McCain sells out. Big time.

The Carpetbagger has the details.

John McCain used to think that Grover Norquist was a crook and a corrupt shill for dictators. Then McCain got serious about running for president and he reconciled with Norquist. McCain used to think Jerry Falwell was an agent of intolerance, but now candidate McCain has embraced Falwell.

It's an interesting pattern — and the examples keep piling up...

McCain and Norquist in 2005:

A Republican activist who took millions from gaming tribes says he is "getting dragged into" the Jack Abramoff scandal because Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) holds a grudge against him...

..."McCain hates me," Norquist tells The New York Times.

McCain and Norquist in 2006:

As McCain's investigation reached its denouement, rumors flew through Washington that his committee was sitting on a trove of damning evidence. He seemed to have a gun to Norquist's head. And then ... nothing. At the very moment when McCain could have pulled the trigger, he let Norquist walk away. Some mildly damaging e-mails were released by McCain's committee, but the most tantalizing leads were never pursued. McCain gave up his fight for information about Norquist's donors, and Norquist himself was never called to testify.

McCain and Falwell in 2000:

“Neither party should be defined by pandering to the outer reaches of American politics and the agents of intolerance, whether they be Louis Farrakhan or Al Sharpton on the left or Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell on the right,” McCain said at the time.

McCain and Falwell in 2006:

MR. RUSSERT: Do you believe that Jerry Falwell is still an agent of intolerance?

SEN. McCAIN: No, I don’t.

McCain and the Wyly Brothers, who Swift Boated McCain in 2000:

The candidate himself referred to the brothers as "Wyly coyotes" and asked a campaign audience in Boston, "Are we going to allow two cronies of George W. Bush to hijack this election? Tell them to keep their dirty money in the state of Texas, my friends. Don't spread it all over New England and America."

McCain and the Wyly Brothers in 2006:

A mid-May fundraiser for Sen. John McCain's Straight Talk America PAC suggests that a major artery of cash Pres. Bush's campaign had effectively siphoned off in 2000 is now flowing to McCain.

An invitation circulated to Republican donors advertises a May 15th event in Dallas featuring McCain and RNC chairman Ken Mehlman....

...Among the co-chairs are...billionaire brothers Charles and Sam Wyly...