Wednesday, April 02, 2008

McCain's Shadow....

Munich Security Conference of 2006. John McCain was conferring with the foreign minister of Germany when....

"McCain 'started shaking and rising out of his chair," said one participant, a former senior diplomatic official who related the anecdote on condition of anonymity. "He said something like: 'I haven't come to Munich to hear this kind of crap.' " McCain's old pal Joe Lieberman jumped in. "Lieberman, who reads him very well, put his hand on McCain's arm and said gently, 'John, I think there's been a problem in the translation.' Of course Lieberman doesn't speak German and there hadn't been any problem in the translation.... It was just John's explosive temper." (Newsweek)

Fast forward to McCain's visit two weeks ago to the Middle East when he mistakenly said Iran was training al Qaeda in Iraq. Always-there-Joe quickly whispered in McCain's ear that Iran was accused of training fellow Shiite extremists, not their archenemies the Sunni al Qaeda.

At many McCain campaign stops, Lieberman is onstage with a microphone also fielding questions, sometimes holding forth longer than McCain. The Joe-and-John show arrived at Jerusalem's Wailing Wall in matching yarmulkes, and were decked out like teeny-bopper twins in matching suit-and-red-sweater combos at a snowy New Hampshire town hall meeting.

It's obvious, Lieberman, Democratic VP candidate to Al Gore in 2000, now an Independent after being shown the door by Democrats in Connecticut.... is McCain's ever-present minder.

Like a slick mob consigliere, Lieberman is there to smooth things over and rescue McCain when he strays off the farm.... which happens quite often. Maybe a choleric 70 plus is....

No comments: