In addition to the fact that John McCain has a history of crooked dealings he drapes in the flag and his POW status, let's take a quick recap of the dollars involved in his crooked past. Point being, when you want to talk about real, financial devastation - just the math, you get reminded that when McCain makes a mistake, to use a sports term, he takes it to the house.
Not counting the plane that was shot down in Vietnam (and it was a bomber not a fighter - he was NOT a fighter pilot), McCain lost FOUR aircraft. Estimated costs - 2 million.
McCain's wife and father in law rushed out and bought him a house in a district that opened in Arizona so John could run for the House - $165,000.
John orchestrated a land swap deal for his backer in AZ, one Donald Diamond, in which Diamond swapped some worthless land of his for federal land. Not long after, Diamond turned the new land into a deal worth $22 million. The government got some scrub-brush and a few lizards.
John kept regulators from more staunch regulation of Lincoln Federal Savings and Loan - when it crashed it ruined many families and took their entire life savings. This also helped to keep the S&L oversight from happening even though people had dramatic evidence that a crash was likely. Cost of the S&L crash - $210 Billion.
John pushed for invading Iraq long before anyone else did, and he got his wish. Given that every, single item in Bush's letter to Congress turned out to be a lie - and as we have learned now the "intelligence" used to base it on came from Rumsfeld's newly created intelligence department within DOD - but John got his wish. Cost so far - approaching $1 Trillion.
John was a big fan of deregulation, in particular the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and the Commodities Modernization Act, both authored by Phil Gramm that, in concert, gave the foundation for the creation of credit default swaps that, at least on the books of banks and financial institutions, carry a value of $45 Billion when the entire stock market has a value of $22 Billion. That, in my opinion, is the real reason for the financial bailout package, even though people blame Freddie/Fannie and subprime, but rolling these mortgages into an instrument that you trade as a commodity that bets on their failure is an amazing and still not well-understood tale. Financial bailouts so far this year - $1 Trillion.
So, when McCain screws up, he doesn't do it in a small way. Big dollars are always attached. He, however, is always personally insulated in one of his many homes. Watching a man I once had admiration for, but in all honesty all I knew of him was his POW story and his occassional high profile bucking of the GOP, turn into something even Karl Rove says goes to far is just a shame. When the Jabba the Hutt of politics calls you slimey, my friends, you are indeed slimey.