This is just getting ridiculous. From the campaign of John “I’m Too Humble Ever to Mention My War Hero Status” McCain:

The New York Times’s Elizabeth Bumiller got a hold of McCain spokeswoman Nicolle Wallace who took umbrage at the charge. “The insinuation from the Obama campaign that John McCain, a former prisoner of war, cheated is outrageous,” Ms. Wallace said.

Yeah, because it would be physically impossible for a former prisoner of war to ever cheat. Just ask McCain’s first wife.

But really, how blatant can you be about injecting McCain’s military service into every single public statement? How much of a non-sequitur does it have to be before people start laughing?

What was being discussed was the fact that John McCain broke his word (I guess former prisoners of war can do that). The venue was an evangelical church where both candidates would be interviewed separately by a pastor. McCain and Obama were supposed to arrive before the event started, and the second to be interviewed would be put in a room where he could not hear the questions; John McCain promised to honor that deal–but he broke his word. McCain sauntered in well after Obama’s turn had started, and had the opportunity to listen to what at least some of the questions would be, and how Obama answered them.

That was a violation of honor right there; Obama went first in the debate and took the questions cold; McCain, who was supposed to be in a “cone of silence” (the “moderator” announced such on the air) was in his car at the time, where he could have easily been prepped–and even got dishonest credit on the air for doing so. When he arrived:

Warren told CNN Sunday evening, “we flat out asked him” if he heard any of the questions. The McCain campaign “confirmed that McCain did not hear or see any of the broadcast” in the motorcade or after he arrived.

Even if McCain wasn’t lying, the way the question was worded would have allowed his staff to hear the questions and prep him on how to answer without “telling” him what the questions were. There are just so many ways McCain could have been dishonorable in this situation. The fact that he was supposed to be sequestered was an expression of how he was supposed to prove that; he failed to do so.

But hey, McCain is just a guy who will lie his ass off, pander to voters, make racist innuendo, break promises, run a massively negative campaign (another one of those broken promises), break the law, flip-flop on any issue he thinks he’ll gain votes from, cheat on his wife… but he would never cheat in a debate because he was a prisoner of war.

You know, I think it’s getting close to the point where McCain is milking this P.O.W. thing so much that it’s time to stop being gentlemanly and start looking closely at the details of his military service and his actions while a prisoner of war; fair is fair–if McCain were to leave it in the background, then no matter how much anyone else brought it up, it would be honorable to leave it alone. But if McCain drags it out in every other utterance (he mentioned it several times himself during the event), then it’s no longer sacred ground, but fair game to question.