John McCain went to the floor of the Senate today to vouch for Huma Abedin, Hillary Clinton's senior aide, whose reported familial connections to Muslim Brotherhood groups is included among an array of security  concerns regarding potential MB influence in the US government that was raised recently by five House Republicans.

Huma's bona fides aside, it's impossible to resist noting that John McCain is the guy who went to Benghazi last year to vouch for the al-Qaeda-linked "rebels." "They are my heroes," the AZ senator said on a tour of the city that took him to the very spot where his "heroes" had publicly cut off the head of a Qaddafi supporter a couple of weeks earlier.

In an essay tagging McCain for reprising his up-the-(al Qaeda)-rebel role now in Syria, John Rosenthal recaps last year's McCain junket to the AQ-in-Libya stronghold. There is something in these pilgrimages that is strangely reminiscent of those the Left used to make to an array of Communist garden spots to praise the totalitarian de jour (Stalin, Mao, Castro, etc.).

Rosenthal writes:

Never mind that these “heroes” had been caught on video committing horrific atrocities, nor that one of their commanders had openly acknowledged his ties to al-Qaeda. At the time, such details were of no greater interest to the mainstream American media than they were to Senator McCain or to the Obama administration.

Senator McCain, of course, got his wish. Months of NATO bombing paved the way for the rebels’ conquest of Tripoli in late August. It was only then that the broader American public got some idea of the central role that al-Qaeda had been playing in the rebellion all along. As Tripoli fell, it emerged that the commander of the rebel forces that had taken control of the capital was none other than Abdul Hakim Belhadj, the historical leader of the local al-Qaeda affiliate, the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG). In fact, no fewer than three al-Qaeda-linked militants who had at one time or another been in U.S. custody played key roles in the rebellion. The NATO bombing campaign would continue for another two months, until the last bastions of the old regime had fallen and Moammar Qaddafi had been killed.

Just days after Qaddafi’s death in Sirte, the distinctive black flag of al-Qaeda would be seen flying above Benghazi and all along the Benghazi waterfront.

That said, Sen. McGoo hardly comes across as the shrewdest judge of character.