dagblog - Comments for "Excerpts from McCain's deathbed book"

Not in his book, but sure

artappraiser — Sat, 12 May 2018 03:48:04 +0000

In reply to Excerpts from McCain's deathbed book

Not in his book, but sure interesting he's recommending the article:

Must-read @nytimes: "A Relative Wages Jack Johnson’s Biggest Fight: To Clear His Name" https://t.co/wtYeLdyhFE
— John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) May 8, 2018

"Putin is an Evil Man" is in his book, though:

'Putin’s goal isn’t to defeat a candidate or a party. He means to defeat the West.' An excerpt from the new memoir from @SenJohnMcCain https://t.co/47ixKuflGR
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) May 10, 2018

yeah we are reading together,

artappraiser — Thu, 10 May 2018 06:21:38 +0000

In reply to He's not done yet.

yeah we are reading together, I just saw that on Twitter, was coming here to post it:

“Her refusal to acknowledge torture’s immorality is disqualifying.” Via @daveweigel & @karoun https://t.co/wn9nQsSQt1
— Andrew deGrandpre (@adegrandpre) May 10, 2018

He's not done yet.

barefooted — Thu, 10 May 2018 06:08:47 +0000

In reply to The Arizona senator laments

He's not done yet.

The Arizona senator laments

artappraiser — Thu, 10 May 2018 05:54:23 +0000

In reply to Excerpts from McCain's deathbed book

The Arizona senator laments return of ‘old fears and animosities’ in new book The Restless Wave and has no regrets about giving Steele dossier to Comey according to John McCain warns that Republicans are on wrong side of immigration debate

by Lauren Gambino @ The Guardian.com, May 9

On the Trumpian Christian

artappraiser — Sun, 06 May 2018 01:12:53 +0000

In reply to I can still visualize

On the Trumpian Christian thing, I kinda liked this tweet, though it was like a slap in the face about what is the new normal

I can still visualize

PeraclesPlease — Sun, 06 May 2018 00:44:00 +0000

In reply to Yeah. For sure Lieberman

I can still visualize Lieberman & Gore holding hands and kneeling to pray. I'm like, "WTF are these goofs doing?" Okay, it was a few years before gay marriage was accepted, but still, couldn't they get a room first to see if they knew what they were doing? Because then Joe's like switching to a Republican, which is like my aunt marrying a Catholic back in Texas - just wasn't done,brought a lifetime of ridicule. Okay, there were Log Cabin Republicans,but even Lindsey Graham wouldn't join that, nor Scott Ritter apparently - oh wait, that was David Vitter - both called "wide stance" for some reason - anyway, neither joined, at least not publicly. But Joe's still a thing, apparently, one of the kool kidz or senate brat pack or something. I figure he's AIPAC's snitch, so when the lobbyists hit the Hill on a surprise inspection or raid or however they call it, Joe's meeting 'em at the front door to tell them who's been naughty or nice, or at least naughty. But even Eddie Haskell's shelf life is limited - there's always another smarmy kid waiting to take over. In our case he was a she - Tulsi Gabbard. How's Joe to compete now? Brains, brawn, wits and some kind of military service, we're never quite sure what. Just "she was over there. and she knows better than you." Plus she apparently speaks not just Hawaiian, but also Arabic and Russian, like "Kompromat". Makes me feel young again, gets the blood stirring. Then boiling. Then it's stroke time. Yeah, 8 to 80 in a few seconds, even though I'm not near that old. Anyway, the party's changing, just as the GOP is. However much of a prick McCain's been, he always came across as a slightly curmudgeonly affable prick. After he's gone, "curmudgeon" will be a compliment, and affable will be retired like that Catholic priest. Not sure what denominations will be left at that point - "Trumpilian" is more a sect than an official branch of Christianity, but it's been awfully successful in its short time. It's been a long time since Christians have been able to say "give unto Caesar what is God's", but Trump's got 'em all lubed up and hitting the offering plate, so he's doing something right. Quite the model for a brotherhood, straight out of the Da Vinci Code, only multiple characters able to pull off the grotesque albino monk (are we allowed to talk about press secretaries like that? "The monk applied the most perfect Smokey Eye before he smashed his victim's head in". Yeah, it'll do.)

Yeah. For sure Lieberman

CVille Dem — Sat, 05 May 2018 23:53:41 +0000

In reply to McCain At The Ranch:

Yeah. For sure Lieberman would have been a winner. Just like his plan to get out of Iraq that he never bothered to share. Jeez! A McCain-Lieberman administration would have been so much better than Obama. OK. He is dying. That doesn’t make him right about anything other than his opinion of trump.

McCain At The Ranch:

artappraiser — Sat, 05 May 2018 22:10:16 +0000

In reply to Excerpts from McCain's deathbed book

McCain At The Ranch:

He deeply regrets not picking Lieberman for VP in ‘08, tells Biden to stay in politics and is planning on having Pence, not Trump, at a funeral all hope won’t come anytime soon https://t.co/AmX1BL3ieu
— Jonathan Martin (@jmartNYT) May 5, 2018

Edit to add excerpt from the above, re: other regrets:

....Even more striking is how Mr. McCain expresses his sorrow in the documentary. He calls the decision not to pick Mr. Lieberman “another mistake that I made” in his political career, a self-indictment that includes his involvement in the Keating Five savings and loan scandal and his reluctance to speak out during his 2000 presidential bid about the Confederate battle flag flying above the South Carolina Capitol.

Mr. Lieberman said he didn’t know Mr. McCain felt that regret until he watched the film. “It touched me greatly,” he said.....

NEW: Obama and Bush 43 plan

artappraiser — Sat, 05 May 2018 21:51:12 +0000

In reply to Excerpts from McCain's deathbed book

NEW: Obama and Bush 43 plan to be eulogists at McCain's funeral, a source close to McCain tells me https://t.co/BecRU4HFc6
— Rebecca Shabad (@RebeccaShabad) May 5, 2018

As noted by Frank Bruni @

artappraiser — Sat, 05 May 2018 21:49:45 +0000

In reply to Excerpts from McCain's deathbed book

As noted by Frank Bruni @ NYTimes.com, May 5 "John McCain Battles Donald Trump With His Dying Breaths":

[....] McCain has waged it in public remarks since Trump’s election, including a speech in Philadelphia last October, when he pushed back against the “half-baked, spurious nationalism” that was gripping too many Americans and lamented the abdication of America’s moral leadership in the world.

He wages it in a forthcoming book, “The Restless Wave,” an advance excerpt of which includes his complaint that Trump fails “to distinguish the actions of our government from the crimes of despotic ones” and that he prioritizes “a reality-show facsimile of toughness” over “any of our values.”

[....]

Trump invites pity for all the slights he suffers plus plenty that he only imagines, and he readily boasts about achievements actual and hallucinated. “I don’t have a complaint,” McCain says in his book, which was written with Mark Salter and will be released on May 22. He’s grateful, he adds, that he “made a small place for myself in the story of America.” A small place. I sometimes forget, thanks to Trump, what the music of understatement sounds like.

“There is a scarcity of humility in politics these days,” McCain writes. I wonder if he has anyone particular in mind. No, that’s a lie: All of us know precisely which someone he has in mind, the same person in his thoughts when, in Munich in February 2017, he expressed alarm about an “increasing turn away from universal values and toward old ties of blood and race,” about “the hardening resentment we see toward immigrants” and about “the growing inability—and even unwillingness—to separate truth from lies.”

In his new book he calls out Trump by name, saying that the president’s cries of “fake news” are “copied by autocrats who want to discredit and control a free press” and that his lack of empathy for refugees is “appalling.” “The world expects us to be concerned with the condition of humanity,” McCain writes. “We should be proud of that reputation. I’m not sure the president understands that.” [....]

Although I disagree with many of his political views, including his too-keen itch for foreign intervention, that doesn’t prevent me from admiring him enormously. Nor should it, a point that he makes in his book.

“I don’t remember another time in my life when so many Americans considered someone’s partisan affiliation a test of whether that person was entitled to their respect,” he writes, ruefully, adding that while Biden, Ted Kennedy and other Democratic friends of his never voted for the same candidate for president as he did, his friendships with them “made my life richer, and made me a better senator and a better person.”

Such grace is unimaginable from Trump. That’s why it’s so vital that McCain is using his waning time to model it.