It's time to put John McCain out to pasture

It's sad to see a once-respected public figure outlive his position of honor and respect.  John McCain could once be held up as a man of honor and dignity, a man of rare individual courage and independence from a political party that increasingly has departed from any semblance of moderation in favor of the radical sensationalism of the ultra-right wing.

Unfortunately, John McCain is showing his true colors in his senescence.   The kindest thing would be to put him out to pasture before it gets worse.

His latest excess occurred today on CBS's Face the Nation, where he likened the Obama administration's handling of the explanation of the Benghazi attack to Watergate.  Watergate, remember, was the tip of the iceberg that brought down the Nixon presidency, which turned out to have been rotten at its core, Nixon himself.

But to suggest an equivalence between a third rate burglary and its coverup directed from the Oval Office as the same as a confusion of explanations, based on incomplete intelligence information, in the heat of a world crisis -- is patently absurd.

John McCain diminishes himself by such absurdities.  It's time for him to retire -- or at least for his handlers to put a muzzle on him -- at least in the interests of his historical reputation.

Ralph