Dark humor, dementia, or just a prominent leftist contrarian letting his prominent leftist contrarianism run away with him? Like Ace says, it’s bittersweet insofar as it instantly destroys the credibility of someone whose relevance already petered out long ago. As such, it’s politically useless, except to the extent some enterprising reporter wants to put one of his acolytes on the spot by asking if he/she agrees with it.

And what about Mr. McCain? Disaster. Who started this rumor that he was a war hero? Where does that come from, aside from himself? About his suffering in the prison war camp?

Everyone knows he was a prisoner of war in North Vietnam. That’s what he tells us.

Exit question: Help Vidal fill in the blanks. Where was Maverick and what he was up to during the “lost years”? My guess: Stoned constantly, shacked up on a ranch somewhere in the midwest with 10-20 other people, living off the land and trying to “find himself.”