John McCain: Opportunist, Not a Maverick

US Senator John McCain has died. I imagine that many writers will pile on the praises for the recently-deceased “maverick” US Senator from the Grand Canyon State.

Sorry, but I will not be joining the chorus of eulogies. Perhaps he was a saint in combat, but as an elected official he was one of the dregs. As Thomas Sowell once commented, being a veteran is not a “Get Out of Criticism Free” card. For any veteran’s service, we should be grateful. Their prior efforts in the military, however, do not cover for their failures, fallouts, sins, and betrayals once in office. In 2005, Randy “Duke” Cunningham, a Congressman from the San Diego area, was convicted of multiple bribery charges in 2005. He didn’t get off easy just because he was a veteran. The same standard should hold true for anyone else, regardless of their service in the American Military.

Was McCain a crook? He weathered considerable scandal in the late 1980’s following the Savings and Loan collapse, but was never charged with anything. I have no interest in pursuing allegations, aspersions, or conspiracy theories. On his votes, on his rhetoric, on his policies, I appraise him, and John McCain is found wanting.

It’s hard to imagine someone like this guy replacing Barry Goldwater. Both were Presidential candidates, but Goldwater was a gold standard conservative. With a consistent libertarian streak, Goldwater stood by his principles, demanding a clean sweep of the D.C. Swamp long before such calls were popular. When President Richard Nixon was foundering under credible obstruction of justice charges, Goldwater joined with then House minority leader Ben Rhodes (also of Arizona) to urge Nixon’s resignation.

In stark contrast, John McCain was not a principled maverick, but a Swampy opportunist, a big government militarian who shamed those who wanted measured military ventures. He also slammed anyone else who skeptically opposed sudden interventionist campaigns. Even anti-Trump, pro-K Street conservative contrarian took offense when McCain questioned the patriotism of his anti-war critics.

There was a time, however, when John McCain stood for principle, bucking his party because he thought it was the right thing to do. In 2000 he ran against George W. Bush, the so-called Establishment favorite, capturing the outsider momentum in the New Hampshire primary with double-digit victory. When Texas Governor George W. Bush realized that he couldn’t follow his father’s centrist globalism to win the nomination, he turned right, slammed McCain with controversial smears (or at least his supporters did), and swept South Carolina. Of course, McCain’s blasting the “religious right” didn’t endear him to conservatives, either.

After Bush’s election, the maverick became a fly-by-night statist. Big Government “Compassionate conservatism” was the way to win big money for a political future, so McCain began voting that way. He had a penchant for voting against his political rivals’ agendas, too. He voted against Bush’s tax cuts. He pushed for McCain-Feingold campaign finance “reform.” He was willing to work with moderate pro-military Democrat Joseph Lieberman to combat climate change.

The greatest betrayal, of course, came with his ongoing dance with Democrats and other Chamber of Commerce Republicans for comprehensive immigration “reform”, i.e. amnesty. Thankfully, these proposals failed many times, and yet McCain insisted on this disastrous agenda, while representing a border state where one of his potential successors has called for building a wall between Arizona and California.

As a Presidential candidate, he was never my first choice. I lined up behind firebrand Congressman Tom Tancredo, then Romney for one reason: immigration. McCain did win the nomination in spite of massive opposition within the GOP, so I supported him in the general election. It’s remarkable, then and now, how little McCain wanted to fight back. Once in a while, he mocked his upstart opponent, Junior Senator Barack Obama. This historic first-time black nominee, however, hindered McCain’s capacity to campaign vigorously. Did the county want to bring in a nationalized health care system? A corrupt cap and trade program? Obama was planning to change the country and the world, but McCain spent more time distancing himself from Bush, all while suspending his campaign to bail out the Big Banks.

McCain the Swamp Thing embraced greater odium when he ran for re-election as a US Senator. Campaigning against his amnesty pandering, he fought hard to veer right during the 2010 Tea Party primary. “Build the Dang Fence” he growled. Two years later, he was building more bridges with amnesty proponents, playing both sides to make himself the star of the show in the middle.

Granted, John McCain was a hero. As a war prisoner in Hanoi, he refused to be released before others who had been imprisoned longer than he. For the record, Trump had acquiesced that McCain was a hero: "He's a war hero because he was captured," Trump had said, "I like people that weren't captured."  I also like veterans who do not get captured by bitterness and grandstanding. McCain hated Trump, and I hated McCain’s disdain. Shameful. Like so many Washington fixtures, McCain couldn’t stand that Trump, who wasn’t “one of them” had captured the White House, something that the privileged son of two naval officers couldn’t do.

The culmination of McCain’s personal opprobrium broke out not with the leaked Steele Dossier, but his “No” vote on against the Obamacare skinny repeal. Never have I witnessed such self-serving grandstanding. With arm raised high, after fifteen minutes of fraternizing with both sides of the aisle, he killed a real chance at repeal of that terrible bill, not because it wouldn’t serve Arizonans, but because his legacy of bipartisan double-dealing had come to an end with Trump’s ascension, and McCain was going to frustrate as many as he could with him.

Cancer is a terrible thing, and it must have been a tough decision for McCain and family to see him renounce further treatment. I recognize his service as a soldier, but as a representative, as a politician he was another self-serving opportunist, and I feel no remorse that he is gone.