Why is Sen. McCain pallin' around with neo-Nazis in Ukraine?

Poor Sen. John McCain simply can't get his bad guys straight. Last May, McCain sneaked into Syria to meet with Syrian rebels, some of whom are members of terrorist organizations who don't look fondly on Uncle Sam unless he's helping them overthrow the elected Syrian President. Then last December McCain travelled to Ukraine to meet with opposition leaders of the elected Ukrainian government which was eventually toppled this month. McCain met with Ukrainian government leaders as well but gave his endorsement to the pro-Europe faction which contains some pretty nefarious characters. He even mounted the stage in Independence Square and stood with Oleh Tyahnybok, leader of the anti-Semitic Svoboda Party.  This ultra-nationalist group was formed in 1995 under the name Social National Party of Ukraine, using a swastika style logo. Sound familiar? In 1999, a Tel-Aviv University report called it "an extremist, right-wing, nationalist organization which emphasizes its identification with National German Socialism ideology.  Changing its name a decade ago to "Svoboda" which means freedom, and purging many of its most virulent extremists, Svoboda still rattles extremist sabers. In 2004, McCain's newest pal Tyahnybok gave a speech attacking "the Moscow-Jewish mafia ruling Ukraine". He also railed about the "Moskali, Germans, Kikes and other scum who wanted to take away our Ukrainian state." That didn't stop readers of the Ukrainian news magazine Korrespondent from naming him Person of the Year for 2013.

McCain was apparently so impressed by Svoboda's strong pro Europe, anti Russia stance he simply had to drop his Senate duties fixing America's problems to hop the first plane to a new world trouble spot for a grandstand photo-opt. In recent years, this has become the signature McCain governance style. As old as he is McCain wasn't around when our first President admonished future American leaders to beware of "foreign entanglements". At 77, its unlikely we can get Sen. McCain to change his travel habits. With a little luck we might be able to convince him to check the armbands of the folks he appears with first.