“John McCain’s Funeral Was a Council of War—Just as He Meant It to Be”
I did not love you, John McCain, but I salute you for your service – not as much for your vaunted military heroism as for having the courage to place principles above party and profits. I usually disagreed with your positions, but you were a tough motherfucker with a conscience, a sense of humor, and a gigantic pair of balls, and I curse whatever power rules this universe for taking you away when we need you.
For all of your flaws, and they were myriad, you were one of the few powerful men in America to realize what a fantastic monument to all the best instincts of the human race this country might have been, if we could have kept it out of the hands of greedy little hustlers like Donald J. Trump.*
(* With thanks to the good Dr. Hunter S. Thompson for having waded through the murky haze of the afterlife, trudging always against the current of time, to provide the words of that second paragraph. Greetings, Doc, from the other side of the fog. Sorry to report we need your words again, for Nixon is reborn, and he’s worse than ever.)
I didn’t disagree with McCain on much in the larger scheme of things. Mainly Gitmo and campaign finance reform. But particularly where it came to the treatment of prisoners you had no choice but to respect John McCain’s opinions.
I watched the memorial service yesterday and couldn’t help thinking he deserved to win one of those presidential elections. What I was wondering was whether either President Bush or President Obama while sitting there listening to Meghan, Joe Lieberman, or Henry Kissinger had a momentary thought that maybe they deserved to have lost to him.
His father and grandfather were 4-star admirals and while he never made it to Commander and Chief he did become Chairman of the Armed Services Committee where he reportedly had generals and admirals quaking in their boots. Maybe Jack or Jimmy will go on to be president. Maybe it will be Meghan. I hope that family is not done with politics.