McCain lurches to the right

If I were the praying sort, I'd be making a daily plea that McCain would stop undermining his record as 'Mr. Integrity.' But each new revelation makes me more uncertain that the next Republican nominee, whoever that might be, will be a reformer. Or even a man of principle.

With an eye toward the 2008 presidential campaign, GOP Sen. John McCain of Arizona has hired one of President Bush's top re-election advisers to help run his political action committee.

Terry Nelson, political director of the Bush-Cheney campaign in 2004, will be senior adviser to Straight Talk America, according to several official familiar with the hiring. They spoke on condition of anonymity so as not to pre-empt an announcement by McCain's committee. (. . .)

While some of Bush's former aides may line behind McCain's potential GOP presidential rivals, Nelson's hiring may help McCain cast himself as the early front-runner and potential heir of Bush's political machine.

Nelson, a soft-spoken Iowa native, is well-respected [sic] Republican consultant who served as deputy chief of staff and director of political operations at the Republican National Committee from January 2002 until he joined Bush's re-election campaign.

What the article doesn't note, but this post from MyDD does, is that Nelson isn't just a Bushie but a close ally of Tom DeLay and Karl Rove. The former being the most corrupt man in Congress and the latter being the architect of the dirty tricks that torpedoed McCain's 2000 campaign. Calling Mr. Integrity... come in, Mr. Integrity...