UPDATE II:
Even in death, John McCain continues to poke the Russian Bear – and perhaps someone else, too.
Politico reports that the Senator chose a Russian dissident, Vladimir Kara-Murza, to be one of the pallbearers at Saturday’s Washington National Cathedral memorial service.
“The choice of Kara-Murza, who twice suffered organ failure from poisoning,” Politico says, “appears aimed at sending a last message to Putin and Trump, who McCain had criticized for sounding too cozy with the Russian leader, amid an investigation into whether the U.S. president’s allies cooperated with Moscow’s efforts to intervene in the 2016 election.”
Read more here
UPDATE I:
After nearly two days of silence on the death of Senator John McCain – except for a hollow 22-word tweet – and only after enormous criticism, Trump has issued a brief proclamation expressing “respect [for] Senator John McCain’s service to our country.”
He also ordered the American flag at the White House to be lowered to half-staff again, after it was raised to full-staff earlier in the day.
Original Post:
As the nation prepares to honor the life of Senator Jon McCain — not a perfect man — Americans and people around the world are, at least for the moment, setting aside their differences and disagreements with this remarkable man, as they should.
This author has had many very serious disagreements with Senator John McCain, especially during the Iraq War – they are there for everyone to read.
But I also have the deepest respect for the war hero, the statesman and I have expressed such.
Others have noted their admiration for the Senator and also their reservations. But, while doing so, they have shown compassion for a man who has just left us and for his family.
Ecclesiastes 3 King James Version says:
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
With one exception, no one is “dancing” during this “time to mourn.”
The exception being Moscow, where Oleg Morozov, member of the Federation Council’s Foreign Affairs Committee, said, “The enemy is dead… May the Lord accept his dark soul and determine its future.”
But one does not have to “dance” in order to deny a human being, even an enemy, the decency of respect during “a time to mourn.”
Silence will do, especially when it comes from the president of the United States.
Except for an uncharacteristically short and typically hollow “statement by tweet,” conspicuous for not offering a single word of praise for McCain himself, the president of the United States, the man who should speak for the nation, who should unite us and heal our national sorrow, remained silent.
The president did not make even the most cursory public show of respect on Sunday for Mr. McCain, against whom he had continued to indulge a personal grievance even as it was apparent that the Arizona Republican was losing his battle with brain cancer. The president spent much of the day golfing and attacking his usual enemies on Twitter.
If this is not callous enough, it is reported that Trump nixed a statement written by his staff, praising the heroism and life of the late Senator.
Presidential historian Michael Beschloss perhaps says it best:
For most of American history, politics stopped when you had the death of a national leader, and the fact that it hasn’t says an awful lot about the current state of our country and our politics, and in particular about Donald Trump. What you’d want to see is a president acting as graciously and as large-mindedly as possible, in the John McCain spirit, but there is no sign of that yet.
Mr. President, for once make it more than about yourself; for once get a grip on your vindictiveness and pettiness; for once stick your head above the swamp you have created; for once show some dignity and do the American people right: In his death pay a modicum of respect to a man who was an example in service, honor, country to all of us.
Lead image: Senate floor desk of John McCain draped in black to honor the late senator. Credit MSNBC Tweet
