McCain’s stand

The senator, once again, acted on his principles

In an irony worthy of the deep ironies of American history, John McCain saved Obamacare. Obamacare still has to be made more workable.

But what happens in the future, because it will have to happen eventually, will be repair, not repeal.

And McCain.

Mr. McCain, the man whose presidential dreams were ended by Barack Obama, and the man who, as recently as this week excoriated Democrats for forcing a cumbersome and complicated health insurance system down the throats of the Congress and the American people without a single Republican vote in the first place, saved the program with his Senate vote in early morning hours of Friday, rejecting the so-called “Skinny Repeal.”

His crucial vote — which added to the stalwart opposition from two other Republican senators, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — ended seven years of Republican promises of repeal. The bill failed, 51-49.

Many Republicans were aghast. What was Mr. McCain doing? Was he returning to his RINO roots?

Many said they didn’t see this coming. Well, if not, they don’t know Mr. McCain, a person who is nobody’s man but his own, and always has been.

And they did not really listen to his speech on the Senate floor this week, after returning from Arizona, where he had surgery and was diagnosed with brain cancer. It may have been the best speech Mr. McCain has ever given.

In that speech, Mr. McCain said that the various GOP plans were not really plans at all but were mere sketches, partial plans.

And he called for serious legislating — hearings, detailed analysis, and, eventually, proximate solutions to the problems with Obamacare.

He said a real fix was needed and that it needed to be put together, could only be put together, on a bipartisan basis.

He also issued an indictment and that’s thanks to Mr. said we need to change our politics:

“Our deliberations today ... are more partisan, more tribal more of the time than any other time I remember. Our deliberations can still be important and useful, but I think we’d all agree they haven’t been overburdened by greatness lately. And right now they aren’t producing much for the American people ...

“Both sides have let this happen. ... We’ve all played some role in it. Certainly I have. Sometimes, I’ve let my passion rule my reason.”

And finally: “I hope we can again rely on humility, on our need to cooperate, on our dependence on each other to learn how to trust each other again and by so doing better serve the people who elected us. Stop listening to the bombastic loudmouths on the radio and television and the Internet. To hell with them. They don’t want anything done for the public good. Our incapacity is their livelihood ...

“What have we to lose by trying to work together to find those solutions? We’re not getting much done apart. I don’t think any of us feels very proud of our incapacity. Merely preventing your political opponents from doing what they want isn’t the most inspiring work. There’s greater satisfaction in respecting our differences, but not letting them prevent … agreements made in good faith that help improve lives and protect the American people.”

Two things have happened to John McCain, now approaching the end of his life’s work: He feels free to return to his core and best self and is completely at liberty to speak what he thinks is the truth.

Second, by virtue of his years in public service and public life, he has acquired a degree of perspective — let’s call it the long view.

He now stands with Mike Mansfield, and Ted Kennedy, and Robert Taft, the elder, and Richard Russell and Philip Hart as a true giant of the modern Senate.

He is in a position not just to lecture, but to lift, his colleagues. His greatest accomplishments in that body may still be before him.