Today McCain conducted another in his series of blogger calls. More to come later, but in response to Time snub of General Petraeus in favor of Vladimir Putin as Man of the Year, McCain had this to say:

Time has named Vladimir Putin as their Man of the Year and of course you know he has named his successor. We knew the puppet show was going on, we just didn't know who the puppet was. And my nominee for man of the year would have been one David Petraeus. I think he clearly deserved it because of his success.

Earlier today, the Boston Herald reported earlier comments by McCain on the Russian president and soon to be prime minister that played off Bush's famous remark in 2001 that he'd looked into Putin's eyes and gained "a sense of his soul." McCain sees something different:

“I looked into his eyes and saw three letters: a K, a G and a B."

He elaborated on that in his call today:

Putin is going to cause us a lot of difficulties...I don't think it's going to be a return to the cold war, they don't have the population...anything that would bring around the kind of military might that they once had, even with the petrodollars....but they are trying to reassert the Russian empire...and they are going to be a thorn in our side.