I'm not surprised to see coverage of this McCain verbal slip being aired today. What is interesting, to me, is not that he made the mistake of lumping together al-Qaeda and other extremists under one umbrella. That's been one of the more deceptive underpinnings of Bush Administration policy in the war on terror.
What impresses me, and why I think McCain may be a really difficult guy to paint as a Bushite, is not only did he apologize and correct his misstatement, but that he did it DURING the speech, and at the prompting of a (nominally) cross-party advisor. That's not the sort intellectual honesty we've come to expect from Republicans in the last few years.
A McCain Gaffe in Jordan | The Trail | washingtonpost.com
Speaking to reporters in Amman, the Jordanian capital, McCain said he and two Senate colleagues traveling with him continue to be concerned about Iranian operatives "taking al-Qaeda into Iran, training them and sending them back."
Pressed to elaborate, McCain said it was "common knowledge and has been reported in the media that al-Qaeda is going back into Iran and receiving training and are coming back into Iraq from Iran, that's well known. And it's unfortunate." A few moments later, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, standing just behind McCain, stepped forward and whispered in the presidential candidate's ear. McCain then said: "I'm sorry, the Iranians are training extremists, not al-Qaeda."
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