Form of.... a maverick! Shape of.... a dottering old fool!

[captainsblog]

I was just reading this piece in the current New Yorker about Nebraska Republican Senator Chuck Hagel. Like McCain, he's a decorated Vietnam hero and social conservative, but Hagel is also a definite internationalist in his foreign policy thinking, which has led him to the Obama side, and to virtual explusion from GOP circles, in recent weeks.

In the course of his extensive quoting in the article, he talks about one of McCain's Very Bad Ideas for the future of foreign relations:

McCain has often spoken about his desire to create a League of Democracies. Discussing Iran during the first Presidential debate, he said, “Let’s be clear and let’s have some straight talk. The Russians are preventing significant action in the United Nations Security Council. I have proposed a League of Democracies, a group . . . of countries that share common interests, common values, common ideals. They also control a lot of the world’s economic power. We could impose significant, meaningful, painful sanctions on the Iranians.” He concluded, “So I am convinced that together we can, with the French, with the British, with the Germans and other countries—democracies around the world—we can affect Iranian behavior.”

The quote goes on to explain why this is really not a good idea,

-Critics have suggested that McCain’s League of Democracies could diminish the role of the United Nations. When I mentioned this to Hagel, he said, “What is the point of the United Nations? The whole point, as anyone who has taken any history knows, was to bring all nations of the world together in some kind of imperfect body, a forum that allows all governments of the world, regardless of what kinds of government, to work through their problems—versus attacking each other and going to war. Now, in John’s League of Democracies, does that mean Saudi Arabia is out? Does that mean our friend King Abdullah in Jordan is out? It would be only democracies. Well, we’ve got a lot of allies and relationships that are pretty important to us, and to our interests, who would be out of that club. And the way John would probably see China and Russia, they wouldn’t be in it, either. So it would be an interesting Book-of-the-Month Club. But in order to solve problems you’ve got to have all the players at the table,” Hagel went on, his voice rising. “How are you going to fix the problems in Pakistan, Afghanistan—the problems we’ve got with poverty, proliferation, terrorism, wars—when the largest segments of society in the world today are not at the table?” He paused, then added, more calmly, “The United Nations, as I’ve said many times, is imperfect. We’ve got NATO, multilateral institutions, multilateral-development banks, the World Trade Organization—all have flaws, that’s true. But if you didn’t have them what would you have? A world completely out of control, with no structure, no order, no boundaries.”-

but of course my inner 12-year-old is still stuck back at what McCain wants to call the thing.

C'mon, dude, you just want to be a world-leader superhero, hanging around a Hall of Justice in your cape and tights and wearing your Depends on the outside, hangin' with all your other Super Friends:

It's a bird! It's a bus! It's.... StraightTalkMan! Strange visitor from another generation who came to Washington with powers and abilities far beyond the comprehension of mortal man. Able to shape-shift his positions at will, bend treaties with his bare hands!

Brown-Nose!  Disguised as a mild-mannered Labour leader, his true identity came to the fore when his sidekick suggested he would no longer be wearing the costume and air unfreshener of his party predecessor: "We will not allow people to separate us from the United States of America in dealing with the common challenges that we face around the world. I think people have got to remember that the relationship between Britain and America and between a British prime minister and an American president is built on the things that we share, the same enduring values about the importance of liberty, opportunity, the dignity of the individual. I will continue to work, as Tony Blair did, very closely with the American administration."

Har-poon! Able to kill almost half a million baby seals in a single bound!

Sarkozybleu! When he's not chatting up Sarah Palin on the phone to discuss the important issue of helicopter-hunting, the half-man, half-Frog shows off his impressive water-bound ability to, um, drink like a fish!

Speaking of Sarah, she's definitely in as one of the Wonder Twins. Possibly both, depending on how those expensive Neiman-Marcus bras hold up.