McCain Is A Political Animal With No Scruples

This has to be the most disingenuous speech in recent political history.

Sen. John McCain, looking to heal a rift with the religious conservatives who undermined his 2000 White House bid, told students graduating at the Rev. Jerry Falwell's university Saturday that Americans have a right to disagree on issues but should maintain respect for each other.

The Arizona Republican specifically referred to disagreements over the war in Iraq during his commencement address at Liberty University. He noted that the war "has taken innocent life," but he said he has stood his ground in support of it because he believed "my country's interests and values required it."

McCain defended the rights of those who disagree with him and argued that "Americans deserve more than tolerance from one another."

"We deserve each other's respect, whether we think each other right or wrong in our views, as long as our character and our sincerity merit respect, and as long as we share, for all our differences, for all the noisy debates that enliven our politics, a mutual devotion to the sublime idea that this nation was conceived in — that freedom is the inalienable right of mankind, and in accord with the laws of nature and nature's creator," he said.

(read more if you have the stomach)