No, this is not a bad homophobic joke from the 60's that your dad would hear at a 'stag party'.

Actually, it's a bad joke from campaign 2008.  

Why do John McCain, Joe Lieberman and Lindsay Graham always seem to be traveling somewhere together?

Seriously, every time McCain gets on a plane, it seems he's with both of the two other Stooges.  

I can't help but wonder what they'd each shout as each one in turn put on their parachutes and jumped off the plane.  

John McCain came to California this week on what has been described as his energy tour, defending his call for a lifting of the ban on off-shore drilling (not a popular position here in California) and repeating his proposal to build 45 new nuclear power plants by 2030 and 55 more down the road.

This is how one writer describes McCain's pro-nuclear stance:

It's an unqualified enthusiasm that brings to mind Homer Simpson's memorable prayer thanking God "for nuclear power: the cleanest, safest energy there is. Except for solar, which is just a pipe dream."

But what's really odd about McCain's love affair with nuclear power is how he's selling it: "the French do it, why don't we!"

"My friend, the technology is there. The Europeans do it. I mean it's safe. It's being done. So, to think that that is going to require some pain on the American people economically when the Europeans-- 80 percent of the French electricity is generated by nuclear power. They are doing fine," McCain said to applause from the audience.

Hell, you'd think Lindsay Graham was French the way he's talking about their widespread use of nuclear power.

"It's ridiculous that America cannot proceed with nuclear power," Graham said on Fox News on Wednesday."We should follow the French model of storage and recycling." [...]

The Republican suggested that Obama look at the French nuclear power program, which provides most of the country's power, when he visits Europe.

"Surely we can be as bold as the French," said Graham. "They know what they're doing. They have a very mature nuclear program."

So, after the years long Republican demonization of all things European, particularly all things French, now John McCain and Lindsay Graham are accusing Democrats of not being French enough?

But, as Carl Pope at HuffPo explains, McCain had better hope Americans don't ask the French people how that whole nuclear thing has worked out for them.

But a recent analysis by Lawrence Solomon shows that citing the French experience is yet another example of McCain having failed to keep up with events.

Solomon explains the sordid story of France's nuclear romance. It's technical, but if you want to know why nuclear power is -- even for its wildest fans -- a limited part of our energy future, worth reading. But the bottom line is that nuclear power effectively bankrupted Electricite de France, the French power company. As a result, 61 percent of the population of France favors a complete phase-out of nuclear power -- a larger anti-nuclear constituency than in the U.S., where experience with nuclear and its economic problems is much more limited.

Says Solomon:

Nuclear reactors cannot possibly meet 80% of America's power needs -- or those of any country whose power market dominates its region -- because of limitations in nuclear technology. McCain needs to find another miracle energy solution, or abandon his vow to drastically cut back carbon dioxide emissions.

Several reasonably well-placed sources have told me that defeating this bill is unlikely.  It passed the House, and a vote in the Senate will probably happen tomorrow.  It feels to me like there's just no coordinated strategy in place in the Senate, probably because there's disagreement within the caucus.  This makes the Maine Senators important, because the disarray in the caucus increases the need for Republican votes.  The only chance for defeating this bill lies with convincing a group of Republican Senators to oppose it.  That's not impossible, but it's not likely.  Still, the phones are ringing in the Senate today.

On the House side, Nancy Pelosi is out and public, and in very strong terms is against this bill.  Most Democrats in the House did us proud.

The bill, if it passes, will face legal challenges.  And the outcome of the vote is important in framing how the political landscape looks.  John McCain completely crumpled on the key issues here, giving in to the White House.  I didn't use to be worried about a McCain candidacy, but what's becoming increasingly clear is that the Democratic candidates are simply unwilling to attack him.  That's a serious problem.  If Democratic Presidential candidates won't go after him now, after he faced a humiliating defeat by an unpopular President, just how are people going to go after him in 2008?

Anyway, keep those calls coming, and we'll see what happens in the next 24 hours.

The debate is on C-Span 2 here.  The Levin substitution failed 43-54, and Lindsay Graham is speaking.  Here are more specific instructions on what to say to the Maine Senators.

Call Senator Collins/Snowe and urge her to vote against S. 3930 .  This unAmerican bill betrays our constitutional tradition and costs us what little moral authority we retain, not to secure the country -- torture doesn't produce useful intelligence -- but because desperate politicians want something to brag about on the campaign trail.  Tell Senator Collins/Snowe that no cheap partisan stunt is worth exposing our troops to torture, alienating our allies, and abandoning the Constitution.

Susan Collins
461 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-2523
Fax: (202) 224-2693

Olympia Snowe
154 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-5344
Toll Free: (800) 432-1599
Fax: (202) 224-1946

Update: As is indicated in the comments, the phones are getting pounded. Regardless of what happens, we're on the record against this.