My Windy colleague Matt DeLong reports that McCain aide Randy Scheuemann doesn’t give an eff what the allegedly sovereign government of Iraq thinks about getting our dudes off of its lawn. From Matt’s transcript:

Randy Scheunemann: Sen. McCain has always said two things would determine his approach to force levels in Iraq: the advice of commanders on the ground and the security situation on the ground. …

With regard to the Iraqi government position — the clearest explanation of that was, on Friday, in a joint statement with President Bush and [Iraqi] Prime Minister [Nouri al-] Maliki, making clear that any withdrawal, further withdrawal, of U.S. forces be based on critical conditions on the ground, including: the nature of the enemy and enemy activity [and the] security situation and the ability of Iraqi security forces to provide for their own security.

So Scheunemann’s strategy is to a) dismiss what the Iraqis say when he doesn’t like it; b) and pretend that they’ve always said what he likes; and c) say that in the final analysis it doesn’t matter because Petraeus and Odierno are the real rulers of Iraq.

Let’s put politics aside for one second. How does John McCain expect to actually govern if he’s implicitly telling Maliki that the needs of his government to announce a withdrawal of U.S. troops don’t matter? Especially if McCain wishes to prolong the war, he’ll need to work with Maliki or Maliki’s successor(s) in some cases and pressure them in others. Nothing is less productive to those inevitable needs than to send the message that the U.S. will set policy in Iraq unilaterally. This is the man we’re supposed to believe has the superior judgment to be president?