Yes, he stood up in the Senate and argued passionately against legalizing torture... but he then voted for the bill that legalized "enhanced interrogation," even after describing those interrogation measures as torture. Yes, he co-sponsored the DREAM Act... but then he ran for the U.S. Presidency (with Sarah Palin at his side) on a campaign promise of building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.
Senator McCain has basked in his "maverick" rep, while voting in lockstep with his party 95% of the time. He endorsed, and claimed to have voted for, Donald Trump for President. None of this is maverick behaviour.
So it was a shock to almost everybody when he walked onto the Senate floor in July and cast one of three GOP "no" votes that killed their horrible, horrible Obamacare repeal bill. And now, just to prove that he really did mean it, he's done it again, declaring opposition to yet another rushed Obamacare repeal effort and probably killing it before the bill can even be brought to the floor for debate.
From CBC News:
The Obamacare repeal zombie rose yet again this week for its last, best chance to gut the current health law — until the Republican senator who put it down in July returned on Friday to deliver another conclusive blow.
This time, it seems, it's over. Maybe. Probably. Almost definitely.
Arizona Sen. John McCain released a statement Friday afternoon confirming he will vote No on the Graham-Cassidy health bill, a resurrected effort to dismantle the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare.
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"I believe we could do better working together, Republicans and Democrats, and have not yet really tried," McCain said in a statement. "Nor could I support it without knowing how much it will cost, how it will affect insurance premiums, and how many people will be helped or hurt by it."
McCain waffled on whether to support this iteration due to the lack of debate, hearings and revisions that comprise the deliberative process known as "regular order" in Congress. On Friday, he finally said he "cannot in good conscience" support the proposal without a full analysis from the Congressional Budget Office.
The nonpartisan CBO did not have time, given the haste to jam the bill through for a vote before the end of a crucial Sept. 30 deadline, to calculate costs and insurance losses.
John McCain was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1986. He's been a loyal republican, voting with his party 95% of the time, for thirty-two years. But now, thirty-two years later, in the twilight of that long career, while fighting for his life against an aggressive brain tumour... now, John McCain has finally decided to actually behave like the maverick that he's reputed to be.
It should be noted that McCain isn't necessary opposed to the bill's contents. He hasn't actually spoken about whether he'd have supported this bill if Republicans had somehow been able to bring it to the floor via the "regular order," the traditional Senate process of committee-level hearings, markups, and votes. McCain doesn't seem to have any strong feelings on the subject of health care, per se.
After thirty-two years in the Senate, though, John McCain seems to have decided that the one thing that he actually does care about is the institution of the United States Senate. After being part of the most obstructionist Senate in U.S. history; after spending years voting in lockstep with Mitch McConnell's strategy of opposing everything that President Obama supported, regardless of whether Republicans had previously supported it; after opposing bill after bill that he's previously co-sponsored for nothing but partisan political gain... after all of that, John McCain seems to have finally decided that enough is enough.
Better late than never, I guess. I only wish that this maverick, principled man had been around, and willing to speak his mind, back when Trump was running for President. Or when Mitt Romney was running for President. Or when John McCain was running for president.
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