Politics and Culture

When it's these by the very sensitive Gail Collins:

It’s not as if McCain has been caving in on anything important, like economic recovery ...

(Feb. 6: The Senate votes on a Democratic economic stimulus plan, which would give more help to the unemployed, veterans and senior citizens than the version President Bush wants. Forced to choose between Bush and the unemployed/veterans/elderly, McCain flew back to Washington and — skipped the vote.)

Did it every occur to Ms. Collins that McCain didn't agree with provisions that gave money to people who are already getting their income from the government?

Or torture ...

(Feb. 13: The Senate considers a bill, vehemently opposed by the White House, which would prohibit C.I.A. interrogators from using tactics like waterboarding on detainees. McCain, whose ringing denunciation of waterboarding was the highlight of the Republican debates, votes — no. He says his own Detainee Treatment Act already bans use of physical force during interrogations. This would be the law that Bush, in one of his famous signing statements, said the president did not have to follow.)

Does Gail read her own writing? McCain already passed a law, that he cosponsored no less, that accomplishes his goal. Why would the president be able to ignore McCain's law and not the Democratic one.

It seems that unless McCain votes for the the exact law that Ms. Collins wants, McCain is flip-flopping. Now that's a high standard.

Other flip flops include being nice to Romney. She doesn't think that either Clinton or Obama will be nice to the other at the convention?

Compare that to Obama's flip-flop on public financing or Clinton's flip flop on Iraq. If this is the best she can do on McCain, then McCain must be pretty darn consistent.