What happened to John McCain?

From his comments to the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia, 4/11/07:

"And now, we confront a choice as historically important as any we have faced in a long while: Will this nation's elected leaders… do what is necessary to succeed in Iraq? -- For my part I would rather lose a campaign than a war. However it ends, the war in Iraq will have a profound influence on the future…” -- Powerful words from a man who has tagged at least 10 of the last 14 senate votes on Iraq  as “meaningless”.

Perhaps McCain doesn’t really think the Iraq War -- the issue upon which he seems to be staking his campaign -- has the ‘historical importance’ or ‘profound influence on the future’ that he told the cadets and vets that day. After all, "McCain is the only declared presidential candidate to miss any of the Senate's Iraq votes"

Of course the Iraq votes are but the tip o’ the berg. As of Thursday, McCain has been  ‘absent without leave’ on at least 43 Senate votes.

Perhaps not coincidentally, McCain hasn’t cast a single vote since the publication of his disastrous presidential fundraising report was released in mid-April.

With McCain’s missed vote on the $2.9 trillion fiscal 2008 budget (No doubt another of McCain’s ‘meaningless’ votes), “he has officially been absent for 50 percent of the more than 170 roll calls held in the chamber so far in the 110th Congress.

Now that’s what I call a maverick!

And for all you Republicans breathlessly clamoring to dismiss this with foul cries of “all the candidates do it” you should know that "Democratic frontrunners Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and Barack Obama (Ill.), they have missed just 1.8 percent and 6.4 percent of votes this year, respectively."