Senator McCain, thank you for taking the time to answer my questions.  My first question.  Mr. McCain...do you know the definition of the word, sacrosanct?

Well, according to Webster's Online dictionary:

sac·ro·sanct  \sa-krō-saŋ(k)t\

Etymology: Latin sacrosanctus, probably from sacro sanctus hallowed by a sacred rite

Date: 1601

1 : most sacred or holy : inviolable

2 : treated as if holy : immune from criticism or violation

I bring this up to you, Senator McCain, because in this election, we have seen many, many instance where some things are sacrosanct, and other things are not.

For one, we can question why Senator Obama doesn't wear a flag pin (even though he has been), and the subject of John McCain's empty collar doesn't even come up.

Another, we can question why Barack Obama is able to legally purchase a small strip of land from Tony Rezko, but bring up the subject of John McCain's eight homes, and you get told about his time as a POW.

It's those POW quotes that got me thinking.

All during this campaign, we've been told about your time in the Hanoi Hilton.  For example:

If we question you about your partisanship, you say:

"In the prison camps of North Vietnam, there weren't Republicans or Democrats, there were just patriots."

John McCain July 1, 2008

If we question whether or not you were given the questions in advance at the Saddleback Forum, you say:

"The insinuation from the Obama campaign that John McCain, a former prisoner of war, cheated is outrageous."

Nicole Wallace (McCain Campaign spokeswoman) Aug. 17, 2008

Heck, if we just ask you about the Keating Five scandal?

"Even the Vietnamese didn't question my ethics."

John McCain Sept. 29, 1989

So what you've said...hell, what your whole campaign has said, is that your time as a POW is sacrosanct.  It's inviolable.  We can't touch it.

But here's my question.

Why isn't John Lewis's time as Chairman of SNCC equally sacrosanct?

Let's flash back to February 18th, 1965.

An Alabama State Trooper shoots and kills a young man, Jimmie Lee Jackson as he tries to protect his Mother and Grandfather during a demonstration.  Eight days later, Mr. Jackson dies from his wounds.  James Bevel calls for a protest march from Selma to Montgomery as a protest.

George Wallace...being George Wallace...declares the march a threat to public safety and orders is stopped at all costs.  When the marchers try to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge, they are met by Sheriff's Deputies and State Troopers.  They are attacked with billy clubs, tear gas, and riot gear.  John Lewis was at the head of this non-violent march, and got his face caved in as a result.

Now, let's be honest, Senator.  John Lewis called you out on the carpet for the things you've allowed said at your rallies, and you don't much like it when anyone calls you out for anything.

"George Wallace never threw a bomb. He never fired a gun, but he created the climate and the conditions that encouraged vicious attacks against innocent Americans who were simply trying to exercise their constitutional rights.  Because of this atmosphere of hate, four little girls were killed on Sunday morning when a church was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama."

Actually, to say that you don't like it is doing a disservice to your anger about it.  You were pissed.

"This is not just some obscure party official," McCain said in an interview aired by CNN. "And that's what's so totally unacceptable about it."

I'm sorry, this may put me in the minority here but...what's so unacceptable about it?

John Lewis still has a metal plate in his head from what the Alabama Police did to him that day.  I think he's more than earned the right to call it as he sees it.  My question is where exactly do you get off questioning him about it?

Once again, Senator McCain...is if your time as a Prisoner of War is expected to be treated as sacrosanct by we the people, why isn't the beating John Lewis suffered being treated with the same respect?

After all, say what you will about his quote (and Lord knows you and Rick Davis have), he was at least tying his personal experience to what you've been doing on the campaign trail.

I know what you're going to say already.  You can't compare the two.  "I sacrificed five years of his life in the Hanoi Hilton," you'll say.  "I was tortured."  You can't compare the two.

I don't know...can't I?

I don't know if you want to get into a comparison of length of time because John McCain spent a scant five years of his life in a Vietnamese POW Camp, John Lewis spent all his early years in the Segregated South.  Where as your torturers, Senator McCain, at least were foreign to you, the people who nearly beat John Lewis to death where his fellow countrymen.  And after five years, Senator McCain, you were at least allowed to go home.

John Lewis was home.  There was no escape for him.

Granted, in time, things have gotten better...to a degree, but the hatred that rose up on the Edmund Pettus Bridge (and many, many times before that), has found itself resurrected at your rallies.  Instead of being a man, shutting this crap down, you've come out and said how proud you were of the people at your rallies.

In some cases (as we're seeing more and more of), you have every reason to be proud.

But now, your Campaign hatchet man, Rick Davis is threatening to go to Reverend Wright again, as  a campaign issue.  The real reason you're letting him do so, is the fact that you're losing.  But your excuse?  John Lewis.

I would ask one final question.  I would ask if you had any shame or decency left.

Sad part is, I already know the answer.