The dishonesty of a 'maverick'

The New York Times has an excellent article (McCain Barbs Stirring Outcry as Distortions) about the many lies and distortions of the McCain campaign and people starting to question it. While I don't believe the media has called McCain on it enough, at least there are some who are starting to question it and maybe McCain's dishonesty will become a campaign issue. The Times article quotes Don Sipple, a Republican strategist, who voiced concern that John McCain’s approach could backfire:

“Any campaign that is taking liberty with the truth and does it in a serial manner will end up paying for it in the end,” he said. “But it’s very unbecoming to a political figure like John McCain whose flag was planted long ago in ground that was about ‘straight talk’ and integrity.”

Ideally the election campaign should focus on policy issues such as peace, health care, and the economy and not be reduced to moral character, but I think honesty can and should become an issue in this election. We already have a president that got us into a war with Iraq based on lies and deception. We don't need another one.