TruthMaker to McCain: "I accept your offer, sir!"

That's right. Maverick has made his bluff and the TruthMaker is calling him on it.

Tuesday in a speech to the AFL-CIO's annual convention in Washington, D.C., Senator John McCain, who is currently in the process of selling his once "maverick" soul to the Bid'ness and Jesus wings of the Republican Party in hopes of getting the nomination for POTUS in '08, was actually booed when he tried to go through the GOP (biz and Jes', not the actual conservative Republican) talking points on immigration. Though McCain threatened to leave and even feigned walking away from the lectern, he did continue his speech to further booing.

The talking point that drew my attention was #17, illegal immigrants are simply taking jobs that regular Americans don't want or won't take.

Irritated by the response he was getting, the senior senator from Arizona made an offer to the crowd that was at best an offer made in bad judgment, and at worst completely cynical and disingenuous political grandstanding in the typically Republican style.

In response to one cry from the crowd to "Pay a decent wage," McCain shot back that he would pay anybody in the crowd $50 an hour to pick lettuce in Yuma. McCain then went on to disparage the American worker by noting twice that anybody interested had to work the entire lettuce season, not just one day. "You can't do it, my friends" McCain added.

After watching McCain's challenge, I immediately fired off an email to the Senator's office. I indicated that as a college-educated person doing white collar work in the Bay Area for much less than $50 an hour, I am willing to leave my home and family, and travel hundreds of miles to the south to earn that kind of money.

I further challenged him to put his money where his mouth was, since I have accepted his challenge, and am willing to put my lower back where my mouth is. I did stipulate that McCain's offer had to be legitimate and verified in writing. I don't want him pulling any crap like giving me a contact number and I've got to take it from there.

So the ball is in McCain's court now. I need the money, and as I told the Senator, I'm willing to do pretty much any job for $50 an hour in this economy. Let's see if he has the cajones to keep his word.

A word on his word. For one, it's typical of Republicans to try to skew the debate. Like Republicans that constantly try to compare the War in Iraq to World War II, McCain tried to bolster his argument that Americans won't do field labor with the completely egregious example of $50 an hour wages. What a joke. If it is true that Americans won't do field labor, it's because the massive corporate agribusinesses offer demeaning and degrading wages that the average American can't live on. Do you know how long the line would be to scrub toilets or bus tables if employers were paying $50? Even $15 an hour would make a huge difference. But no, McCain hyperbolically throws out the number $50 an hour. It's insulting and totally misleading, and he knows it.

And will he stick to his word? I have a feeling that many other Americans like me are going to flood his office with requests for one of these $50 an hour jobs. Will he honor his offer or will he cop out with some chicken-shit backpedaling about how the offer was only for the people in the audience or that he was just making an example?

He better not, because he stood up there at the lectern and made his offer not once, but twice. He was adamant, mostly about the fact that nobody in the audience could actually work an entire lettuce season, but also about his offer. Well, like I said, I've already contacted him to say I accept the offer. Sign me up right now.

On the other hand, if McCain welches on his offer, then he should be soundly denounced as just another bag of political gas, a lying member of the ruling class that will say and do anything to get elected, or in this case, nominated. Put up or shut up Senator.

Finally, who exactly is going to pay this $50 an hour wage, if it ever materializes? Certainly no agribusiness employer is going to cough up that kind of money. They can pay 10 illegal immigrants for them kind of wages. So is the money going to come out of the taxpayers' pockets? Is McCain making idle boasts on the taxpayers' dime? Will it come out of his personal funds?

Questions like where the money will come from, a question for which there is no clear or logical answer, seem to indicate that McCain is in fact full of hot air. He never had any intention of paying anybody $50 an hour to pick lettuce. He was just trying to make his political point by manipulating the issue and distracting people from the real facts. SOP for the Republican party.

I'll be sitting by the phone waiting for my $50 an hour job and waiting to see if John McCain is a man of his word or just another politician that can't be trusted to live up to his promises.