New dispatch from the "Figure That Out All By Yourself, Einstein?" file

Joe Klein finally joins the reality-based community, at least for the moment:

A few months ago, I wrote that John McCain was an honorable man and he would run an honorable campaign. I was wrong. I used to think, as David Ignatius does, that McCain's true voice was humble and moderate, but now I'm beginning to think his Senate colleagues may be right about his temperament. From what I can gather, Mississippi Senator Thad Cochran, a Republican, reflected the views of many of his colleagues earlier this year when he said:

"The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine...He is erratic. He is hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me."

The erratic nature of McCain's campaign seems to be confirming that judgment.

John McCain has NEVER been an honorable man. John McCain has received a free pass because of his horrific experience as a prisoner of war. That experience has gained him a free pass for his treatment of the wife who waited for him, his use of a young heiress' money to jumpstart a political career, his treatment of said young wife when she was no longer 25 years old, his consistent record of favors-for-cash dating at least as far back as the Keating S&L scandal. There is nothing about John McCain that is honorable, and it's high time that Joe Klein and the others who looked the other way while a similar mythology was built around George W. Bush to pull the blinders from their eyes.

The stakes are too high this year.