And so the crap begins again. Does it ever really stop? Now we have a group of people disputing Kerry's war record and his service in Vietnam. Thank the gods that there are still Republicans, with a sense of honor and integrity to speak out against such crap. Senator John McCain has stood up for what is right and decent more times than any other Republican I can think of. Here he is speaking out about the latest crap regarding Kerry's Vietnam record and here he is speaking out against the constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages. Of course he doesn't relish the idea of gay marriages, but he has the brains to know that it wouldn't be the end of the world and it certainly doesn't warrant changes to the constitution.
While all the talk of McCain as Kerry's vice-president was just pie in the sky kind of talk, it just shows how acceptable he is to most Democrats and centrists.
And the Republicans are continuing to stoop to new lows when it was announced that Alan Keyes and Andre Grubb Barthwell were picked to run against the Democrats new rising star Barack Obama in the race for Senator in Illinois.

"These two were selected because of their strengths, not because of their
color," said state Sen. Dave Syverson, a member of the Republican State Central
Committee. "Voters are smarter than that. That clearly wasn't the intent."

Oh, no they wouldn't do anything like that. But then how do they explain that Alan Keyes, lives in MARYLAND not Illinois,

Keyes ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate twice from his home state
of Maryland and sought the Republican presidential nomination in 1996 and 2000.
He has never lived in Illinois but under state law would only have to take up
residence by Election Day, November 2.

No, they didn't pick these two because they are African-Americans. That would be like Thurgood Marshall stepping down as a Supreme Court Justice and then the Republicans deciding to appoint an African-American to take his place. Nah, people would see through that. That wouldn't be their intent. For crying out loud, no matter who wins we have only the FIFTH time that an African-American becomes a Senator. That's mighty big of the Republicans to help make history. But as we have seen with most of the African-Americans that the Republicans support, they step in line just like anybody else. Some may see it in terms of Uncle Tom, but you know what, I think it's actually a positive step when a Colin Powell or a Condoleeza Rice has the opportunity to become a Republican. They have as much a right to agree politically with Republicans as any other person.
The idea that one party owns one gener, race, religion, ethnic group, etc. is bullshit. If anything it leads to complacency. The parties should always be competing for our votes. We have a two-party system, yes Mr. Nader for better or worse, the harsh reality is, it's a two-party system....and with a two-party system, so long as they both compete for the same demographic, we the people win. It's when they give up on certain groups that things actually get rough.