I saw John McCain on The Daily Show earlier this week, and I was impressed that he continues to go on the show. He knows that at least 95% of the audience and the host will be against him on his Iraq stance, but he resolutely sticks to his principled message.

I disagree with McCain on some issues, but I have enormous respect for him. He can be a fierce critic of the Bush Administration (e.g., torture and the horrible strategic and tactical mistakes made in Iraq) but he is just as fierce of a supporter of the troop surge.

And he has something that Bush and Cheney don't have that is immeasurably important: combat experience and years as a POW. He understands as well as anyone what our troops on the ground are experiencing. He has *earned* the right to criticize and to have an important opinion about what we do next in Iraq. (We all have these rights as citizens and taxpayers, but McCain has earned them in very special ways--first by serving in the military, and then by his multi-decade public service in elected office.)

John Stewart and McCain talked over each other a bit in the verbal joust, but they had a good debate and you can tell that they respect each other. I wish Stewart would just do a 30-minute debate with McCain on Iraq, even outside The Daily Show format, and not talk over each other. They could teach a lot of people (Bush, Cheney, Reid, and others) how to have a respectful debate.

Courtesy of youtube, here is McCain's appearance on The Daily Show from this week, part one and part two. About six minutes each.

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A separate topic:

Fiddling while Rome burns? Making a mockery out of our judicial system? This is disturbing and comical all at once. If this link doesn't work, all you need to know is that a judge in DC is suing his former dry cleaner for $65 million over a pair of pants.