John McCain ain’t what he used to be. He used to be palatable to most people, an alluring face in the scary crowd of right-wingers. Back when he rode the Straight Talk Express, he was the kind of dream candidate we often imagined–willing to talk for as long as necessary, speaking freely even on controversial issues. Not hiding and creating a plastic facade, like Bush did, not giving the usual practiced political sound-bite double-talk-and-run-off garbage. He was the Republican candidate that most Democrats would have been comfortable with, a true uniter-not-a-divider.

But that John McCain died when Bush smeared him all the way to South Carolina and back, in particular pushing the suggestion that McCain’s adopted daughter (a Bangladeshi girl from Mother Teresa’s orphanage) was his own illegitimate black child. Other rumors spread by Bush and his far-right and fundie allies included that McCain was gay and his wife a drug addict, and that McCain was insane even possibly a traitor.

Since then, John McCain learned a valuable lesson: don’t cross the extremists in the Republican Party. And he has been practicing that wisdom in his ongoing-though-unofficial campaign, no longer allowing for straight talk, and paying obeisance to the religious extremists he once criticized, and has reversed himself on a number of issues he gained political capital for opposing in 2000. The message he is sending is, “I learned my lesson and I’ll be a good boy now.”

Although McCain is hoping to hang on to some of the appeal he gained back in 2000–and indeed, many on the left still feel more comfortable with him because they remember those days–it is about as clear as it can get that McCain has shifted remarkably to the right, chumming up to Bush and the religious right, and backing that up with his voting record, suggesting that he would still stay bought by the right-wing extremists even after he would be elected president. And it certainly doesn’t help with many on the left that McCain is new best buds with Joe Lieberman, with some even saying McCain might even consider Lieberman as a VP candidate.

There is no more Straight Talk Express, no more centrist McCain, just a compromised, politicized shell. Mind you, he would still be ten times better than Bush, and there is still the hope that enough of the old McCain remains to make a difference in office. But the old McCain is gone, and what remains is too Bushified to be all that appealing.

Addenda: then there is also McCain’s latest weasel: McCain was the first to come up with the idea of escalation in Iraq, back in October. At the time, he said that 20,000 troops would be sufficient, though he did say for “long term” deployment. When Bush first came out with the “Surge™” plan, McCain did not object–not for quite some time; even a day ago, he said he was not sure what numbers would do the job.

But now, he is now coming out and distancing himself from the whole idea–saying, in effect, that his idea was for 30,000 troops to be “sustained,” not 20,000 troops for a season or two. This is pretty clearly a weasel, not just because McCain previously said that 20,000 troops would be enough, but because it was clear what Bush has been thinking for a week, maybe two, but McCain only now is saying his plan was different–only after pretty nearly universal opposition to Bush’s plan has made itself evident, with no one believing that it will make a difference, except to possibly escalate the violence. And certainly, McCain has brought forth no evidence as to how an extra ten thousand or so troops for a few more seasons could achieve that would make the difference.

But McCain is still trying to have it both ways: though he has made it clear that “his” surge would need more troops for longer, and therefore if Bush’s surge doesn’t work it’s not a “McCain” surge–he still is supporting Bush’s surge. Probably for the same reason he came out for an escalation in the first place: because he wants to look like Bush wants to look, like he could do the job, but without the responsibility or the liability if the plan doesn’t work.

So it’s hard to see his new stance being anything but a weasel.