#1
God be with Ye... Goodbye. A chapter in American Politics ends with him and it is ironic that "...his good friend Teddy Kennedy also died on this day in 2009."
Six-term Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), 81, passed away in Sedona, Ariz., nine years to the day that his friend Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) passed away from the same kind of brain cancer,
#7
...McCain told AZ Governor Doug Ducey (following McCain's diagnosis)that he would retire if and only if Ducey appointed Cindy McCain to the seat. Ducey didn't even blink and said no; McCain told him to go fark himself and that was that.
That's how McCain's service to his country ended.
I will always, always honor John McCain's service and his courage as a POW. I cannot in any way support his behavior as a Senator. I wish his family comfort in this awful time, and I truly hope the Senator passed without pain or suffering. But for those who will be running their mouths and keyboards over the next few days, spare us the platitudes.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
08/26/2018 7:45 Comments ||
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#8
He stopped treatments but never resigned from the Senate. He lived that "with my last breath I stab at thee" thing. America deserves much better.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/26/2018 7:45 Comments ||
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#9
Both born to the purple, well-bred,
Two faces of one brazen head,
Ted's wild roamin' nose
And John's Hornblower pose:
The blue and the red. The undead.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/26/2018 8:40 Comments ||
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#12
#7 - Mike - AMEN
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/26/2018 8:41 Comments ||
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#13
History aside, the Founding Fathers would puke at the idea of hereditary seats in any part of government. If Ducey does not have the rocks to tell the McCain clan that the foot in the door is gone now, then Arizona deserves whatever it gets. The rest of the country does not.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/26/2018 8:44 Comments ||
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#15
Think of how wonderful the legacy legislators have been. Jean Carnahan, Murky Murkowski, Jessuh Jackson Jr., on and on. We need a skip two generations law for all public office.
Could you imagine Meggie Moo in the Senate?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/26/2018 8:49 Comments ||
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#16
John F. Di Leo:
“I have lost a number of beloved people to brain cancer. All cancers are hard to deal with, brain cancer being particularly rough because the nature of the brain causes so many such cancers to be inoperable. So we begin a post, or obit, or whatever this is, by stressing that we know the pain of the disease, and we don't mean to minimize the pain of such suffering.
But this is about a political figure, so we should really be able to assume that the above goes without saying, and instead get to the important stuff.
We've had over half a year - about three quarters of one, if memory serves - to prepare for this day. We've known John McCain was close to the end since last autumn, so we could work on finding the right words for talking about both his suffering and his eventual death.
John McCain was, in many ways, the walking illustration of the concept of a missed opportunity. Scion of a respected military family, his naval career was a disaster. Imprisoned in Hanoi for years, patriots have had to spend fifty years trying to speak of him with the same level of respect we have for such other heroes there as the great Jeremiah Denton. When we would speak of one and leave McCain out of the list, others would be there to remind us that McCain was in that same sad club, leaving us to endure the same discomfort again and again, in trying to tactfully say that we didn't believe he really belonged to that same sad club after all....
When he entered politics, he appeared to side with the right, and he carefully managed to ensure that his voting record always looked conservative. McCain died with a lifetime ACU rating of 81%, which isn't bad... but it's deceptive. He always made sure to vote right on most unimportant bills to keep his voting record conservative, but then he would pick just one or two huge issues - massive issues - and take a very public position in opposition to the right position, This enabled him to do two things that he truly loved doing: to call himself a "maverick" for bucking his party on an important issue so he could get liberal media acclaim, and to truly stab in the back the people on the right side. He only did this on the biggest, most important issues. Federal judges... campaign finance regulations... immigration policy... obamacare... he didn't oppose the conservative agenda very often - only when he could personally really do massive damage to it.
And when you talk about missed opportunities, will there ever be a better example than his ghastly 2008 campaign for the White House? The man actually said, while running for president, that he didn't really understand economics at all. Yes, out loud. Of course he lost. He didn't try. He practically threw the race (some actually believe he intentionally did throw the race, though I doubt that)... Obama didn't understand economics better than McCain did, but Obama was at least bright enough not to tell the electorate that.
John McCain was an almost thoroughly destructive force in the Republican party for at least the past 20 years. Many would argue he was destructive all the way back to his early races.
I have never been a fan of legally mandated term limits, but John McCain is truly the poster child for them. If he had retired 20 years ago, his memory would have at least been a generally positive one. But today, after these past 20 years of shenanigans, his memory is almost entirely negative. He was so bold, so loud, so omnipresent thanks to his pals in the media, that whenever he did one of his big liberal gestures, we all saw it. We couldn't miss it.
So no, I'm not shedding tears tonight. At least, not any more than the tears I've shed for 20 years, over one of the greatest injustices in history: the fact that the great Jeremiah Denton only got 6 years in the Senate, and his cellmate John McCain undeservedly got 31.
McCain could have redeemed himself, at least partially, last year, if he had announced his retirement concurrent with the diagnosis, enabling his governor to appoint a good successor so that votes wouldn't be missed in this tight-as-nails senate. But he didn't. He chose to hold the seat, unable to actually cast votes, in order to deny the party a reliable vote in such a delicate time.
As always, we pray that John McCain died in what we Christians call a state of grace; we hope that he will enjoy the blessings of Paradise eventually. It is not ours to judge where he is headed, or how long it will take for him to get there.
But we do have the right to judge how he spent his career on this earth, and to judge whether we should think of him as a positive role model for our children.
And the answer is a simple one, in this case:
No, John McCain is no role model.
John McCain, R.I.P.”
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/26/2018 10:13 Comments ||
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#17
Masterful assessment, thank you for saying so well.
#20
There are two very strong republicans running this term. The Gov needs to pick one and send her to DC, the second one will get all the red votes and we will finally serve well in the senate...
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/26/2018 12:52 Comments ||
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#21
What makes a man, Mr Lebowski?
Posted by: Regular joe ||
08/26/2018 12:53 Comments ||
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#22
Senator Schumer is moving to name the Senate Office Building after McCain (it is now named for Russell of GA).
So instead of S.O.B. Russell it will be S.O.B. McCain.
somehow, I think John McCain would get a kick out of that
you can say a lot about McCain and object to his judgements and his instincts but, deep down he obviously loved his country sincerely and generously
frankly, I don't see that many current US Senators about whom I could say that
Posted by: lord garth ||
08/26/2018 12:59 Comments ||
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#23
It is being reported that Mr. McCain specifically excluded President Trump from attending his funeral.
Since Mr. Trump will have a few spare hours, I would like to invite him to my place for a well-done steak and catsup, a combination that although a personal anathema, I would be proud to serve.
#24
Hell, he, Mr Trump can come to my house.
I'll even break out the good paper plates, plastic spoons and even sneak in a few of the dreaded plastic straws.
We can sit on my front porch, sip drinks with our plastic straws and watch the liberal media heads explode. Kind of a 4th of July. what fun!
#25
McCain loved his country? Uh no? He was (I love using the past tense here) a globalist piece of shit through and through. Recordings exist of him broadcasting propaganda for the Communists while he was a POW. He supported the invasion of Iraq.
Soros, die next. Globalists need more body blows.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
08/26/2018 14:07 Comments ||
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#30
Recordings exist of him broadcasting propaganda for the Communists while he was a POW.
I'm willing to give people a pass on stuff done or said under duress. Someone with a hot soldering iron and a little time on their hands could eventually make you say "Hillary for President". Given that he went over there to drop bombs and not sit on an NVA anti-aircraft gun, I'd let it slide. He has enough to answer for without it.
#36
I could have gone all year, no, years without hearing about Pappy and Joe. I had no idea. None. McCain I could just blow off, waste of skin that he was. And someone said Fred was not well? Not happy here.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
08/26/2018 17:26 Comments ||
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#37
@Anomolous Sources
Interesting, but maybe a bit over the top. But I do like my steak rare.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
08/26/2018 17:41 Comments ||
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#38
@European Conservative: Myself as well, but we always cook for the guest.
#46
And what's the beef with Pappy, please? A little off in his prediction re the Iranian boom (50-something months and counting?), but I can't hold that against him.
#2
Unfortunately, get used to seeing these types roll out from the left...ill-informed, selectively educated in left leaning colleges, lack of depth, and no understanding of life outside the "bubble"
#4
Which means, ultimately, that Ocasio-Cortez is not even a socialist, no matter how much she might want to call herself that. She is a big government statist who believes in little more than confiscatory taxes, bloated spending, and a government program for every problem in America.
Ironically, this makes her that which she least wants to be: a boring, fairly typical liberal, the likes of which we have seen in this country for a hundred years. Not new. Not trendy. Not fresh. She is essentially a 28 year old Walter Mondale.
Poor Walter! I thought he was smarter than that.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/26/2018 12:04 Comments ||
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#5
It's not who she is, there are plenty like her. It's how many who are willing to support her.
#6
She is santa clause, she thinks she can magically give out stuff to the people and that stuff will magically somehow not cost any money. She's an idiot.
#7
The Wizard of Oz: Why,anybody can have a brain. That's a very mediocre commodity. Every pusillanimous creature that crawls on the Earth or slinks through slimy seas has a brain. Back where I come from, we have universities, seats of great learning, where men go to become great thinkers. And when they come out, they think deep thoughts and with no more brains than you have. But they have one thing you haven't got: a diploma.
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