John McCain Was Both
It took real guts to fly combat missions over North Vietnam, especially under Lyndon Johnson's policy of "Don't Win, But Don't Lose". Nobody can take that from him.
And his children have turned out well. That speaks well of the man.
But there is no getting around the fact that his politics, especially in recent years, have been disgraceful.
"I'm John McCain and I approved this message."
That's the signature line from McCain's signature bill, the Campaign Reform Act. It was meant to stop unaccountable smear campaigns by faceless politicians.
Yet that is exactly what McCain did when he conspired with Brennan and Comey to spread the Trump Dossier. Supporting sedition by an anonymous rogue National Security Apparatus is even worse than attacks by anonymous politicians. McCain's role was both hypocritical to his own stated principles and anti-Constitutional.
He told voters if they re-elected him, he would be "leading the fight to repeal and replace ObamaCare". Instead, he screwed over millions of families for personal pique.
His office conspired with Lois Lerner to have the IRS harass citizens in the Tea Party movement. Anti-Constitutional if not illegal.
He famously said "We have nothing to fear from an Obama presidency". He was wrong about that. too. We had nothing to fear from a patriotic black president, but not from Obama, who did vast damage.
He once fought to secure South Vietnam's borders but saw no need to secure America's.
He once fought to secure South Vietnam's borders but saw no need to secure America's.
He expected Republicans to support him when he was chosen, which we did--but failed to reciprocate when we chose Donald Trump.
It was a slur against America to equate the targeted discomfort put on Khalid Sheik Muhammad to stop another 9/11 (and get bin Laden's location) to the sadistic free-for-all inflicted on our servicemen at the Hanoi Hilton.
And his last public act was to leave Arizonans without a senator for a year, treating his office as a hereditary baronetcy. That's against the republican nature of our country and putting self before service.
John McCain had a chance to be a hero again, to tell the corrupt directors of the CIA and the FBI to stop meddling in the presidential campaign and get their grubby hands off of the election that rightfully belongs to the American people. He could have done that with his stature. But instead, he threw in with them. He failed to rise above his own bitterness. He chose Self over Service and the Swamp over America.
In the end, the Swamp Drained Him. He lost his way.
There's been an awful lot of that going around.
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Peak Sanctimony Overload Alert-UPDATE: The Washington Post now says military service confers sainthood, which will come as a pleasant surprise to "Tail-Gunner Joe" McCarthy and Col. North! The Post also says any principled opposition to McCain's policies are mindless "tribal politics", which is kinda' funny coming from a rag that publishes nothing but mindless anti-Trump tribal politics seven days a week. So Much For Loyalty-UPDATE: John McCain was thoughtful enough to give Sarah Palin a Get-Out-of-Funeral-free card. He was always thinking of others like that, so they tell me. And tell me. And tell me. And...
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