On Fox News Sunday the other day — C&L has the video and part of the transcript — host Brit Hume referred to McCain’s recent Iran/al Qaeda gaffe as “a senior moment”:

I think it’s probably just a blip, but it was a bigger blip than he wanted or needed at the time. I think the overall impression of the trip was this is a man welcomed by, knowledgeable of and comfortable with foreign leaders across a big part of the globe. But the mistake, nonetheless, raises questions not about his knowledgability — we all kinda believe he has that — the question, perhaps, about his age, which is an issue. You know, the feeling was not that he’s a dope, didn’t know his way around, that he might have had a senior moment there, and I think that’s unfortunate for him. But I think probably the trip was a net plus.

It was a fairly serious (and revealing gaffe), and not an isolated one. And it may not be so much a matter of knowledge — he is a smart man who knows a great deal about the world — as it is of competence.

What is interesting, though, is how the gaffe has been received, and how future gaffes will be received. McCain continues to get a free pass from the major media in terms of experience, knowledge, and general competence, and even in terms of judgment and his positions on the issues, especially on foreign policy, international relations, and military matters. Simply put, the media like him and don’t ask the tough questions. This gaffe seems to have punctured the bubble around him, though, and, for once, the media are taking a more critical view of their darling. At the very least, the gaffe got some coverage, and he looked bad. Perhaps it was a turning point.

Or perhaps not. The spotlight isn’t on him the way it’s on Obama and Clinton, and the media have yet to show that they intend to treat McCain like they will undoubtedly treat either Obama or Clinton as the Democratic nominee. He is still the avuncular, straight-talking wise man. While partisans like Hume will excuse his gaffes as reflections of old age, downplaying them into meaninglessness, it will be up to the non-partisan (or less explicitly partisan) in the media to do their jobs and act like professionals. It’s time to take McCain seriously — he is the Republican nominee, after all — and to revoke his free pass.
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Unbelievable:

Brit Hume called former Senator John Glenn a “partisan—spearchucker” to describe his role in a Fred Thompson investigation back in his old Senate days on FOX News Sunday.

Video and transcript, of course, at Crooks and Liars.

John Amato looked “spearchucker” up in the urban dictionary: “A derogatory phrase for a black male used in reference to his primitive abilities to hunt animals with a long sharpened object.”

Earlier today, I defended a Republican, namely the leader of the GOP in Arkansas. This time, however, I have no intention of doing so. This was a racial slur and Brit Hume should be held accountable for using it on national television.