Both defeated him in the political process, and the Bush campaign slandered him shamelessly when they ran against him in the primaries. Although McCain is not conservative enough for the crackpot winger fringe, nobody is, so that's no big deal. He is still the last Republican candidate for President and Obama's last opponent, and his military record and heroism under torture is conceded by almost everyone*. Anyone who's been tortured without cracking isn't going to go easy on torturers just because they are in his party. And remember, if the wingers are to be believed, this torture that "never happened" was approved by Pelosi, so if there is Democratic blood on this issue, he will find it.

The only way to get to the bottom of this is to not only conduct a fair hearing, but a hearing that no one can possibly accuse of being unfair. If not McCain, then who?

*During the campaign, I was doing some research and found a web site by an extreme right wing group that accused McCain of being a Manchurian Candidate (Laurence Harvey type, not Liev Schriber), that he had either turned traitor or been brainwashed while in Vietnamese hands, and that he was going to show his true colors as a Red herring if he was elected, by working for his Red puppet masters. The article was extremely well footnoted, splendidly documented, to support this ridiculous assertion. It was extremely convincing.

I almost pointed it out to the Zone, just as a joke, but I realized it would be unfair to Senator McCain, and that the crazies who put it out did not deserve any further publicity, especially not from me.