Richard Cohen in today’s Washington Post: John McCain has “soiled” his “integrity.” And, according to Cohen, “the precise moment of McCain’s abasement came” at the hands of The View‘s Joy Behar.
It was always McCain’s “integrity” that Cohen found attractive, not his “being accessible” to reporters (Cohen calls this “the journalist-as-puppy school of thought: Give us a treat, and we will leap into a politician’s lap.”) Now? Cohen just sees “The Ugly New McCain.”
UPDATE:: As for that “being accessible” thing, “McCain is practically bubble-wrapped these days,” according to an AP headline to an article that quotes McCain saying, “My administration will set a new standard for transparency and accountability.”
Liz Cox Barrett is a writer at CJR.