Waffling on torture?

Waffling on torture? Seems like a pretty serious thing to waffle on. But that is exactly what Senator John McCain has done over the last few years.

I loved John McCain. In 2000, I had a picture of him on my college apartment front door. "Welcome to Idgie's House" was the implicit message. Actually, I'm pretty sure I had a hand-written thought bubble that said exactly that. I read his books. I loved hearing stories about how he called someone out on the Senate floor. I loved how he stood up to Republicans, especially about the use of torture.

And then a funny thing happened. He decided to run for president as a right-wing conservative that long-time McCain watchers knew that he wasn't. To prove his conservative cred, he voted against a ban on "enhanced interrogation techniques" (aka torture).
I wonder how he felt the night before he made that vote. I find this hypocrisy about McCain's supposed core values more repugnant than any pain caused by the infliction of the Palin family on American television and politics.

Now, it seems that since Sen. McCain isn't running for anything next year, he has returned to his original views on torture. Yesterday he wrote an editorial for the Washington Post confirming that he believes torture is morally wrong and telling the world that Bin Laden was not killed based on intelligence gathered from torture, as some people (cough cough *Dick Cheney*) are saying.


So, is my 8th favorite Senator back? (Yes, I have ranked my favorite Senators. I have never claimed not to be a dork.) Or is this just another detour on McCain's convoluted path while he tries to define his legacy. I don't have an answer for that. But I would love to see a return of the unpredictable, but always principled Senator from Arizona.