He used to be a maverick and a straight-talker.  Now he’s completely bonkers.

In recent days, he’s been touting how safe Baghdad is, even as news reports have highlighted bombings and attacks in the normally-safe green zone.  For his pollyannish comments, McCain was fittingly ridiculed.

But rather than let it go, he decided to amp it up.  At a press conference in the heavily-guarded Green Zone yesterday, McCain bragged about having just strolled through a Baghdad market for an hour. It was proof he said, that an American could “walk freely” in some areas of the city, just as he said last week.

What does "walk freely" mean to McCain?

It means walking with body armor, surrounded by 100 American soldiers.  Not to mention three Blackhawk helicopters and two Apache gunships overhead.

McCain’s press conference was a farce.  Newsweek noted, “It didn’t take the insurgents long to send their reply. Less then 30 minutes after McCain wrapped up, a barrage of half a dozen mortars peppered the boundaries of the Green Zone, where the senators held their press conference.”

Way to prove the opposite of what you intended to prove, McCain.