McCain gives colleagues advice worth considering

JOHN McCain received a standing ovation when he entered the U.S. Senate chamber Tuesday, just days after the disclosure of his brain cancer. After working the room for a few minutes, McCain worked over his fellow senators in a speech that gave Americans reason to cheer.

In 15 minutes and 2,000 words, McCain said essentially that the Senate can, and should, deliver a better product than it has on health care reform in particular and other legislation in general.

“Our deliberations today … are often lively and interesting,” said McCain, a 30-year veteran of the Senate. “They can be sincere and principled. But they 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.”

It’s worth noting that highbrow speeches by senators are like days ending in “y.” And certainly during his time in Washington, McCain, R-Ariz., who turns 81 next month, has been guilty of playing the sort of political games he criticized in his remarks — he acknowledged as much. Even so, his message is worth noting.

“Incremental progress, compromises that each side criticize but also accept, just plain muddling through to chip away at problems and keep our enemies from doing their worst isn't glamorous or exciting,” McCain said. “It doesn't feel like a political triumph. But it's usually the most we can expect from our system of government, operating in a country as diverse and quarrelsome and free as ours.”

He said he hoped members could once 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.”

McCain said the Senate has “been spinning our wheels on too many important issues because we keep trying to find a way to win without help from across the aisle. That's an approach that's been employed by both sides, mandating legislation from the top down, without any support from the other side, with all the parliamentary maneuvers that requires.”

Republicans, he said, went behind closed doors in crafting an Obamacare replacement, then sprung it on members and tried to convince them it’s better than nothing. That’s no better than what the Obama administration and congressional Democrats did in approving Obamacare without any GOP support.

He urged a return to regular order, with a bill coming out of a committee, followed by amendments and debate on the Senate floor. “What have we to lose by trying to work together to find those solutions?” McCain said. “We’re not getting much done apart.”

Will what he said make a difference? It’s unlikely — Democrats remain solidly and vocally opposed to the GOP bill, and Republicans don’t appear to be looking for much help from the other side of the aisle. Yet McCain’s speech should resonate with those who long for more statesmanship from their elected officials, instead of the partisanship and gridlock on display more often than not in the nation’s capital.