Either Or

It's common for political advocates to know they're right about some topic and then naturally conclude that anyone who doesn't agree with their position must be either stupid or a liar.

Ed Brayton makes that mistake when talking about some of the nonsense that McCain has been spouting about the Gitmo habeas corpus Supreme Court decision.

McCain's statement was so ridiculous that one has to wonder if he is really that ignorant of the law or if he was simply lying through his teeth. Here's what he said:

We are now going to have the courts flooded with so-called, quote, Habeas Corpus suits against the government, whether it be about the diet, whether it be about the reading material. And we are going to be bollixed up in a way that is terribly unfortunate, because we need to go ahead and adjudicate these cases.

I think McCain might have been making a crude attempt at making a slippery slope argument.