Senators seek to slow renaming movement

Perdue, Isakson say honoring McCain should be priority.

WASHINGTON — Georgia’s Republican U.S. senators urged their colleagues on Monday to pump the brakes on a proposal to rename the Russell Senate Office Build- ing in honor of U.S. Sen. John McCain as momentum surrounding the bipartisan resolution appeared to grow.

U.S. Sens. David Perdue and Johnny Isakson said lawmakers should first focus on honoring the late Arizona Republican’s family and legacy before making a decision to rename the Capitol Hill edifice, which honors the legendary yet controversial Georgia U.S. Sen. Richard B. Russell Jr.

Perdue went as far as to suggest that he would block any efforts to quickly move the legislation in order to “talk about all the options.”

“I think right now what we have is an opportunity to honor John McCain in the right way,” Perdue said. “So unless somebody presents a case that I’m not aware of, I will resist that.”

Isakson said Monday that it was too early to weigh in on the proposal to rename the building. “It’s not time to talk about it,” he said. “We owe it to the McCain family to talk about John McCain and his contributions to the country and not anything else.”

Isakson’s comments came shortly after giving an impassioned tribute to his former colleague on the Senate floor that appeared to indirectly take a shot at President Donald Trump for his feud with McCain.

“Anybody who in any way tarnishes the reputation of John McCain deserves a whip- ping,” he said, “because most of the ones who would do the wrong thing about John McCain didn’t have the guts to do the right thing when it was their turn. So I would say to the president or anybody in the world, it’s time to pause and say, ‘This was a great man.’

On Monday, nearly a dozen senators expressed open- ness to the Russell resolu- tion being floated by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz.

“It would be a fitting tribute to a man who consid- ered his service here in the Senate ... the most signif- icant of his distinguished career,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. He added that Russell, “a towering figure in the Senate of his day, was nonetheless an avowed opponent of civil rights and the architect of the Southern filibuster that long delayed its passage.”

“It’s time that we recog- nize that as times change, so do our heroes,” he said.

Russell is known as one of the most powerful senators of all time, a master of the chamber’s byzantine rules who advised presidents, oversaw the Pentagon during two wars and helped create the federal school lunch program. But he was also a segregationist who used his mastery of the chamber’s procedures to filibuster the 1964 Civil Rights Act and oppose bills banning lynching and abolishing the poll tax.

One voice that did not weigh in was Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. The Kentucky Republican’s backing will be crucial to move the proposal through the chamber.

Oklahoma Republican U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe worried the initiative was politically motivated. “I really don’t have a position on that yet,” he said. “I need to know if it’s something (with an) ulterior motive.”