"Hip shooting onanism"

Joe Klein's comments on McCain's bleatings on Iran are exactly right, and that phrase certainly paints a vivid picture, doesn't it?

Certainly, Bush the Younger, McCain and the rest of that crowd have absolutely no idea who the Iranian people are. The are not Hungarians in 1956. They do not believe they live in an Evil Empire. They still support their revolution. They shout "Allahu Akbar" in the streets, which was the rallying cry of 1979. They are proud of their nuclear program, even if many have doubts about the efficacy of weaponizing the enriched uraniam that is being produced. They want greater freedom, to be sure. And they believe that the Khamenei-Ahmadinejad forces--and the militarized regime they have empowered, the millions of basiji and revolutionary guards--is a profound perversion of that revolution. They are right. They deserve our prayers and support. But they don't need grandstanding from an American President, and they certainly don't need histrionics from blustery old John McCain.

What Klein does not mention is the beltway media's complicity in this. They know McCain has no expertise on Iranian politics or society and they certainly have heard him express his profound concern for the well-being of the Iranian people. No, he's a ubiquitous fixture on TV because the journamalists are lazy and know that McCain will read off the script that Obama and, by reflection, Democrats, are weak on defense. Obama's response to Iran surely proves that even if no rational being would agree. Even as public opinion has shifted markedly and now view Democrats as relatively strong on national security issues, that "weak" framing is just too easy to hang on to.