With his hardened opposition to the Dream Act and Don't Ask Don't Tell repeal, John McCain has all but lost any goodwill he had among Democrats, moderates, and the press. For example, here is Joe Klein on his old friend:
I used to know a different John McCain, the guy who proposed comprehensive immigration reform with Ted Kennedy, the guy--a conservative, to be sure, but an honorable one--who refused to indulge in the hateful strictures of his party's extremists. His public fall has been spectacular, a consequence of politics--he "needed" to be reelected--and personal pique. He's a bitter man now, who can barely tolerate the fact that he lost to Barack Obama. But he lost for an obvious reason: his campaign proved him to be puerile and feckless, a politician who panicked when the heat was on during the financial collapse, a trigger-happy gambler who chose an incompetent for his vice president. He has made quite a show ever since of demonstrating his petulance and lack of grace.
Others have done good work documenting John McCain's core petulance, so I'll just say this: there is absolutely no shock in John McCain's opposition to the Dream Act and DADT repeal, especially if you read them both as civil rights legislation. That is, McCain has never had a good record on civil rights: he voted against creating a federal holiday to honor Martin Luther King Jr. (though he reversed his position, six years later), voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1990, and has poor ratings from the ACLU on civil rights issues. Judging strictly from his record alone, you could easily predict that McCain would vote against both bills. That people held out hope is a testament to the strength of his moderate brand, even when there isn't any evidence to support it.
-- Jamelle Bouie
