McCain In Baghdad

Prospective GOP nominee John McCain is in Baghdad today, meeting with Iraqi and U.S. diplomatic and military officials, as well as with the grunts on the ground. This is not a simple photo-op and is nothing new for Senator McCain...he's visited Iraq 8 times, probably more than any other US congressman by a large margin. Along for the ride are McCain's friend Senator Joe Lieberman and McCain's senate colleague Lindsey Graham (R-SC).

He also plans on visiting Israel,Jordan,Britain and France before heading home:

He is expected to meet with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown for the first time, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy for the third time. He met and corresponded with Sarkozy both before and after the French president was elected. They last saw each other last summer.

McCain has relationships with every leader in Israel he plans to see, including Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and hawkish opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu.

McCain told U.S. reporters last week that he would be visiting Iraq, and expressed worries that insurgents might try to influence the November presidential election with increased attacks in Iraq.

"Yes, I worry about it," he said Friday in Springfield, Pa. "And I know they pay attention, because of the intercepts we have of their communications."

It's tempting for me to compare this kind of responsible behavior to the way certain other aspirants to the Oval Office are currently acting,but I'll let you draw your own conclusions.

Interesting to see that ex-Democrat Senator Lieberman is along for the trip. He and McCain are close friends,and a McCain-Lieberman ticket could be very interesting and effective,given the widespread respect Lieberman has even among conservatives because of his stance on national security, which led to his being excommunicated from the Democratic party.

And if nothing else, putting Lieberman on the ticket would be guaranteed to raise the Democrat's collective blood pressure to the boiling point...