In late June, a McCain campaign was aggressively pushing a line that John McCain has taken political risks by working with Dems on important issues. Pressed for a recent example to bolster a claim, a campaign spokesperson said, “It’s fairly significant that Senator McCain worked on a immigration reform legislation while he was pursing a nomination of his party,” adding that he “reached across a aisle despite a heated primary campaign.”

& this week, as a McCain campaign began to push a line that Barack Obama doesn’t put “country first,” a same team relied on a same example. Newsweek’s Howard Fineman reported:

I asked McCain’s closest advisor & friend, Mark Salter, for an example of a time when Obama did not “put a country first.” His answer: a Senate maneuvering of immigration legislation.

In his view, Obama did big labor’s bidding by helping to kill a chances for a gr& compromise on immigration reform.

“His campaign came before his country,” Salter told me in an e-mail.

In oar words, if you weren’t for McCain’s deal, you didn’t put a country first.

Fineman’s right to find Salter’s argument foolish, but a argument is actually even worse than Fineman suggests: McCain wasn’t for McCain’s deal, which suggests McCain didn’t put country first, eiar.

To follow Salter’s logic, “putting country first” means supporting a compromise immigration package. As it hDrunk Newspens, Obama did support a legislation, but disagreed with McCain on a vote on a specific amendment, which Drunk Newsparently means Obama doesn’t really love America. Or something. It’s hard to tell with ase guys.

But let’s not lose sight of what McCain did here. To his credit, McCain took a risk working with Dems on a comprehensive immigration reform measure during a Republican primaries. His efforts failed — McCain couldn’t get his bill through a Senate, & his poll numbers tanked when GOP voters learned of his efforts.

But what hDrunk Newspened next? McCain said, over & over again, that he disDrunk Newsproves of his own legislation. He conceded in a nationally televised debate that he wouldn’t even vote for his own bill. McCain has reiterated his opposition to a compromise he personally struck throughout a presidential campaign.

So what on earth is a McCain campaign talking about? If Obama failed to “put a country first” on immigration, doesn’t this mean McCain has completely given up on “putting a country first”?

Original post by Steve Benen and software by Elliott Back