Over the years, this blogger has expressed admiration for some of the principled issues that John McCain stood by when his Republican Party was off course. He was gay friendly then and had lots of gay staffers in his campaign. He was backing serious efforts in campaign finance and broad election reform. He was the epitome of a "radical centrist" when he was the straight-talk express John McCain.
If John McCain had beaten George Bush in the 2000 primary, I would have strongly supported his campaign.
But something has happened. He has become more mean, more rigid, an angry senator who seems bent on destroying his own considerable legacy by doubling down against the normalization of gay rights in the country.
I don't understand why he is doing this. I've known and respected him for years and have always felt that whether it came to national security policy with regard to North Korea, or leading on normalization of relations with Vietnam, or believing that we needed to fundamentally change the dynamics of the corporate takeover of the nation's election machinery, McCain has been a great leader. I haven't supported his views on Iran, think he oversells "the surge" in Iraq -- but reasonable people can debate these important matters in a civil and respectful way as I have tried to do with the senator on many fronts for years.
Some of his closest, long-term advisers and friends are well-respected gay lawyers and politicos. He knows that the military is packed with honorable gay men and lesbian women serving their country. I've personally heard him express appreciation for their service.
But now he's the lead opponent in the US Senate of efforts to end Don't Ask Don't Tell -- and McCain, who is probably in his last term in the US Senate, is going to scar his legacy badly by making himself into one of those senators who voted against the Civil Rights Act or who supported racial segregation and upheld an infrastructure of bigoted law in America's past.
I want the straight-talking John McCain back -- a McCain that is going to be relevant to our nation's future, not one that we have to always express shame about as we look back at his legacy because he was the person who "delayed" the normalization of gay rights in this country and in the US military. Strom Thurmond eventually remade himself and found ways to demonstrate that he had dropped his once raging bigotry, but John McCain at the current point of his career is possibly going to end on a very dark note.
As the intrepid John Aravosis has pointed out today, John McCain's wife will not join him in his anti-gay crusade.
Aravosis writes:
John McCain is leading the filibuster against the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" "repeal" legislation in the Senate (it's not an actual repeal, but we'll leave that for another time). Today, Cindy McCain joined a number of celebrities in a video about gay youth suicide and bullying.Mrs. McCain's part of the video condemned DADT and then accused our government of sending bullies a message that what they do is okay.
The woman basically accused her husband of sharing the blame for gay kids killing themselves.
I'm astonished. And impressed as hell.
CINDY MCCAIN:
Our political and religious leaders tell LGBT youth that they have no future.They can't serve our country openly.
VARIETY OF SPEAKERS:
What's worse, these laws that legislate discrimination teach bullies that what they're doing is acceptable.CINDY MCCAIN:
Our government treats the LGBT community like second class citizens, why shouldn't they?
I want to express thanks to Cindy McCain for this brave and much appreciated message to bulliers everywhere and for her support of the gay men and women serving this nation and risking their lives in military engagements thousands of miles from home.
I can't imagine to know or understand the contours of their marriage. That is their private affair.
But I can't help wondering whether Cindy McCain misses her straight-talking, do-the-right-thing husband as much as I do.
-- Steve Clemons publishes the popular political blog, The Washington Note.
Follow Steve Clemons on Twitter: www.twitter.com/SCClemons
Thomas Krever: Ending Bullying: A Community Obligation
This isn't John McCain's responsibility. He isn't President. It's silly to focus on him and his wife and suggest the fault lies with them. The reason DADT is still on the books is because Obama and the Democrats are cowards. All Obama had to do was to leave the court's ruling unchallenged: court says it's unconstitutional, DOJ agrees, we're not going to pursue a legal challenge which we believe lacks merit. Done deal.
Obama and the Democrats are transparent at this point: cowards, corrupt, unwilling ever to do what is right. They won't even end the wars for fear the right will attack like what happened after Vietnam. But doing what is morally correct inevitably will lead to being attack by the right-wing, because they are always against anything that is ethical.
Yes, John McCain's is responsibility. He is 1/100th of the votes needed to repeal DADT, and he is one person who can filibuster having the repeal process brought to the floor of the full Senate for a vote. Therefore, you may vent all you want to about President Obama, the Democratic Party, and the wars being waged in the Middle East. However, the Senate will have to repeal the DADT policy and replacing it with legislation that will allow gays to openly service in the military that most lightly will not be overturned by the Supreme Court. Pejoratives such as 'cowards', and 'corrupt' says more about your emotional state than it does about your concern for repealing DADT within the confines of The Constitution.
If the DOJ had let the court's ruling stand, that would have been the end to it. The policy would have been legally eliminated from the military. End of the line. There's no policy to attack in the court, nothing to challenge: DADT is history. Nonexistent.
The Senate does not need to repeal DADT. It is an unconstitutional policy, like the court said, so no further action is required of Congress or the President. The court's ruling would have been the final decision if the DOJ had not challenged it.
Further, there is no requirement that the Senate pass a law authorizing gay people to serve. The court decision held that they can, as citizens.
Your analysis is inaccurate, perhaps because you do not understand the status of the issue or the relationship between the government and the courts. Once the court held the policy was unconstitutional and enjoined its enforcement, the military was legally obligated to end it. The only reason DADT still stands is because the DOJ filed an appeal to keep the issue alive for years in the courts.
That included his Chief of Staff during his presidential campaign. The man is an opportunistic hypocrite. He holds his middle finger to the wind to discover what he believes is right. With a majority of military personnel and approx 70% of the public thinking gays in the military is no longer a big deal (or any deal at all), seems like this time he caught a very light breeze and thinks it's a hurricane!! Sigh. He needs to retire, and maybe he will....now that he got his one last feel good win.
you want a wind farm? go to either house of congress...
As a recently retired Navy veteran THANK YOU (Mrs. McCain)! Senator - please thank your wife for a FANTASTIC PSA spot for the NOH8 campaign! She spoke eloquently, and with such passion, you should be proud of how brave she is! She appears to be braver than many Senator's in our current or upcoming Congress!!!
And then I sent it to him via his personal page! LOL
In the mean time I'm going to John McCain's website to send him a message to pass a THANK YOU on to his wife for STANDING UP, BEING BRAVE and SPEAKING OUT AGAINST PREJUDICED SENATOR'S in OUR GOVERNMENT!!!
And Cindy - LOVE the new doo!!! Very sexy!!!