Back during my misspent youth in Naval Aviation, the A-6 guys (and I don't know why it was them) always said, "It's better to get even than mad". John McCain was a light-attack bubba, having been a Spad/A-4 and A-7 driver, so maybe he just spent enough time in the Ready Room Bar in Cubi listening to the Grumman Ironworks Drivers pontificate on interpersonal strategery, who knows. But you know, this sure is starting to look suspiciously like Payback, and in a good cause if it is.

Congressional Republicans had carefully orchestrated the finale of the legislative year to be a showdown with Democrats over which party is best equipped to keep the country safe, a handpicked fight on traditional Republican turf.

But the high-stakes standoff between President Bush and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) over military tribunals could ruin that legislative strategy, political analysts and strategists say. Instead of fighting Democrats, Republicans find themselves in the middle of an intraparty struggle between an embattled president and two of the most respected figures in their party, McCain and his ally on the issue, former secretary of state Colin L. Powell.

McCain has been playing the game with Bunnypants for the last couple of years, and is now in a perfect position to throw up more than a little AAA into Rove's election-year alpha strike with his stand on the Amendments that Deserter Boy and his courtiers want to make to the Geneva Conventions. After all, he lived with the protections of Article III, in so far as the North Vietnamese afforded US POW's any consideration under the Geneva Convention during Vietnam. I honestly don't see McCain turning his back on other servicemen and women now and into the future to help make Bunnypants look "Tough on Terra™"

Because in the end, there was always South Carolina. And I have to wonder if this become a case of "getting even" when it comes right down to it. It's free, no one is ever going to blame McCain (except Rove and perhaps a few shrieking Chickenhawk wingnuts) for this stand. He earns the gratitude of virtually every senior officer in DoD who understands the gravity and repercussions of the changes to the Article III "interpretation", and most importantly he sets himself up as "independant" of Beloved Leader on an issue that really counts to him personally, which gives him HUUUGE "character" points among the "McCainiacs" who have been disillusioned with is performance and sycophancy to the 1600 Crew over the past three and a half years.

So, South Carolina? Yeah, it makes sense to me. Your thoughts?

Payback is a bitch, isn't it?