McCain's Cousin: John "Replaced by A Desperate Version Of Himself"

Recently, my father gave me an envelope full of press clippings which chronicle the history of a very notable part of our family. Most of the articles come from the Florida Times-Union, a Jacksonville-based paper he read during the '60s and '70s when he taught at Lake City Community College. They detail the years in which my cousin, then-Lt. Cmdr. John S. McCain, was imprisoned in North Vietnam.

John and I are related through our grandmothers. Katherine Vaulx McCain and Huetta Vaulx Boles, both of Fayetteville, Ark., were sisters. My side of the Vaulx family represents a long line of Democrats, but it is with no small amount of pride that we've followed the life and career of now-Sen. John McCain.

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So, where is the straight-talking, commonsense John McCain of 2000? I'm afraid he is long gone, replaced by a desperate version of himself who seems to contradict nearly everything he once stood for.

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