Ending Our Silence: Let No One Named McCain Succeed the Vindictive Maverick

I was going to hold my tongue about the death of John McCain, but after reading this AP story … well let's just say the gloves are coming off!WASHINGTON (AP) — John McCain’s daughter and two former presidents led a public rebuke of President Donald Trump’s divisive politics at the late senator’s memorial service Saturday in a call for a return to civility among the nation’s leaders.The nearly three-hour service at the Washington National Cathedral was a remarkable show of defiance against a president McCain openly defied in life as the antithesis of the American spirit of service to something greater than any individual.Standing near McCain’s flag-draped casket and with Trump’s daughter in the audience, Meghan McCain delivered a broadside against the uninvited president without mentioning his name.“We gather here to mourn the passing of American greatness — the real thing, not cheap rhetoric from men who will never come near the sacrifice he gave so willingly, nor the opportunistic appropriation of those who lived lives of comfort and privilege while he suffered and served,” she said, her voice first choking back tears. Then, it rose in anger.“The America of John McCain,” she added, with a reference to Trump’s trademark phrase, “has no need to be made great again because America was always great.”The audience of Washington power players erupted in applause....“So much of our politics, our public life, our public discourse can seem small and mean and petty, trafficking in bombast and insult and phony controversies and manufactured outrage,” Obama said in a not-so-veiled nod to Trump. “It’s a politics that pretends to be brave and tough but in fact is born in fear. John called on us to be bigger than that. He called on us to be better than that.” The passing of "greatness" remark is absolutely over the top, ridiculous, laughable and untrue. John McCain did not finish strong or valiantly. He was not the old soldier just fading away. He was petty, vindictive, nasty, insulting, just as he had been during his too many years in Congress. Many Arizonans attempted to recall McCain from office several years ago and for good reason. He was more civil to Democrats Tom Daschle and Barack Obama than to many hard-working, dedicated conservative base members of his own party. To many of his constituents his representation in Washington was invisible.The Machiavellian McCain was so petty that he once spent nearly $20,000 just to get rid of a conservative chairman in his home legislative district. By God's grace, he failed in that attempt! He was an inarticulate, ineffective senator who did little to endear himself to the many millions of Americans he regularly insulted. The last two times I saw McCain speak in person, he called loyal Republicans "idiots," trashed the GOP's pro-life platform and criticized a group that invited him to speak. McCain destroyed his in-party primary candidates with scorn, vicious mudslinging and disingenuous advertising. For him or his family to speak high and mighty words about civility and greatness is beyond hypocritical! It is insulting.This past week saw the amazing end of the McCain machine and it's our hope that the Arizona Republican Party recovers from the stranglehold he held over it and emerges with new, stronger, more respectful and more professional and inspiring leadership. We saw McCain pass from this earth and we saw Martha McSally given the nomination by Republicans to replace him in the Senate. Jeff Flake was a hand-picked puppet; his predecessor Jon Kyl was also controlled by McCain. At long last we are now free of the shackles of the McCain political machine and we pray for better, stronger Republican leadership from our emerging new representation in the U.S. Senate.We demand that no one named "McCain" be named to finish out his term. We have had enough and it's time to move on from the McCain Machine.