Oops?

There was a line in Sen. McCain's POW story as told by him at the RNC last night that caught my attention. "I was feeling terrible after one interrogation. They had broken me and I was as low as I had ever been."

He then told of how another prisoner reassured him by means of taps through the wall that he would come out of his depression and was okay.

"They had broken me," Sen. McCain said.

In the context of statements by another POW that McCain became an advocate for normalization when he returned from Vietnam, that little phrase leaves me wondering: what did McCain give up to the Vietnamese in that incident? What did he promise? What did he gain by breaking? What happened that depressed him so much as he returned to his cell?

In one sense, I do not care what actually happened because under the circumstances, I cannot say I would have done anything differently. I can imagine being tougher but no one who knows me would believe it.

But in another sense, I would really like for Sen. McCain to explain what actually happened that particular time and any other times he has not acknowledged during which he may have given in to his captors.

Why? Because then maybe we'd have a better idea what has motivated him all these years.

If I understand Sen. McCain's history correctly, he did not start out fighting corruption when he entered Congress. He was a "loyal footsoldier" for President Reagan. He did not get interested in fighting corruption until after he was caught in the middle of the Keating Five scandal. Was it just good cover to become outspoken against the very thing he had been caught doing?

Is it just good cover to play the POW card all the time for every challenge because Sen. McCain has been some kind of "Manchurian Candidate" since he returned from Vietnam?

I wish Sen. McCain would tell the story behind his being "broken." Up till now, I had the impression that he had never been. Did I miss something?