GOP senators slow effort to rename building for McCain
WASHINGTON — When Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., called for renaming the Russell Senate Office Building after John McCain, it was widely seen as a fitting testament to the late Republican senator’s legacy and his bipartisan approach during more than three decades in Congress.
Yet days after his death, some Senate Republicans are already wary of the idea, with some Southerners citing the legacy of Sen. Richard Russell a master of the Senate with a list of accomplishments but also a segregationist who led Southern opposition to civil rights. Russell was a Democratic senator for 38 years until his death in 1971.
The Georgia lawmaker’s controversial racial legacy has led to calls to rename the 110-year-old building in the past, but they fizzled because of a lack of enthusiasm on both sides of the aisle.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., on Tuesday recommended creating a task force to study ways to commemorate McCain, including the possibility of adding the late senator’s portrait to the Senate reception room — considered a “hall of fame” for the most distinguished senators who have served.
The room, located next to the Senate chamber, is adorned with artwork depicting fewer than a dozen senators, including Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, John Calhoun and Robert Taft.
“The Senate is eager to work on concrete ways to .... provide a lasting tribute to this American hero long after this week’s observances are complete,” McConnell said in remarks on the Senate floor.
His caution was matched by fellow Republican senators, who cast doubt on An impromptu memorial with a U.S. Navy officer’s hat at the Russell Senate building in honor of Sen. John McCain. Schumer’s bill proposal and said they favored commemorating McCain in some way but not necessarily by renaming the Russell building after him.
Such warnings served as a reminder of McCain’s testy relationship with the Republican Party establishment, from which he diverged on issues including torture, taxes and health care, alongside his outspoken opposition to President Donald Trump.
“We’ve honored John McCain, but Richard Russell was an icon,” said Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala. “I didn’t serve with him, but he was an icon in his day.”
On Russell’s support for segregation, which included co-authoring the Southern Manifesto with Strom Thurmond in 1956, Shelby said, “You go back to George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, just about anyone, nobody’s perfect.”
Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said, “I think I’d be in favor of naming almost any building for McCain, but I’m not sure that I want to make a decision on a specific building at this point.”
Renaming the Russell building would fall within the jurisdiction of the Senate alone, unlike other federal properties where the president’s signature is required. The proposal would likely fall to the Senate Rules Committee before going to a vote.
The chairman of that committee, Roy Blunt, RMo., told reporters: “I am open to that. I think we ought to have a little discussion about changing the name of a building, but certainly John McCain should be recognized in some way.”
Sen. Jeff Flake, the junior senator from Arizona, was one of the only Republicans to offer his full backing for the bill. “I want to be the first Republican co-sponsor for that resolution,” he told CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday.
The building houses a large marble statue of Russell as well as five committees and 36 senators’ offices, including McCain’s.