Another Detour for the Straight Talk (cough cough) Express

Straight talk my ass:

For an advocate of straight talk and government transparency, John McCain has been less than clear with a voter-education nonprofit, on whose board he serves, about why he hasn't responded to its survey of issue positions. Now, after nine months, 17 phone calls, and 8 emails asking McCain to state exactly where he stands on key issues, Montana-based Project Vote Smart is poised to kick McCain off its board.

I like the concept of a non-partisan—or bi-partisan—clearinghouse for information about candidates' positions on important issues. However, I'm not the biggest fan of Project Vote Smart (PVS). They try to get candidates to state their positions on issues in isolation when seldom do things happen in isolation. For instance, let's say you're a member of Congress, and you're in favor of trimming Pentagon funding, and you're also in favor of increasing funding for early childhood education. What do you do if you've got to vote on an omnibus bill that increases early childhood education but also increases Pentagon funding, while at the same time includes emergency aid for flood victims in your district? Whatever you do, you're going to be accused of being a flip-flopper if you expressed these positions in a PVS survey. What PVS has become—not that they intended it, I’m sure—is a cheap way for a candidate to provide her rival with free opposition research. Hence, more and more candidates aren't filling out their questionnaire.

But whatever, the issue here isn't whether candidates should fill out the Project Vote Smart questionnaire. The issue is that once again, John McCain's actions show he's anything but a straight talker. Sure, he was fine with filing out their questionnaires in the past, when he had token opposition for his Senate seat and doing so came without any real cost. Heck, he even took a spot on Project Vote Smart's board when the death of his predecessor in the Senate, Barry Goldwater, created the opening. It was another way to crow about how great he was on process and transparency issues, how he was really the reformer shining sunlight on a corrupt system.  

But now, when it matters, Mr. Straight Talk Express won't return 17 phone calls and 8 emails. And he doesn't have the candor or the guts to just come out and say "I don't support Project Vote Smart, because I'm not really a reformer, I'm just another DC Republican beholden to the lobbyists and special interests and I'm running to fill out George W. Bush's third term as President."