"Maverick"

Anonymous beat me to it: Mavericky goodness. Does anyone really care what John McCain does or thinks? Apparently his party's "base" doesn't. He can now return to being an object of the dog-like media's devotion.

The Corporate Media will keep McShit propped up despite everything ...... which is why when that asshole at ABC was asked for a comment or reason as to why he and all the other Corporate Media keep putting his fucking face on TV all the time simply said "no, comment on that".....of course not .. the assholes corporate masters pulled the string 'on that'

'Just this morning, Limbaugh said, "I think it's time for the McCain crowd to acknowledge they are losers and pack it in. They've done enough damage to the Republican Party."'

HA HA HA HA HA!

Oh, that's rich. McCain may not have vision, but his friend was right about the 'shrill and aggressive' baboon packs that Limbaugh and his buddies are damaging the GOP with...

Hmmm, McCain's doing all this behind the scenes stuff, his bosom buddy Lindsey Graham slams the birther crowd, David Brooks just had that column attacking Limbaugh/Beck/etc...are we seeing the beginning of the "sane" (a relative term) faction of the GOP trying to wrest their party back from the hands of the crazies?

The one good thing is this: the media lurves them some John McCain and whatever he likes, they like. If he picks some backbencher state senator or representative as "the next John McCain," they'll be all over it. It's one of the reasons they were all over Sarah Palin. If he picks someone halfway sensible (you know, by accident, of course), he actually could, at least, create a new star. Like Fox and 'Til Death, they will jam the New John McCain down our throats until people love him.

Any center-right Republican who McCain calls with this idea should ask him why in god's name he opened Pandora's Box and let Caribou Barbie loose on the national scene. McCain doesn't have enough years left to undo that damage, either to Republicans or his reputation.

Isn't that cute how the Old Guy thinks he can save the party? Nurse, will someone keep an eye on him and make sure he gets enough water and doesn't overtire himself? And gets back to his room safely?

Everyone in America saw John McCain flush his "honest and true-to-his principles" reputation down the toilet in a New York Minute when it seemed like he needed to in order to get nominated, and go wallow with the kooks to get elected. And since that rep was all he ever had, not being the sharpest crayon in the box, he flatters himself by thinking he carries much political weight anymore. And before he reshapes the party into anything, he needs to face up to those two awful words: Sarah Palin. She was just a crazy wolf-hunter in Bill Kristol's fantasies before McCain came along.

Give this much to Limbaugh: he knows a fellow bullshitter when he sees one.

McCain could have reshaped the party by not placating the poisonous GOP base with a rabid goof of a VP choice. That VP choice would now be the leading voice of the party, somebody like Charlie Crist or Tom Ridge. McCain lost his one bite at the apple.

Reshaping the Republican party = sculpting with feces. Knock yourself out, John. It's nothing nursing home attendants haven't seen before.

For most of the '90s I lived in AZ, and for various reasons spent more than a little time with McCain's constituents in Sun City. It's jammed with people who were successful in life but are now on the shelf, and it's pathetic to see how desperately they lunge at any opportunity to again be in charge of something -- no matter how trivial. McCain only differs from them in that he still has a job.

The Oxycontin Kid: Master of Irony

Well, you folks sure ain't gonna be accused of damning with faint praise. . .

people are dying for this country and this is how serious this shill takes it?

Get off of my lawn!

I think he needs to host another BBQ

All of the pizza parlors inside the beltway are ready to accommodate.

I love this quote from Erick Erickson:

"McCain has never really been a conservative, so I wouldn't be surprised if he's picking non-conservative candidates."

"The Arizona senator wants to "reshape" the GOP. Fine. But what does he want to "reshape" it into?"

It seems to me that if McCain wanted to reshape the direction of the GOP, a good time to do that would be, you know, when he was the party's presidential candidate, since presidential candidates have an enormous amount of pull on party internal politics. Failed presidential candidates if anything are more likely to become political pariahs

McCain may sincerely want to reshape the GOP away from the Limbaugh crowd and toward something more center-right, but when he was briefly steering the GOP he pandered as hard to the Limbaugh crowd as he could and tried as hard as possible to distance himself from what center-right positions he'd ever had. He wants the GOP to move away from Sarah Palin, but he was the one who hired Sarah Palin in the first place, on purpose. McCain created Sarah Palin's political career as it exists today, Sarah Palin is McCain's legacy. And now he's trying to create a different legacy, one that consists of moving away from the Palinism he's done so much to advance. Too late, son.

"It's all part of an approach that is at odds with most other recent failed presidential nominees, whose immediate response to defeat was to retreat from the electoral arena. "

As I recall, this is almost exactly what John Kerry did after 2004. In fact, not only did his efforts contribute a great deal to the Dem ocratic tsunami in the '06 elections, but in '08, President received quite a boost when Kerry shared his e-mail list and donor list with the Obama campaign.

But what does he want to "reshape" it into?

A party in which John S. McCain is relevant.

Next?

I'm a little surprised at the negativity here.

McCain's niche is 30% neocon deadender, 30% me-too lefty, 30% professional beltway politician who's been there too long to relate to real people, and 10% "war hero."

Remake the Republican party as the spitting image of Joe Lieberman? I don't think so.

Fuck you and your comments, I want my sprinkled donuts dammit .......... get the fuck off my lawn............

this won't end well....if uncle grumpy even thinks about trying to push back against the karibou krazies, they'll be on the rooftops yelling rino....that moron erickson being exhibit a

The Republican Party is split right now between the social and economic conservatives, between those who think head on liberals are the enemy crowd is the way to go and the we are all on the same team crowd. McCain lost the election for a lot of reasons, including his own mistakes, but most of it was out of his hands - the economy and following a very unpopular president perhaps most, but the beating he took from the other side of his party in the primaries sure didn't help. The Republicans get rally under two scenarios - they find a leader who or policy which can unify them or the Democrats end up in the same bi-polar boat.

Look for a birther, anti-evolution opponent being pushed against him in his next re-election bid.

mcc, above: "McCain created Sarah Palin's political career as it exists today, Sarah Palin is McCain's legacy."

Exactly. Nice going, maverick.

Folks, we have a unique opportunity here, if only we're willing to take it.
The task of remaking the Democratic party into something once again more truly representative of actual American citizens and families, and less servile to the same corporatocracy that owns and operates the Publican party, is a long-term project; one that will take tremendous time, energy, and $ resources, and in which we're fighting a mass media that are actively against us, and far too many Dem "leaders" who are as well.
But there is one thing we can do immediately that will help fight a holding action against the Rethugs, and at least minimize any gains they might make (and hopefully further their losses):
Remember Limpballs' "Operation Chaos," in which he got Rethug voters in open-primary states to vote for Hillary, in an effort to forestall an Obama victory? I have no idea how successful (if it all) that trip was.
But it seems to me that, as someone smarter than I once said, the best thing you can do when an adversary is drowning is to throw them an anchor.
I'm happy to share with you that I've been the proud holder of an account at FreeRepublic for almost 10 years now, where I frequently support the more-psychotic over the slightly-less-so, and the most-psychotic over the merely more-so. And though they're clearly doing just fine on their own, I'm happy with whatever small contribution to the collective insanity I may have been able to provide. It's way fun, too! (Though you do have to be careful to oppose the ever-increasing paeans to violence, without breaking character. That's getting more challenging lately.)
(Btw, they REALLY loathe McCain over there, and LLLUUURRRVVE them some Sarah.)
I urge every single poster here to go set up an account there, and help hasten and ensure the devolution, and eventual extinction, of the Publicans.
God Bless America! (And that, I hope it's obvious, I really do mean, without reservation or snark.)
Happy weekend, all.

Hard Right:
No abortion even in cases of rape and incest.
Abolish Social Security / Medicare / Public Schools
Abolish all taxes
No gays in any position of trust, around children, or the battlefield. They'll tolerate their presence in the arts. Homosexuality is a choice and should be roundly condemned and conversion encouraged.
Teacher led-prayer in school mandatory for character building and to curry favor with God.

Center Right:
Legal abortion only in cases of rape and incest
Privatize Social Security / Medicare / Public Schools
No New taxes
No gays on the battlefield or at the altar.
School uniforms.

John McCain isn't especially influential in the GOP, on the Hill, or among the party's rank and file.

No surprise, that. Remember that McCain was the final candidate left standing when all the more popular candidates literally knocked each other off the pedestal for the Republican Presidential Nomination. No one could attain 50% + 1 to win the nomination. McCain was essentially a place-filler, filling the institutional empty hole of Republican Presidential Nominee.

"Institutional place-filler" is not much of a credit on the resume under the heading "Demonstrated Leadership Qualities."

David H. Eisenberg is offering a moment of sensible sanity here.

McCain is attempting to do what Nixon did after his 1962 loss for Governor of California and what Nixon did again after his resignation - resurrect his image.

With patience, money and the support of his strongest supporters - the media - he will possibly succeed.

It is doubtful that the Republican Party will recover as easily, but they came back from 1932 and from 1964.