McCain's Integrity: two views from Sullivan

On November 26, 2007, Andrew Sullivan, in a post titled The Real McCain, indulged an earnest wish:

I find myself wanting him to be the nominee more and more. He's deserved it. And he is the one Republican who won't needlessly exacerbate polarization. Imagine an Obama-McCain race: adult, graceful, necessary, and good for us.

Sullivan is never so eloquent as when disillusionment sets in. Today, his eloquence is on fire as he reviews the Rovian hell into which McCain has descended. His prosecutor's brief should be read in full by every American. Here's the lede:

For me, this surreal moment - like the entire surrealism of the past ten days - is not really about Sarah Palin or Barack Obama or pigs or fish or lipstick. It's about John McCain. The one thing I always thought I knew about him is that he is a decent and honest person. When he knows, as every sane person must, that Obama did not in any conceivable sense mean that Sarah Palin is a pig, what did he do? Did he come out and say so and end this charade? Or did he acquiesce in and thereby enable the mindless Rovianism that is now the core feature of his campaign?

So far, he has let us all down. My guess is he will continue to do so.

Read the whole thing. Pass it on.