Qualified?
Is Arizona Republican Senator John McCain qualified to fill the very serious role of leadership in the Senate that he holds? There certainly is no question that the Senator and former GOP Presidential candidate knows a lot about the in’s and outs of D.C.. He no doubt knows the politics of Washington and who the movers and shakers are. He’s one himself. He knows how to get things done and who holds the keys for doing so. But the former U.S. Navy pilot and Vietnam War P.O.W. has become an obstructionist of sorts since the beginning of the Trump Administration. His negativism about pretty much all things pertaining to the President has been no more obvious than his last minute and demonstrative no-vote cast on the floor of the Senate that doomed the proposed bill to replace Obamacare — the number one reason why conservative voters sent Trump to the White House and Arizona voters sent McCain back to D.C. in November. He promised he would help craft and support the Obamacare replacement that would be affordable and comprehensive for all Americans. In casting that vote, the fiery Arizona Senator confirmed the long held suspicions of may conservatives that he is truly a RINO — “Republican in Name Only.”
Senator McCain’s constant attacks on President Trump are displacing the G.O.P. unity critical for this Administration to fulfill the President’s promises to not only do away with Obamacare and replace it, but develop and implement tax relief for middle class Americans and corporations, an immigration overhaul that would stem the tide of illegal immigration, while closing the southern border, and rebuild foreign policy with America’s allies who chilled to us under Obama. Almost every day and about almost every word the President utters in public, Senator McCain takes issue with. McCain ignores that the New York real estate mogul was the choice of the G.O.P. and American voters to serve as President. McCain should understand that his responsibility as Senator is not to denigrate the President and the things he says, but to help facilitate the agenda put forth by the White House that the majority of Americans supported by electing him, and still do. John McCain is NOT President — he is a Senator from Arizona. And Arizonans re-elected him by a 14% margin because he promised to support the Trump agenda.
Is McCain qualified to be not just a Senator, but a powerful G.O.P Senator? Let me answer that question this way: qualifications to serve in any job for any employer do not only consist of education and skills for that job, mandatory are understanding and support of the goals, objectives, and operating structure of the employer. Job qualifications include the understanding and willingness to carry out the requirements of the employer with one and only one alternative to doing so — termination either voluntarily or involuntarily. Senator McCain should understand that. After all, he is a decorated war hero who knows from experience the importance of the qualifications of those put in a position of authority. Having unqualified people in management in any entity pretty much dooms the success of that entity.
Committed?
Here’s the big question: Is Senator McCain committed to do whatever it takes to protect American citizens and America’s allies against a tyrannical nuclear or biological attack by Kim Jong-un? It is amazing to even have to ask that question. Why? Senator John McCain has until recently stood firmly in the face of international bullies in all parts of the world. No one ever wondered about his resolve and commitment to do “whatever it takes” to stop dictators like Kim Jong-un. Look at things he said when faced with international problems:
About Syria: “Providing military assistance to the Free Syrian Army and other opposition groups is necessary, but at this late hour, that alone will not be sufficient to stop the slaughter and save innocent lives. The only realistic way to do so is with foreign air power.”
About Iraq: ““Leaders always have choices, and history teaches that hard choices deferred—appeasing Hitler, choosing not to deter Saddam Hussein in 1990, failing to act sooner against Al Qaeda—often bring about the very circumstances we wished to avoid by deferring action, requiring us to react in freedom’s defense. America’s leaders today have a choice. It will determine whether our people live in fear behind walls that have already been breached, as our enemies plan our defeat in time we have given them to do it.”
About Afghanistan: “We should make an immediate statement of our resolve that we no longer intend to tolerate sanction given to our enemies by any nation…Should the Taliban refuse our demand, then they must know that they will be treated as allies of our enemy, and, thus, are themselves our enemies, and will suffer much for their allegiance.”
About Iran: Remember him singing the song he made up spoofing the Beach Boys song, changing the words to “Bomb, Bomb, Iran…..?”
About Libya: “I would arm, train, equip, both from without and from within, forces that would eventually overthrow the governments and install free and democratically-elected governments” (2000). “[I]t does take time, as it did during the period of the Russian occupation of Afghanistan. But we were able to provide them with some weapons and wherewithal to cause the Russians to leave Afghanistan. So we can do it” (2012).
Yet with all of his past firm support of military actions if necessary, he has summarily challenged President Trump on his challenges of the North Korean dictator. Yet his angst directed at the President did not just begin. He has offered up numerous critiques of actions taken and things said by the President. Here are some examples:
“Our relationship w/ Russia is at dangerous low,” the senator tweeted on Thursday. “You can thank Putin for attacking our democracy, invading neighbors & threatening our allies.” McCain was referencing Trump’s tweet from earlier Thursday morning, in which the president blamed Congress for taking the relationship to a new low. “Our relationship with Russia is at an all-time & very dangerous low,” Trump tweeted. “You can thank Congress, the same people that can’t even give us HCare!”
John McCain said on Friday that Donald Trump’s administration was in “disarray” and that NATO’s founders would be alarmed by the growing unwillingness to “separate truth from lies.”
The Arizona Republican bashed President Donald Trump’s White House as an “administration in disarray” while attending a security conference in Munich. Then, on NBC’s Meet the Press, he blasted Trump’s attacks on the media, saying “the first thing that dictators do is shut down the press.”
And the latest attack of Trump by the Arizona Senator: “I take exception to the President’s comments because you gotta be able to do what you say you’re gonna do,” the Arizona Senator told KTAR radio Tuesday, in an appearance with his daughter Meghan. ” I don’t think that’s a way you attack an issue and a challenge like this.”
Conclusion
I would love to believe that Senator McCain is all-in for the Conservative agenda and that he really is in support of the President’s agenda approved by voters. I voted for him in 2008, even with a question in my mind about his true conservatism. It seems now that everything President Trump puts forth AND the way he does so initiates an attack by McCain. “IF” the Arizona Senator was truly honest with his commitments to Arizonans in his re-election bid, he would fighting WITH President Trump instead of fighting AGAINST President Trump. Make no mistake about it, he IS fighting against the President. It’s as if he is still angry that he was defeated by Barack Obama in ’08 and that its not fair that Trump was elected when he should have been President. It seems that’s why he stays so angry.
Going about the People’s business is not about political anger or payback. It’s about doing what voters sent him back to D.C. to do. That is NOT about a McCain personal agenda or vendetta against President Trump.
Americans could not have been clearer about the purpose and objectives for the 2016 election votes. Republicans voted for the agenda the President has put forth since being elected. So far John McCain has NOT performed what he promised voters he would do. In fact, he has in many ways fought against those very things. His vote to kill the Senate bill to replace Obamacare will forever be the reminder to Americans of exactly who John McCain is. Sadly, instead of being a strictly conservative senior Senator from Arizona that led his fellow Senators in making things right in the U.S. government, he will carry a negative legacy when he leaves office.
It would be wonderful for the picture of John McCain that all people remember to be one of a victorious inauguration as President instead of Obama or a standing ovation in the Senate chamber as he cast the vote to pass the Senate bill to replace Obamacare. But instead, the picture most Americans will have burned into their memory is this one:
That’s a Chuck Schumer pat on the back for McCain’s vote to keep Obamacare the law of the land and prop up the healthcare monstrosity that Obama’s Congress rammed down the throats of Americans with nothing but lies and empty promises.
Is John McCain qualified? No doubt he is. But there is no question that he is NOT committed to the citizens of Arizona or other conservative Americans. Unfortunately, just like Barack Obama and several of Senator McCain’s fellow Senators, lies to the American people were plentiful in their quest to get elected.
The John McCain legacy is now etched in history.
