Hm. I can’t think of a properly snarky way to introduce this, so we’ll go for the straightforward. John “McRage” McCain has now publicly opposed the troop surge in Iraq because, get this, it’s not a big enough surge.

McCain said he would judge any surge proposal based on the assessments of people such as retired Army General Jack Keane, who has called for at least 30,000 additional troops. “If it’s not sufficient in the view of” experts such as Keane, “then I cannot support it,” he said in an interview on “Political Capital with Al Hunt” airing this weekend on Bloomberg Television.

Now, that’s a little counterintuitive to me. If you believe that we need more troops ASAP, then why on earth would you oppose a troop increase simply because it’s not as many as you want? Clearly you believe that our current force in Iraq needs help, so wouldn’t some help be better than none at all? To me this is like a panhandler giving back your $5 because he wanted a $10.

Okay, now it’s time for Mr Dumb.

Earlier in the day, during an appearance at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, McCain outlined what he viewed as the minimum levels necessary to make a surge work: three to five additional brigades in Baghdad and one brigade in Anbar Province in western Iraq, a Sunni insurgent stronghold.

That would amount to between 18,000 and 27,000 soldiers, because an Army brigade consists of about 4,500 soldiers.

Okay, that’s a fairly solid number. Apparently Bush wanted a smaller number. And as it turns out CNN has the scoop on how many troops Bush wants.

Bush has said he will announce a new war strategy sometime next week, and sources with knowledge of the president’s deliberations have told CNN that he is likely to order a “surge” of 20,000 to 40,000 U.S. troops to Iraq to bolster the roughly 140,000 now there.

…well then. So Bush’s increase falls certainly within and likely above McCain’s desired levels. And they most likely will go over the 30,000 Keane wanted, which McRage said he would default to.

So that begs the question: what was the point of saying this? No one’s suggesting a troop increase that low, all the comment did was point out that McRage doesn’t REALLY have those die-hard convictions, he’s just repeatedly angling himself as a “renegade”. Or it tells us that McCain is a child who will stomp his foot and take his toys back home if he doesn’t get his way. Possibly both.