Rest in Peace… Senator John McCain…

As an Arizona resident, John McCain has been my Senator for 22 years. I did not always agree with him, but I always had great respect for him.

I was greatly annoyed by the smear by “W” against him in South Carolina in 2000, when the story was spread that he had fathered a black child. I was in South Carolina at the time on business, and saw the local news stories.

The truth is he and his wife had adopted an infant with a birth defect from Bangladesh. She was their youngest daughter. In spite of the racist lie, he was gracious in the resulting loss of the primary.

Although I never met Senator McCain, his office responded quickly and politely whenever I wrote about an issue — even when we disagreed. Not always true of other politicians.

Here is a favorite personal McCain story:

Shortly after moving to Arizona from Minnesota, I found myself sitting behind the late Senator Paul Wellstone (MN) on a flight to Minneapolis. BTW, we were both in coach. Wellstone, like McCain, was not pretentious.

As we were retrieving our bags from overhead, I told Senator Wellstone I was a former constituent, as well as an admirer of his willingness to fight for what he deemed right.

He asked where I now lived, and I replied “Arizona — where the politics are clearly not the same as Minnesota.” I’d already seen enough of Arizona politics to make me question my move.

Wellstone thought a minute, and then replied, “You know, you have a good man there in John McCain.” Political opposites, both often worked together with mutual respect.

As I soon learned, Wellstone was right. McCain spoke truth to those in power. He condemned torture, spoke out against racism (No ma’am, Senator Obama is not an Arab…), and criticized dirty politicians.

He was truly an officer and a gentleman, an increasingly rare breed.

Rest in peace, Senator McCain.

P.S. Sorry if I stepped on any political toes (no, not really…) As consultants, we often need to “call them as we seem them” … just as John McCain did.

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