May 8, 2018

Fair enough

Still, I give the credit to Hillary Clinton because she would've been one of the people who would have to accept the apology. The others being Chelsea and perhaps President Clinton.

On the other hand, when did McCain offer his apology? If it was after Mrs. Clinton was elected to the Senate, his apology becomes suspect since the Senate prides itself on its so-called civility and behavioral and historical norms... at least they used to. It would have been within the "code" for McCain to apologize to his Senate colleague.

Regardless, he was a Republican. He didn't support my Democratic views and policies. Importantly, he wasn't a maverick because he nearly always caved to the party line.

Most distinctively, by legitimizing the crazies of the right wing of the GOP with his naming of Sarah Palin as his running mate, he opened the door to the Tea Party/Freedom Caucus/RWNJs, etc. with which we got Trump. Perhaps Trump was inevitable in a celebrity-driven society, but McCain deserves his share of responsibility.

McCain was fifth from the bottom of his class at Annapolis. When he joined the Navy as a pilot, this entry from Wikipedia is interesting:

When he was captured by the North Vietnamese, I respect his fortitude. But when he became a Congressman and then a Senator, he consistently acted against the values that I believe in.

In the Keating Five scandal, he eventually fessed-up to his poor judgement. Wow, good for him. By that point in his life, he should have developed much better values. As the famous amateur golfer, Bobby Jones (professionally, he was a lawyer) once said, "You might as well praise a man for not robbing a bank as to praise him for playing by the rules." McCain did not act appropriately nor ethically.

In the end, I will not miss McCain. He tried to serve his country but his legislative choices didn't really work out for far too many Americans.