This argument over John McCain is but one more skirmish in the war for the soul of the Republican Party. The argument is not over whether John McCain has been castigated enough for being an ineffectual candidate. The argument is whether the party should go left or right in searching for a path out of the wilderness. So John McCain is attacked because he is a figure of the RINOS in the party.
The RINOS do the same thing every day when a fresh article comes out denigrating Sarah Palin as one did concerning her problems finding McCain operatives with whom she could comfortably pray.
I agree it would be better if we argued issues rather than personalities but that is not human nature. As Saul Alinsky said, personalize your enemy, fix him and destroy him. We are in the midst of a Darwinian struggle for the soul of the Republican Party and, therefore, for the soul of the nation. We cannot do this except when we are in the wilderness where we are today. The process must go on and it must be brutal if it is to be effective. One side must kill the other and articulate a message so compelling that it draws the world to us. We cannot compromise our way out of the minority. We have to become pure and tempered.
So John McCain is attacked because he is a figure of the RINOS in the party. I'd go further than that. McCain is a Progressive, a Republican Progressive. Look at the policies: he supported Cap and Trade, opposed drilling with some minor and vague concessions when oil spiked, and bought into the AGW myth. He had a health plan that was said by some to be better than Obama's, but he didn't understand it and couldn't articulate it. He refused to mention, until too late and then only timidly, the duplicity of his fellow lawmakers in the Fannie/Freddie crash that heralded the fall of the economic house of cards. And worst of all, he joined the braying jackasses of the Democratic party and the media in proclaiming "greedy Wall Street" to be the sole villain, while rushing to endorse the TARP.
And let's not forget his joint collaboration with Ted Kennedy on the "Shamnesty" bill, and with another one of his many Dem buddies, Russ Feingold, in the assault on the first amendment known as CFR.
Obama easily co-opted his issues, as the Iraq war faded in significance with the success of the surge, until there wasn't much left to distinguish McCain from Obama -- except for the glaring age handicap and, of course, Sarah Palin, who he promptly stabbed in the back at the first post-failure opportunity.
I can understand people's anger toward the man, but there's really no need to attack McCain personally -- his political record speaks for itself.