McCain speech inspiring, but is anyone listening?
Just 12 days after undergoing surgery to remove a blood clot above his left eye — a surgery that revealed he has an aggressive brain tumor — Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., delivered a 15-minute speech to his fellow senators that was as inspirational as it was instructional. It may be the best speech he’s ever given.
Calling his 30 years in the Senate “the most important job I’ve had in my life,” the 80-year-old McCain urged a return to the days when bipartisanship was key to good government, when senators could trust one another to work honestly and diligently toward compromise and when senators inherently understood they were beholden to no one but the people who elected them.
Acknowledging he was “looking a little worse for wear” with a bruised left cheek and a track of stitches above his eye, McCain chastised his colleagues for their inability and unwillingness to work together to craft a workable health care program for the nation — and urged them to start doing so without the distractions and outside pressures that have added to the logjam.
“Stop listening to the bombastic loudmouths on the radio, television and the internet,” he intoned. “To hell with them! They don’t want anything done for the public good. Our incapacity is their livelihood.”
Saying the only accomplishment the Senate had made in the seven months since Donald Trump rose to the presidency was to approve Neil Gorsuch as a Supreme Court justice, McCain denounced Senate Democrats for pushing Obamacare through without bipartisan support — and blasted his party for trying to do the same with its so-called “repeal and replace” agenda.
He criticized Republican leaders for “coming up with a proposal behind closed doors in consultation with the administration, then springing it on skeptical members, trying to convince them that it was better than nothing.”
Calling today’s deliberations “more partisan, more tribal more of the time than any other time I remember,” McCain said he himself has played a role. “Sometimes, I’ve let my passion rule my reason. Sometimes, I made it harder to find common ground because of something harsh I said to a colleague. Sometimes, I wanted to win more for the sake of winning than to achieve a contested policy.”
Whether McCain has had a recent revelation about the critical role the U.S. Senate — purportedly the world’s greatest deliberative body — plays in national and world affairs, or whether he’s simply had enough of the partisan bickering that has crippled it, his words were authentic and authoritative.
If you haven’t heard his speech, check it out on YouTube and share it with friends and family. Given the comments — and the Senate votes — that have followed, it might be a long time before you hear anything like it again.