One More Maverick Moment for McCain Sinks GOP Obamacare Repeal

by Dramelin 10:00 PM 0 comments

If Republicans had forgotten that Senator John McCain used be America’s most famous political maverick, they got a big reminder in the wee hours of Friday morning.
McCain gave an emphatic thumbs down to a stripped-down Obamacare repeal bill on the Senate floor -- just days after being diagnosed with brain cancer and then returning to Washington to help push the GOP legislation forward.
His role as the decisive opponent wasn’t apparent for much of the debate on the bill.
He’d largely supported Republican leaders, while making it clear he wanted several changes that were important to his home state of Arizona.
But when he returned to Washington this week, he came back a different man.
In an emotional floor speech Tuesday, he delivered a stern rebuke to his own party’s leadership and, by implication, President Donald Trump.
“We’re getting nothing done, my friends.
We’re getting nothing done,” he said.
Twitter Comments Over the next several days, he faced vitriol from opponents of the bill who saw his speech as hypocritical.
 On Twitter, activists on the left lambasted him as a man forever expressing concern about the Trump administration or partisanship but voting with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell when it mattered.
 He brushed it off.
  “I’m a big boy,” he said.
  In the days leading up to his vote, there was chaos at the White House on issues McCain cares deeply about.
  Trump announced on Twitter a ban on transgender people serving in the military, leading McCain, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, to issue a swift rebuke.
The president’s repeated attacks on McCain’s friend and former colleague, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, caused widespread consternation in the Senate hallways.
It also probably didn’t help that White House attention was diverted by its new communications director Anthony Scaramucci unleashing a profanity-ridden tirade against Trump adviser Stephen Bannon and White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus -- another sign of an administration consumed by infighting rather than pushing legislation across the finish line.
Despite all this, Republicans and Democrats alike for most of the week assumed that McCain, would, in the end, fall in line.
McCain had another path in mind.
Face Makeup The still-healing gash above his left eye from his recent surgery was a constant reminder he is battling a mortal threat.
A dash of makeup covered a bruise under his left eye.
He hadn’t been a major player in health care, although he had warned repeatedly that he wanted amendments to protect Arizona’s Medicaid money.
But as other holdouts started falling in line over the course of the week on a “skinny” repeal to end the mandate that all Americans have insurance, McCain didn’t budge.
He appeared at a news conference late Thursday where his best friend in the Senate, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, lambasted the skinny repeal bill as a disaster and a fraud that would increase premiums.
The senators said they would vote for it if they had a guarantee from Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin that the House wouldn’t pass the measure and that it would instead go to a House-Senate conference committee to devise a comprehensive approach to replacing Obamacare.
Ryan would only say publicly that he was “willing” to go to conference, if that’s what was required.
McCain wasn’t sold.
“Not sufficient,” he said as he headed to the Senate floor yet again.
Phone calls ensued -- Ryan talked with McCain -- and then McCain told reporters he wanted to talk to his governor, who earlier in the day had criticized the repeal effort on Twitter.
Then came the dramatic crescendo.
Shortly after midnight, McCain came to the Senate floor, first informing Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York, then Republican whip John Cornyn of Texas, of his intentions.
  It would be well over an hour before the key vote, however, as Republican leaders slowed the clock to stall for time in a furious effort to get McCain or another holdout, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, to change their votes.
Republicans considered a third Republican, Susan Collins of Maine, to be a lost cause.
Pence’s Efforts Vice President Mike Pence tried to sway McCain.
Pence had been in the chamber in hopes of casting the tie-breaking vote to send a scaled-back repeal bill to the House.
Collins and Murkowski at one point huddled around McCain protectively, and then an assortment of other senators approached McCain to try and flip his vote.
All to no avail.
First Collins voted no.
When McCain’s name was called, he didn’t answer.
Murkowski voted no.
Then McCain, with all eyes on him, walked to the well where McConnell stood, tense, arms crossed, waiting.
McCain gave a thumbs down to gasps from Democrats and disbelief from Republicans.
The senior senator from Arizona later walked out of the Capitol as reporters scrambled for a quote, to a hail of cheers from opponents of the health-care bill.
Hours later, McCain announced he’d start radiation and chemotherapy on Monday.