Let’s say that I really, really want to attend a party at your home. I bug for months on end, follow you around, virtually begging you to let me go to your party. Finally, you relent and invite me. I am ecstatic–I tell everyone, “hey, so-and-so invited me! I’m going to the party!!”

Can I then, later, “reject your invitation”?

Sure, technically, you invited me, and I suppose I can technically reject it. But to say I “reject” it sounds like I never begged you for it in the first place. Especially since the reason I chose to reject it is a reason that I should have known long before. Yeah, those parties are crazy and you do crazy things at them, but everybody knew that. For me to suddenly act surprised that crazy stuff happens and then haughtily “reject” you makes me a bit of an ass, doesn’t it?

The right thing to say to you is, “I think you and I have some incompatibilities, I should have thought it out more carefully before I approached you. It’s just not going to work out. And to be fair, I won’t trash-talk you to maintain my image. I’ll just bow out of this thing as gracefully as I can.” Then to other people, “Hey, I made an error in judgment–it happens. I can’t blame so-and-so too much, it was my choice in the first place. That person’s views and mine simply differ too much. So I’ve made the tough choice that will upset different people for different reasons, but it’s what I have to do. My mistake, my bad. I can admit when I’m wrong.”

Instead, McCain said of Hagee, “Obviously, I find these remarks and others deeply offensive and indefensible, and I repudiate them. I did not know of them before Rev. Hagee’s endorsement, and I feel I must reject his endorsement as well.” As if he did not actively, for a long time, seek Hagee’s endorsement–of course not, as that would only make him look either more hypocritical or much more stupid. All that time he spent courting Hagee and he didn’t look into all the crazy crap the guy was spouting? Not very smart at all.

But McCain couldn’t leave it at that. No, instead of taking responsibility, instead of talking straight (god forbid), McCain instead took the opportunity to take a swipe at Obama: “I have said I do not believe Senator Obama shares Reverend Wright’s extreme views. But let me also be clear, Reverend Hagee was not and is not my pastor or spiritual advisor, and I did not attend his church for twenty years. I have denounced statements he made immediately upon learning of them, as I do again today.” Translation: Hagee’s not nearly as bad as Wright! Hagee didn’t shape me and make me into a lunatic like Obama! You can’t say what I’m doing is bad without saying Obama is worse!

Not to mention that McCain’s words are even more mealy-mouthed when you get to Rod Parsley, whose endorsement he also actively courted. Note that McCain clearly said that Hagee was not his “spiritual advisor”–however, he did say that Rod Parsley was “a spiritual guide,” in addition to a moral compass. He did not say “to everyone but myself, of course.” And while McCain made the not-so-credible claim that he “did not know of” Hagee’s remarks before the endorsement, he had to know about Parsley’s–heck, the papers mentioned that stuff nearly the same day McCain got the endorsement.

McCain on Parsley? “I believe there is no place for that kind of dialogue in America, and I believe that even though he endorsed me, and I didn’t endorse him, the fact is that I repudiate such talk, and I reject his endorsement.” Um, yeah, McCain saying that Parsley was “one of the truly great leaders of America, a moral compass, a spiritual guide” could never be interpreted as an endorsement. McCain is lying through his teeth. And of course, the media will take note of this and appropriately criticize him for it completely ignore it.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but if you make a bad mistake, you stand up like a man and take responsibility for it, without trying to lie, dodge, equivocate, blame, or paint others as worse. Am I wrong on that?

No class in this act, my friends.