For McCain, a life of courage, politics came down to 1 vote
The fate of President
Then came McCain — 80 years old, recently diagnosed with brain cancer, his face still scarred from surgery, striding with purpose toward the well of the
The
Trump's health care bill was dead. McCain's lifelong reputation as free thinker, never to be intimidated, was very much alive.
It was the capstone of a political career that had taken McCain from the House to the
McCain, who faced down his captors in a Vietnamese prison of war camp and later turned his trademark defiance into a political asset, died Saturday. He was 81.
With his irascible grin and fighter-pilot moxie, McCain won election to the House from
Eight years later, he fought back from the brink of defeat to win the
After losing to Obama in an electoral landslide, McCain returned to the
Scion of a decorated military family, McCain embraced his role as chairman of the
Asked how he wanted to be remembered, McCain said simply: "That I made a major contribution to the defense of the nation."
Taking a long look back in his valedictory memoir, "The Restless Wave," McCain wrote of the world he inhabited: "I hate to leave it. But I don't have a complaint. Not one. It's been quite a ride. I've known great passions, seen amazing wonders, fought in a war, and helped make a peace. ... I made a small place for myself in the story of America and the history of my times."
Throughout his decades in
McCain stuck by the party's 2016 presidential nominee, Trump, at times seemingly through gritted teeth — until the release a month before the election of a lewd audio in which Trump said he could kiss and grab women. Declaring that the breaking point, McCain withdrew his support and said he would write in "some good conservative Republican who's qualified to be president."
He had largely held his tongue earlier in the campaign when Trump questioned McCain's status as a war hero by saying: "He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren't captured."
McCain, with unusual restraint, said that was offensive to veterans, but "the best thing to do is put it behind us and move forward."
But by the time McCain cast his vote against the
Unafraid of contradictions, McCain himself had campaigned against Obama's health care law, but voted against its repeal because
In his final months, McCain did not go quietly, frequently jabbing at Trump and his policies from the remove of his
On
Over a 31-year career in the
But faced with a tough
When the
"I don't think there's much that can be done, to tell you the truth," he said. "It is what it is."
After surviving the 2010 election, McCain wasn't about to roll over on any number of other issues. During a long and heated 2011 debate in
Obama's vice president,
"I think John's legacy is that he never quits," Biden said in a 2015 interview.
Over a lifetime in politics, McCain's anti-authoritarian streak was both his greatest asset and Achilles' heel.
Often disinclined to follow the herd, McCain achieved his biggest legislative successes when making alliances with
McCain's challenge always was to strike the right balance, offering himself both as a rabble-rouser and a reliable Republican standard-bearer.
John Sidney McCain III's history as a Vietnam POW for 5½ years after being shot out of the sky at age 31 was a powerful part of his back story as the son and grandson of four-star admirals.
When his Vietnamese captors offered him early release as a propaganda ploy, McCain refused to play along.
"Now it will be very bad for you,
McCain returned home from his years as a POW on crutches and unable to lift his arms. Never again could he raise them above his head.
He once said he'd "never known a prisoner of war who felt he could fully explain the experience to anyone who had not shared it."
Indeed, he seemed more at ease joking about his incarceration than analyzing it.
More than once he quipped after a distasteful experience: "That's the most fun I've had since my last interrogation."
In his darkest hour in
For all of that, though, McCain defied his guards. To his captors, just as to his superiors back at the
"He had to carry a different burden than most of us and he handled it beautifully,"
Even in prison, McCain played to the bleachers, shouting obscenities at his captors loudly enough to bolster the spirits of fellow captives. Appointed by the POWs to act as camp "entertainment officer," a "room chaplain" and a "communications officer," McCain imparted comic relief, literary tutorials, news of the day, even religious sustenance.
McCain once said that
It taught him, he said, "that if you put your country first, that everything will be OK."
Still, a predilection for what McCain described as "quick tempers, adventurous spirits, and love for the country's uniform" was encoded in the family DNA.
His father and grandfather, the
Speaking of his father, McCain once pronounced himself "little short of astonished by the old man's reckless disregard for the rules."
And yet for all the raucous tales of misconduct, the midshipmen of the McCain family abided by the school's honor code not to lie, cheat or steal.
McCain's
One month after divorcing his first wife, Carol, McCain married
McCain's war story made him a celebrity in
His marriage to Cindy, the daughter of a wealthy beer distributor in
McCain set about establishing a conservative voting record and a reputation as a tightwad with taxpayer dollars. But just months into his
The S&L situation simmered for a few years, but eventually boiled over, and McCain got burned.
As the industry collapsed, McCain was tagged as one of the Keating Five — five senators who, to varying degrees, were accused of trying to get regulators to ease up on Keating. McCain was cited for lesser involvement than the others by the
But to have his honor questioned, he said, was in some ways worse than the torture he endured in
Another move McCain would eventually say he regretted came earlier in his career as a lawmaker when in 1983 he voted against establishing
In the 1990s, McCain shouldered another wrenching issue, the long effort to account for American soldiers still missing from the war and to normalize relations with
"People don't remember how ugly the POW-MIA issue was," former Democratic Sen.
Few politicians matched McCain's success as an author. His 1999 release "Faith Of My Fathers" was a million-seller that was highly praised and helped launch his run for president in 2000. His most recent best-seller and planned farewell, "The Restless Wave," came out in
More reporting on
Follow
Why homes are lost to wildfire — is yours as safe as it could be?
Social Services seeks to hire 24 new positions to assist with Medicaid expansion cases
Advisor News
Annuity News
Health/Employee Benefits News
Life Insurance News