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I'd call what McCain did much worse than "absurd."
He took an issue that was reaching a flashpoint, used his hard-earned (to say the least) and unique credibility on the matter to command effective ownership of it... and then promptly ushered in one of the most shameful actions an American Congress has ever committed.
Your criticisms of disappointing behavior by the Democrats are most worthy. As Lambert, my estimable fellow fellow at Corrente, often makes the point, one of our highest callings -- maybe the highest -- is to make Democrats feel the heat when they sell out the Constitution, much like the GOP base puts the screws to its party leaders to give them the theocratic and xenophobic red meat they crave. (Our bases have rather different basic interests, eh?)
But if we think there's a special circle in Hell for so-called progressives who cave in to and enable the GOP's authoritarian madness, there must be one, too - and at least as hot -- for the self-appointed consciences of the Republican Party who seize rare opportunities for moral authority... only to reenact the Lucy-with-the-football trick.
McCain's support for the Military Commissions Act is one of the few betrayals comparable to Colin Powell's eating his objections and selling the war to the American public and media, and to well-meaning (it seems), handwringing Arlen Specter's bottomless cup of capitulation.
