McSally’s snub of McCain is pathetic

As if we didn’t already know it, now comes more stinking proof that in an election year, politics and personal ambition trump (little T) all.

Consider Rep. Martha McSally’s repeated 24-hour trumpeting of her support for and attendance at Monday’s signing of the National Defense Authorization Act.

Or, as it’s actually called, the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2019.

It was no surprise when President Donald Trump, in signing the bill during a ceremony at Fort Drum in New York, refused to follow the lead of Congress and even mention, much less pay homage to, the former prisoner of war and longtime senator who has spent his life serving in and supporting the military.

McCain, in the president’s eyes, is an enemy combatant and thus is unworthy of even the slightest decency even now, as he battles a vicious disease that will undoubtedly take his life.

But I would have expected more from a congresswoman from Arizona.

Instead, we get this tweet:

“This morning, I talked to @BillHemmer on @AmericaNewsroom about how @POTUS partnered with Congress on the #NDAA2019. This legislation invests in our troops and and gives them the resources they need to keep us safe.” And we get this:

“I am committed to supporting the brave men and women who put their lives on the line to keep us safe and defend our freedom. The #NDAA2019 includes the largest pay raise for our troops in 9 years. Today, I witnessed @POTUS sign this important legislation into law at Fort Drum.” And we get this:

“I’m working with @POTUS to rebuild our military and ensure we continue to have the strongest military in the world. We are repairing the harm done by the Obama Administration, which cut funding to our military for almost a decade.” And we get this:

“I was invited by the @WhiteHouse to witness @POTUS sign the National Defense Authorization Act into law today. I’m working with @realDonaldTrump to rebuild our military and grow our defense assets to ensure we continue to have the strongest military in the world.

And we get a self-promotional press release that runs 549 words — not one of which is “McCain.”

“I’m working with President Trump to rebuild our military and grow our defense assets to ensure we continue to have the strongest military in the world,” she said in the press release. “We are repairing the harm done by the Obama Administration, which cut

funding to our military and vital defense assets for almost a decade. We are restoring readiness and increasing capability and capacity in a force that has been asked to do too much with too little for too long.

“The NDAA gives our troops a muchdeserved raise; provides funding for the A-10s based at Davis-Monthan; supports the F-35s based at Luke AFB and Marine Corps Air Station Yuma; and also provides millions for base upgrades.”

She couldn’t spare one stinking sentence to honor the home-state senator for whom the bill was named?

It wasn’t until two days later — after Meghan McCain read the online version of this column and bashed McSally’s “disgraceful” silence on Twitter – that McSally finally, almost reluctantly mentioned McCain, and even then, she took a page from Trump’s playbook and blamed the media.

“The NDAA bill signing was about our troops and rebuilding our military, but instead, the media decided again to turn it into controversy on what the President did or didn’t say, and unfortunately made that the entire focus.”

The NDAA bill — or, as it’s actually called, the John S. McCain NDAA bill — was about our troops.

But it was also about paying tribute to McCain.

Sadly, it took the congresswoman two days and a public shaming before McSally tweeted this (no doubt with clenched teeth):

“Senator McCain is the Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and his leadership and passion for our military this year, and every year, has helped our troops and strengthened our country’s national security.”

Really, was I expecting too much for McSally, in all of her tweets and interviews and her press release, to spare one sentence to note that the bill was named for a guy who has served his state for three decades and his country for even longer?

I know McSally is running hard to win the Republican nomination for the Senate, and that McCain is hardly a fan favorite among conservative voters.

I know that she, along with her Republican opponents Kelli Ward and Joe Arpaio, craves and basks in any good word from Trump, who despises McCain.

But snubbing McCain in a desperate attempt to win a few votes or a presidential pat on the head?

That’s something I wouldn’t have expected from a former fighter pilot, who once upon a time must have had a backbone.