In a previous article, I wrote that you never apologize if you didn’t do anything wrong. I will add to that, especially when someone uses guilt manipulation and emotional argumentation, an appeal to pity, if you will.

The latest show of Republican weakness and guilt manipulation is coming from Republican John McCain who wants a grand mea culpa from a critic of Republican squishiness. No surprise here.

Sen. McCain is responding to the following from fellow Republican senator Ted Cruz from Texas:

“You want to lose elections? Stand for nothing. Look at the last four congressional elections, in ’06, ’08, ’10′, and ’12. In 3 of the four we followed that strategy. In ‘06, ‘08 and ‘12, we put our head down, we stood for nothing and we got walloped.

“The one election that was a tremendous election was 2010, when Republicans drew a line in the sand. We said we stand unequivocally against Obamacare, against bankrupting the country, and we won an historic tidal wave of an election.

“And of course then all of us remember President Dole, and President McCain, and President Romney. Now look those are good men, those are decent men — but when you don’t stand and draw a clear distinction, when you don’t stand for principle, Democrats celebrate.”

And I will add, “and win.”

John McCain was not happy with Cruz’s comments. He said the following on MSNBC. That’s right, MSNBC:

“[Sen. Cruz] can say what he wants to about me, and he can say anything he wants to, I think, about Mitt – Mitt’s capable of taking it. But when he throws Bob Dole in there, I wonder if he thinks that Bob Dole stood for principle on that hilltop in Italy when he was so gravely wounded and left part of his body there fighting for our country?”

What does one thing have to do with the other? Nothing. There are lots of men who left body parts behind in wars. My father is one of them. His right leg was blown off above the knee in the Korean conflict. He stood for principle, but that does not mean that in everything he did thereafter should get a pass. He never used his life-changing injury as a pretext for either sympathy or laxity when it came to principle. The same standard should apply to everybody, wounded or not.

There have been lots of men who have served in the military who have made terrible elected officials. And there are people who never served a day in the military who have done a great job in politics.

The Right Scoop gets it right:

“This is why I said McCain sounds like a slimy Democrat because this is exactly what slimy Democrats do. McCain goes on MSNBC to attack Cruz and suggest that he doesn’t respect the military sacrifice that Dole gave for this country. How dare he!

“Ted Cruz was not talking about Dole’s military service and McCain knows it. Cruz was talking about his political campaign for president. He was talking about the Republican Party.”

When McCain said, Sen. Cruz “can say what he wants to about me,” he was lying. McCain was upset because it was about him.