Señor Trumpanzee Is Still-- And Will Forever Be-- Battling John McCain

The President of the United States by Nancy Ohanian

Remember way back on Saturday when Schumer suggested re-naming the Russell Senate Office Building for John McCain? Jeff Flake (R-AZ) is going to co-sponsor the bill with him. Now, many grassroots Democrats aren't as excited about the prospect as Senate Democrats. But, apparently, it will be Trump ass-kissers among Senate Republicans who will prevent it from ever happening. Among those opposing this bipartisan move are unreconstructed Confederates Richard Shelby (R-AL), John Kennedy (R-LA), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), and David Perdue (R-GA). Mitch McConnell doesn't seem to dig it either. The funny thing about Richard Russell is that he was a Democrat, but a conservative one and a particularly rabid racist pig. Democrats are happy to erase his name from the building but racist Republicans, of course, revere him. After all, he held the civil rights movement back for decades, both in Georgia and nationally.

I haven't heard Lindsay Graham waffle on the McCain-as-hero narrative yet. But just wait. Trump either has pictures of the closeted South Carolina Republican or... Lindsay wants a position in the rapidly changing Trumpanzee cabinet. So anything is possible. But what about that Johnny Isakson guy! Who'a'thunk the first Republican to offer to give Trump a whippin' would be a Georgia senator! Johnny: "I don’t know what’s going to be said in the next few days about John McCain... but anybody who in any way tarnishes the reputation of John McCain deserves a whipping, because most of the ones who would do the wrong thing about John McCain didn’t have the guts to do the right thing when it was their turn."

Not that Trump doesn't have his Senate defenders on the fringe right in his battle with McCain's corpse. Oklahoma sociopath Jim Inhofe-- of snowball-proves-there's-no-global-warming fame-- CNN that McCain is "partially to blame" for the controversy over Señor Trumpanzee’s raising and then re-lowering White House flags: "Well, you know, frankly, I think that John McCain is partially to blame for that because he is very outspoken. He disagreed with the president in certain areas and wasn’t too courteous about it."

At least Trump's got just re-nominated Arizona Governor Doug Ducey in his camp in the Trumps v McCain war. Yesterday six (yes, 6!) Politico reporters worked on a piece asserting that Ducey will bow to Trump's will in deciding with whom to replace McCain. Ducey will have a tough reelection battle in November against progressive former Department of Education official David Garcia and he needs to balance the concerns of Trump's crackpot backers with normal people. Trump has vetoed McCain's own request that Ducey replace him for the remainder of his term with his wife, Cindy. The 6 reported that for Señor T "the decision offers an opportunity to blot out McCain’s most dramatic legislative move in the Trump era: casting the deciding vote against Obamacare repeal, and dooming the administration’s first big legislative initiative."

Will Trump force Ducey to appoint one of his allies, either of yesterday's Senate primary losers, Joe Arpaio or Kelli Ward or Trump crony Jeff DeWit, all 3 from the neo-fascist wing of the GOP?

[O]ne new candidate whose name has increasingly come up could help the governor in his own reelection fight and satisfy the pro-Trump wing of the party while honoring the memory of the six-term senator: Maj. Gen. Michael McGuire, a career military pilot who also serves as adjutant general for the state.

McGuire, also the director of the Arizona Department of Emergency and Military Affairs, has not been listed among the usual cast of potential successors since McCain fell ill last year. But his name began surfacing in interviews with more than a dozen politicians and consultants.

“John’s fairly highly regarded here in Arizona. Maybe not among the partisan base, but amongst the broader electorate and the community,” Arizona Republican strategist Chuck Coughlin said of the late senator’s legacy as a military man. “I think he would probably respect the family legacy there and the service,” he added of Ducey’s choice.

“But beyond that, I think he’ll just pick a conservative Republican who’s well regarded and likely to run and hold the seat.”

Other names being bandied about in Phoenix are former Senator John Kyl, former Rep. John Shadegg, who always wanted to be a senator but who left Congressafter being exposed in a sex scandal with another congressman's wife; Barbara Barrett, a former ambassador to Finland; Kirk Adams, Ducey’s chief of staff and a former state lawmaker; Karrin Taylor Robson, a wealthy developer; state Treasurer Eileen Klein; Rep. Paul Gosar; and Matt Salmon, another former congressman.

Jake Sherman and his team connected this week's dots and came to the conclusion that "In reality, Trump has already made this story about him. His silence-- and flip-flopping on the flag-- has kept Washington (and particularly the media) on edge. Any other president would’ve just lowered the flag to half-staff for the week, issued an effusive statement and moved on. Trump is making plain what we already knew: He never much liked McCain, and he’s not really concerned what anyone thinks about his behavior. Trump seems fully confident that his supporters haven’t cared for McCain in any way since 2008-- when they concluded his constituency was mostly reporters and middle-of-the-road Republicans. In some ways, Trump’s candidacy and presidency are a direct response to the candidacies of McCain and Mitt Romney... [E]veryone recognizes that Trump-- a supremely transactional figure for whom truth and everything else is infinitely flexible and subordinate always to self-interest-- is the more authentic representative of the age."

McCain's Parting Shot: "We weaken our greatness when we confuse our patriotism with rivalries that have sown resentment and hatred and violence in all the corners of the globe. We weaken it when we hide behind walls rather than tear them down, when we doubt the power of our ideals rather than trust them to be the great force for change they have always been... Do not despair of our present difficulties, we believe always in the promise and greatness of America because nothing is inevitable here. Americans never quit, we never surrender, we never hide from history, we make history. Farewell fellow Americans. God bless you and god bless America.