Cheers for McCain before impassioned speech,

WASHINGTON — The maverick stood with his party on Tuesday, casting a crucial vote in the Republican drive to repeal “Obamacare.” But then, like an angry prophet, Sen. John McCain condemned the tribal politics besetting the nation.

Confronting an aggressive brain cancer, the 80-year-old Arizonan served notice he would not vote for the GOP legislation as it stands now. McCain’s impassioned speech held the rapt attention of his colleagues in the Senate chamber.

“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.”

McCain then spoke his mind. His face was pale, cheek bruised, a red scar and stitches above his left eye where doctors had removed a blood clot. But his voice was strong. He offered a bit of self-deprecation, saying he was “looking a little worse for wear.”

He bemoaned the lack of legislative accomplishments in the current Congress and the GOP’s secretive process in working on repealing Obamacare, and issued a plea for Democrats and Republicans to work together.

McCain’s return was reminiscent of a similar scenario involving McCain’s good friend, the late Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, who returned to the Senate in July 2008 while battling brain cancer to vote on Medicare legislation, his dramatic entry in the chamber eliciting cheers and applause. Kennedy died in August 2009.

McCain himself campaigned heavily on the “Obamacare” repeal issue last year as he won re-election to a sixth and almost certainly final Senate term. But he has not been a booster of the GOP health bill.