed something else you said. In fact, I would - most definitely - question the man's patriotism, as do many of my fellow vets from his active duty era. It reminds me of the jews and the holocaust. They now have a free pass on criticism forever. Well, McCain doesn't have a free pass from a large number of us, just because he got his ass shot out of the sky. He was a grunt, for god's sake, not a master military strategist. It was his father who was an admiral.

I'd say McCain is suffering greatly from "Senatoritis" and for those of you on the right, there are lots of Democratic Senators who suffer from it as well.

"How dare they not consider and act by every word I say! I'm a Senator!"

"How dare they not vote for me in the primary/for president! I'm a Senator!"

"Why can't I stab my own party in the back and get away scot free? Don't they know I'm a Senator?"

I will use boy George's vocabulary to explain this one. John McCain "misunderestimate" the Iranian people, just as he "misunderestimate"the American people.

For some reason, John McCain and the GOP like to believe that people have short memories.

I remember a time not too long ago when losing presidential (and vice presidental)candidates would in embarassment slink off and remain quiet for a period of time and not act like they had won something. The ego of those two fools would have destroyed this country once and for all. We dodged a planet destroying bullet and I thank whaterver entity was responsible for it every day.

And yet the press never asks for the Republicans to explain themselves when confronted with the obvious outcome of the US inserting itself into an internal Iranian matter.

Meanwhile, I wonder why Republicans have yet to insist that President Obama speak out against Jon and Kate getting divorced. I mean, it IS a national fuckin' tragedy!

Speaking of Joe Klein (and Chris Matthews), he said while recounting his recent trip to Iran on the syndicated The Chris Matthews Show:

"Ahmadinejad smoked him in the debates. Everybody there thought that both Mousavi and Karobi ... were just taken to the cleaners by Ahmadinejad, who has massive support in that country, perhaps a majority, he may well have won that election. But those people don't like the intellectuals like Mousavi."

does this mean that we're not all Georgians anymore?

Thank God that nutjob McCain lost last election!

Perhaps I'm just overcome with paranoia, but I've wondered more than once if the nearly-constant demands that President Obama voice strong support for the protestors isn't just an effort to provoke an outright conflict with Iran. That has, after all, been the neocons' wet dream for quite some time.

How is it that McCain is still treated as such a credible authority by other media people after singing about "Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran," supporting all of Bush's disastrous policies,inappropriately inserting himself in the Georgian conflict, and irresponsibly choosing a VP running mate who historians called the most underqualified candidate in American history?

McCain suggested Obama should follow the example of Daniel Webster, who in 1823 spoke up in support of the Greeks in their uprising.

Um....Senator McCain, Daniel Webster wasn't President.

Please, anybody, let him borrow your plane. The sixth one is a charm!

On CNN last night, Larry King mentioned to Time's Joe Klein that McCain would be on the program tonight

It would be nice if Larry King and the rest of the MSM gasbags could remember that McCain lost the election and very, very few people outside of the wingnut fringe care what he has to say about anything. Just because McCain will appear on your show for a couple free coupons to Starbucks doesn't mean you have to have him on. (It is the totally irrelevant Larry King, but still...)

Where was Joe Klein during the run-up to the Iraq war? His support of Bush and Bushit's policies or, at best, initial luckwarm dissent on torture lead me to believe he is an opportunist who takes the side of the guys in power.

I think Klein is doing penance for his sins. He knows how badly he screwed up the Iraq war thing and he's been slowly trying to make up for his blunder ever since.

Sometimes Villagers like Klein do well enough. Good for him, this time at least.

"Let McCain prattle on about what a hero he is, and then play the video of him singing "Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran" and then ask him why he would hand Ahmadinijad such a propaganda tool by even appearing in this debate."

Or they can show the Iranian Propaganda video that is making the rounds on Youtube that prominently stars McCain.

So Benen, you are saying that you agree with Kline when he says "Every one of those protesters out in the streets, every last one of them believes the United States supplied Saddam Hussein with the poison gas that has debilitated tens of thousands of Iranian men...."
Does that mean that Saddam actually HAD WMDs? Or are you just agreeing to a lie believed by the world in order to score cheap political points against the GOP?
If so, doesn't that negate all your bloviations against George Bush? Inquiring minds want to know.

Grimm's entire rant @ 8:27 PM, but especially:
Fact: the Iranians lost around a million men during the Iran-Iraq War. Fact: Saddam Hussein DID use poison gas against Iranian troops (also against his own countrymen). Fact: that war (the Iran-Iraq one, try to keep up) took place during the 1980s.
Fact: during the first Gulf War (1991), Saddam Hussein did NOT use any WMDs against Allied forces. Fact: after the conclusion of that conflict, Hussein DID use poison gas against his own countrymen.
Fact: both UN and US inspections teams confirmed that Iraq did NOT possess any WMDs prior to the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Fact: GWB and his administration lied to the US and the world about Iraq's possession of said WMDs.
Fact: the only bloviating that has been done has been by the GOP. Fact: the only people attempting to "score cheap points" seem to be Republicans and/or shills.
Keep inquiring, though, maybe you'll learn something.

Grimm,

"Does that mean that Saddam actually HAD WMDs?"

Depends on your definition of "had".

The UNSCOM inspectors sent to Iraq by the Clinton administration reported back in 1998 that before they were withdrawn, they oversaw the destruction of 38,000 chemical weapons, 480,000 liters of live chemical weapons agents, 48 missiles, 6 missile launchers, 30 missile warheads modified to carry chemical or biological agents, and hundreds of pieces of equipment with the capability to produce chemical weapons.

If you mean in 2003, there were NONE, as UNSCOM reported that:

"The indicators of Iraq's efforts to reconstitute are readily detectable, not only by U.S. intelligence but by Israel, France, Germany and Great Britain. No nation has brought any credible evidence to substantiate allegations that Iraq has reconstituted its weapons."

we get the kind of small-minded cheap shots McCain and his allies have been taking against the president for over a week now.

Steve - you misspelled the word "months".