After 28 years as an anti-regulation, crooked, conservative Republican in the US Senate, John McCain has suddenly morphed into Ted Kennedy, at least in his foggy recollection of his career in the Senate. 

Kennedy, the Liberal Lion, is convalescing in Massachusetts and must endure the insult from afar.

John McCain and his buddies, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, viciously and consistently have attacked the politics of Ted Kennedy, one of the truest heroes to the American people; a man who used his public office in the truest sense of public service--to help others, and not to enrich himself, as McCain did.

The Limbaugh and Hannity pair ought to be investigated for illegal campaign contributions. Their shows are an illegal campaign contribution. Neither show is registered as a campaign donor, but they contribute way beyond the $200 limit. Their shows generate millions, if not billions of dollars.

And conservatives are trying to argue that Senator Barack Obama is on the receiving end of illegal contributions citing $33,000 from two Palestinian brothers. (You know those were Republican operatives.) 

Hannity and Limbaugh alone account for well over $50 million in "illegal campaign contributions" to McCain, and they are complaining about Obama's campaign contributions because they can't even win as cheaters. 

Kennedy has long advocated regulation in the markets: regulation for pollution, regulation for cheaper pharmaceuticals and regulation for fair pay and workplace safety. 

But while Kennedy has a career of support for regulations that help average Americans, John McCain has a career of opposing regulation. 

He's hoping he can re-define the meaning of Corrupublican over the next 28 days. He's McCain in Albuquerque, NM, yesterday: Obama, McCain said, "was silent on the regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and his Democratic allies in Congress opposed every effort to rein them in."

Oh, those wily de-regulation Democrats. They're always opposing regulation! Well, according to Ann Coulter, this fits in with their Wall Street-welfare agenda. "Democrats' two most important constituent groups:," she mused, deadpan, are "rich Wall Street bankers and welfare recipients."

They have SO much in common with each other. Thanks to McCain, we also know that Democrats oppose regulation. John McCain calls the sky green and if you call it blue, you're just another elite liberal media type in the tank for Obama. 

The Republicans are SO bankrupt on ideas. They apparently cannot unearth any new irrelevant dirt on Obama, so they have returned to the old irrelevant dirt: Wright, Ayers, Acorn. They're like a dog that just keeps pointing to an inanimate ball while its keeper is watching an airplane crash--that being our economy. 

John McCain earned the nickname, "Maverick," for a campaign finance law he helped Democratic Senator Russ Feingold pass in the wake of his own scandal, in an effort to refurbish his public image. He flip-flopped on abortion after opposing efforts to overturn Roe v. Wade in the liberal 90's--now he's supposedly pro-life. He promised de-regulation in a major campaign speech in Orange County California on March 25th, 2008. Now, according to McCain, Obama isn't as pro-regulation as the formerly fervent anti-regulation Maverick. 

"I, McCain said yesterday, "was the one who called at the time for tighter restrictions on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that could have helped prevent this crisis from happening in the first place." The Times points out how ridiculous this statement is. 

McCain's nickname ought to be the Chameleon.