“Historic” was a term frequently heard on Saturday to characterize the memorial service for John McCain.
Not only was McCain eulogized by two former Presidents (Barack Obama and George W. Bush), but the mourners who jammed Washington’s National Cathedral appeared to be a “Who’s Who” of the modern “establishment” of American politics.
Along with being filled with history, however, the McCain memorial also included what Edward Luce of the Financial Times dubbed “a giant subtweet against [President] Trump.”
“There has never been quite such a spectacle against a sitting president,” observed Luce.
Among those paying their respects to the late Arizona senators were two former vice presidents (Dick Cheney and Al Gore), former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (who delivered one of the eulogies for McCain) and former Maine Sen. and Secretary of Defense Bill Cohen (best man at the 1980 wedding of John and Cindy McCain).
The President, of course, was not there. But daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner did attend after being asked by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R.-S.C. Graham reportedly got the okay from Cindy McCain before inviting the Kushners.
The Trump-bashing began with an obvious reference in Meghan McCain’s tearful remarks that several reporters deemed “melodramatic.”
“The America of John McCain has no need to be made great again,” she declared tearfully, “because America was always great.”
The host of “The View” went on to say that her father’s death meant “the passing of American greatness, the real thing. Not the cheap rhetoric from men who will never come near the sacrifice he gave so willingly.”
In what was clearly a reference to Trump’s alleged “coddling of dictators” such as Egyptian President Sisi and Russia’s Putin, former President George W. Bush declared: “Perhaps above all, John detested the abuse of power and could not abide bigots and swaggering despots."
Bush went on to hint that McCain’s words would live on to warn us about the current toxic political atmosphere.
“John’s voice will always come as a whisper over our shoulder,” he said, “We’re better than this. America is better than this.”
As he did in South Africa in his recent remarks on the centenary of Nelson Mandela, Barack Obama was clearly testing contrasts between McCain and Trump as possible rhetoric on the campaign trail this fall.
In Obama’s words, “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. It’s a politics that pretends to be brave and tough but in fact is born of fear."
Strong words, all right, and especially for a service for a senator who, his candor and patriotism notwithstanding, was one of the most hawkish lawmakers when it came to U.S. military action and who voted against every plank in Obama’s platform.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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