IT'S NOT SHAMELESSNESS IF YOU HAVE "AN ANCIENT SENSE OF HONOR"

David Brooks today, writing about Hillary Clinton's ABC interview on Sunday:

... For the first 30 minutes, she did not utter a single candid word, including, as Mary McCarthy would say, "and" and "the."

She peddled her sham gas-tax holiday.... Stephanopoulos asked her to name a single economist who thinks a tax-holiday plan would work, and the daughter of Wellesley and Yale took the chance to shove the geeks into their lockers: "I'm not going to put my lot in with economists."

...This ... was shamelessness....

Er, would that be the same gas-tax holiday that was first proposed on the campaign trail by John McCain -- a man about whom Brooks says,

He fights fiercely, though not always successfully, against political pressures in order to remain honest, brave and forthright.

And of whom he's also written the following?

... Telling the truth is a skill. Those who don’t do it habitually lose the ability, but McCain is well-practiced and has the capacity to face unpleasant truths....

There have been occasions when McCain compromised his principles for political gain, but he was so bad at it that it always backfired. More often, he is driven by an ancient sense of honor, which is different from fame and consists of the desire to be worthy of the esteem of posterity.

... character is destiny, and you will never persuade me that he is not among the finest of men...

Just checking.