"This way, men!"

Senator John McCain frequently comes across as a self-appointed scoutmaster for Troop GOP, irritably trying to get his charges to fall in line for a good twenty-mile hike into the desert – then, forgetting to bring compass and water, heading off obliviously into a puma-infested box canyon.

McCain attempts constantly to set the tone and direction of a Republican Party that is rapidly losing coherence, a sense of purpose, and national influence, precisely as a direct result of the kind of leadership provided by him and others of his ilk. He is on the wrong side of the proposed immigration bill - one of the biggest (and most futile) exercises in pandering to be seen in decades - and now he is pressing Obama to take a more activist approach in Syria, where there are no good guys, and where our major opponent is not the Syrian government but an aggressive and committed Russia. Arming the Syrian rebels – largely al-Qaeda factions – will earn the United States not five minutes of gratitude, and will, by the president’s own admission, not in any significant way alter the eventual outcome.

It’s time for the scouts to tie McCain to a tree somewhere out of earshot and leave him there until he agrees to retire.