I’m not exactly a a charter member of The Senator John McCain Praise and Adulation Society. However, this Sunday’s appearance on “Meet The Press” featuring Senator McCain and the funny, funny man we know as Senator Kerry was a useful study in contrasts. It was a study of contrasts that played to Senator McCain’s good side.

Senator Kerry, the numb, partisan suck-hole, educated far beyond his level of intellect, did what numb, partisan suck-holes invariably do. He went straight to his pre-arranged talking points and unloaded the blame.

I believe this is, without question, the “tea party downgrade.”…. Barack Obama put a $4.7 trillion deal on the table. Three times he was refused that deal because there were some people in the Republican Party, and Mitch McConnell even admitted this, who wanted to default.

Of course, by deal, Senator Kerry meant platitudes. At no time did President Obama’s OMB ever present a coherently scoreable plan to the CBO that did anything other than hike the National Debt up to $25Tr after ten years. The US Senate rejected his proposal 97-0. Without a CBO score and coherent network of revenues and expenditures, the $4.7Tr Obama Plan was vaporware.

Senator McCain then explained these things to Senator Kerry. He did so in the manner of a man who had made decisions regarding these issues and understood a thing or two more than what his handlers put on notecards for him to recite. McCain expounds upon John F. Kerry’s vastly ineluctable stupidity below.

Well, I agree that there is dysfunction in our system and a lot of it has to do with the failure of the president of the United States to lead. I would remind you that Republicans control one-third of the government. The Senate and the presidency are controlled by the Democrats. And the fact is that the president never came forward with a plan. Now, I was gratified to hear that he had plans, but there was never a specific plan. (My bolding) There was always the so-called “leading from behind.”

Senator McCain made two valid points here. First, 1/3 of the government doing its job and actually passing a Federal Budget is not sufficient to prevent issues such as appropriations and the debt ceiling to be handled in a slip-shod and amatuer manner. Putting two budgets together and delivering a reconciled plan to President Obama’s inbox would have at least afforded Barack Obama the opportunity to sign off on the appropriations and the debt ceiling increase on one, nice pleasant afternoon without trashing the UST bond rating.

However, just blaming the 800 Club over in The US Senate does not adequately encompass all the Constitutional terrain befouled by this summer’s debt ceiling fustercluck. As POTUS, Barack Obama may have wanted to start riding Kent Conrad’s and Henry Reid’s butts about 500 or 600 days ago about the lack of a US Senate budget. As was the case with the ObamaCare Bill and The Porkulus, President Obama failed to reign in the members of his party when they abused their power and were derelict in their duties.

A sitting POTUS is the titular head of his party. He is personally responsible for everything the Democrats do (ObamaCare, Stimulus, etc.) and everything that they spend 800 days not doing (The US Senate Budget). These people love someone who “leads from behind.” It allows them, in the words of Congressman Moran from Northern Virginia, “to earmark the (bleep) out of it!”

But then, John McCain veered off into scary territory. His talk was the sort of thing that gives Joe Nocera of the New York Times visions of explosive-wielding jihadists. Senator McCain explained why those Tea Partiers were so far off the reservation and not playing golf at the country club.

Now, look, we could have reached an agreement a lot earlier, but the members of the House of Representatives had a mandate, had a mandate last November, and it was jobs and the economy and spending. And for them to then agree to tax increases and spending increases, which was obviously a repudiation of the mandate that they felt they had from last November.

Now this is some pretty radical stuff. Sure, we could do a deal amongst the peers, but there was a wildcard here. The voters! These are people who never have a seat at the table when The “GoodFellas” meet for mint juleps on K Street and divide up who gets to sell drugs on what corner. Senator McCain was almost implying that these voting people should be considered instead of talked down to.

He should check for chemotherapy. This could metastasize and develop into a genuine case of Conservatism if Senator McCain isn’t more careful. But what was important here, and why I would totally go against my better instincts and say nice things about John McCain is the lesson to be learned.

John McCain, as misguided as he sometimes is, cares about actually solving problems that beset normal, working Americans. John Kerry was plastic. He was a hollow vacuum, hastily stuffed with talking points and sent forth to baffle with blame and bull-(bleep). And here we see the difference between the newly ascendant Conservatism and the decadent, maundering “Progressivism.” Leaders seek to solve problems, “Progressives” seek to mislead with blame.