Sen. McCain denies ever flip-flopping, blames his base, the McMedia for such “lies”

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

If you needed any further proof that this man is a congenital liar who does not know when he is telling the truth or is lying and cannot be trusted, this should do it. McCain blames his base, the McMedia for such "lies." McCain denies flip-flopping, blames media: 

It's been often noted in recent months how Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) positions on a host of issues, including climate change and immigration, have moved considerably to the right in the face of a once-formidable primary challenge from former Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-Ariz.). Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) even commented to the New York Times that McCain, his good friend, was largely absent from the negotiating table with Democrats because "John's got a primary. He's got to focus on getting reelected."

In a new interview with Politics Daily's Jill Lawrence, McCain now denies that he has changed any of his positions and blames the media for spreading such lies.

"Lindsey knows that I don't change in my positions," he says. "I have not changed in my positions. I know how popular it is for the Eastern press to paint me as having changed positions. That's not true. I know they're going to continue to say it. It's fundamentally false. Not only am I sure that they'll say it, you'll say it. You'll write it. And I've just grown to accept that."

Of course, McCain's position changes are easily documented as we have demonstrated here for years. McCain has become a caricature of himself.

"The Daily Show," on which McCain has been a guest numerous times, has documented McCain's greatest flips. Watch:

UPDATE: Steve Benen of The Washington Monthly weighs in:

McCain continues to sound bitter and belligerent — he's convinced journalists are desperate "to see John McCain, the nominee of the Republican Party, in serious trouble" — just for bitterness' sake. He brings up his failed presidential campaign, only to pretend he's moved past it. It's kind of sad, really.

But for McCain to angrily insist he's hasn't changed his positions, and that the very idea is "fundamentally false," is pretty silly, even by his standards.

Can anyone name a single major policy position that McCain hasn't flip-flopped on? I've looked and can't think of any.

I mean that quite literally. Some of the more recent reversals — on immigration policy, on cap-and-trade, on Supreme Court nominees, on Don't Ask, Don't Tell — are glaring because they deal with issues that have been the subject of a lot of attention of late, but this is a man who has nothing in common with previous iterations of himself. McCain did, after all, recently claim, "I never considered myself a maverick."

McCain also vowed, just last week, that if re-elected, he promises not to work in a bipartisan fashion on immigration policy — a complete reversal to the entire image he built up over the last decade.

It's tempting to run through the entire compilation of every McCain reversal, but when I gave up keeping track two years ago, the list was awfully long. His changed positions encompassed everything from taxes, to national security, to culture-war issues, to foreign policy, to constitutional policy, to the economy, to campaign-finance reform.

John McCain has shed one skin, only to climb into a very different one. For him to insist, on the record and with a straight face, "I don't change in my positions," is among the single most ridiculous claims I've ever heard.