It Appears that The Left Was Lying About McCain (Cross in the dirt episode)

It’s absolutely amazing how quickly a lie turns into a fact. After the Saddleback debate, McCain was accused of inventing a story about a prison guard in the Hanoi Hilton who treated him well and made the sign of the cross in the dirt.

The story was instantly attributed to Solzhenitsyn, who – it was claimed – told a similar story in “The Gulag Archipelago.” Except no one bothered to check if the story actually appeared in any of Solzhenitsyn’s books. It turns out that the answer was “no.” So now we have a Left Wing web site admitting that the attribution is bogus, but continuing to claim that the story may never have happened.

This only solves a piece of the mystery, but it's a key piece. It doesn't necessarily rule out the possibility that McCain or his biographer, Mark Salter, picked up the tale that this happened to Solzhenitsyn elsewhere and embellished it for their own purposes.

And the comments that follow from the even more rabid followers of the Messiah Obama reflect a mental pathology that is disturbing:

Posted by “bribes”

Loser argument? Did you guys live through 2004 or not? This is attacking McCain right where it hurts. This discredits his POW status, his infallibility when he talks about his time there, his truthfulness, his entire campaign (noun, verb, POW). This is a splinter in McCain's side that casts doubt on all his POW haranguing.
Pay attention people.

Posted by Jonze

I don't think this happened to McCain and believe it was likely Salter who added it in McCain's story to add to the McCain lore, but there is really no way of proving or disproving it, and as has been mentioned it's a political loser for the Dems.
McCain probably believes it now, and Salter is likely the only person who could discredit it and he surely isn't going to do that

There is a desperate need on the part of the Left to believe that McCain is the kind of faux “war here” that John Kerry is. That the story of his capture and torture are as made-up as Kerry’s “Christmas in Cambodia” story. That is why the cross in the dirt MUST be a lie, otherwise they will have to admit that the Swift boaters were right and that Kerry was fraud.

The are desperate to do to McCain what they believe the Swift boat vets did to John Kerry. There is a major difference: McCain isn't Kerry. McCain didn't skip out on the war based on fake wounds, didn't lie about his exploits and didn't smear the troops when he returned.