Duly noted: Karl Rove, writing in the Wall Street Journal is shocked! shocked! to discover that John McCain is hiding his light -- or, more precisely, his wartime heroism as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War -- under a bushel.
If only the American people had some way, sighs Rove, of knowing just how Christian-y McCain acted while under enemy confinement:
He remembered the Episcopal liturgy," Mr. Day says, "and sounded like a bona fide preacher." One of Mr. McCain's first sermons took as its text Luke 20:25 and Matthew 22:21, "render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and unto God what is God's." Mr. McCain said he and his fellow prisoners shouldn't ask God to free them, but to help them become the best people they could be while serving as POWs. It was Caesar who put them in prison and Caesar who would get them out. Their task was to act with honor.
All these stories of heroism—
Mr. McCain rarely refers to them on the campaign trail. There is something admirable in his reticence, but he needs to overcome it.
If only Flyboy Johnny could break through his hard shell of double-plus-honorable-ness, his oh-so-über modesty, to whisper to the world that once upon a time, he was a prisoner of war:
Unless he opens up more, many voters will never know the experiences of his life that show his character, integrity and essential decency.
Of course this is all transparent nonsense. As Steve Benen points out on Crooks and Liars, there has been this ad ("One man sacrificed for his country," the announcer solemly intones, after footage of John being questioned while in enemy custody), and this one (in which Johnny immortalizes his one-liner that he could have attended Woodstock, but he "was tied up at the time"), and, most especially, this one, in which McCain revealed that he not merely was a prisoner of war, but a downright Christian-y prisoner of war: "One night, after being mistreated as a POW, a guard loosened the ropes binding me, easing my pain," McCain narrates. “On Christmas, that same guard approached me, and without saying a word, he drew a cross in the sand. We stood wordlessly looking at the cross, remembering the true light of Christmas" (The visuals reenacted the moment.) But here's Karl Rove, hoping against hope that someday, if only he's prodded enough, noble John McCain might somehow find it within himself to tell the world the following story—this is, again, quoting Karl Rove in today's Wall Street Journal:
