So, according to TPMCafe's Quote of the Day, McCain allegedly has said:
“I’m probably going to get in trouble, but what’s wrong with sucking up to everybody?”
. -- John McCain, as quoted by Maureen Dowd, after being asked at a lucheon in Seattle why he was cozing up to the religious right.
That's the last little vestige left of "Mr Straight Talk" talking there. He knows sucking up the theocrats is wrong, dangerous, and just generally bullshit. In his deluded little heart he probably thinks he can string them along, promise them anything, and it won't matter once he's the big guy in the Big Chair. I imagine most politicians confront moments like this. Maybe he thinks that just adding a few more fundy votes in the south will put him over the top; that he can perform the little "family values" monkey dance for Robertson and Falwell and still keep his balls attached and it won't matter that he's playing footsie with jillionaires who secretly want to hack off the inconvenient bits of the Constitution. Maybe he thinks the Big Chair can be all his if he can suck up right and then do his own thing when the music start.
But of course, he's wrong. You gotta dance with the devil who brung you.
McCain is a wholy owned commodity now. He knows it. This quote is his smart half, his Dr Jeckyl half, vainly trying to assure voters Mr Hyde is only a campaign suit he wears until inauguration day. I don't think many people are going to buy it. Maybe enough will. Once the Republicans go thru their usual smiling assassin hijinks in the primaries, Romney and Giuliani aren't going to have much support.
But that great, straight-talky question pretty much answers itself.
“What’s wrong with sucking up to everybody?” There's not a damn thing wrong with it, senator, if you don't mind the view.