Sunday News: “John McCain and the Lost Art of Decency”; “Last Lion of the Senate”; “Democrats Vote to Strip Power From Superdelegates, Reform Caucuses”

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Sunday, August 26.

• Senator and 2008 GOP presidential nominee driven by code of honor dies at 81 (“Former POW was known as ‘maverick’ of the Senate”)
• McCain was a force of nature in Washington with an unrivaled global stature (“The Arizona Republican used his prominence to wage battles with congressional leaders and presidents, Democrats and Republicans alike.”)
• McCain leaves the stage when we need him most
• John McCain and the Lost Art of Decency (“In decades of covering politics, I’ve encountered no one else with McCain’s unflinching combination of bracing candor, impossibly high standards, and rueful self-recrimination.” Trump, of course, has none of those qualities. The opposite in fact.)
• John McCain to Lie in State at Capitols in Washington and Arizona
• John McCain, a Last Lion of the Senate (“Senator John McCain died nine years to the day after the same virulent form of brain cancer claimed the life of Senator Edward M. Kennedy, his longtime friend.”)
• John McCain, a Maverick We Can Learn From (“…his bravest moment may have come in the winter of 2007-8 as he sought the Republican nomination for president. In polls, two-thirds of G.O.P. voters then supported torture, yet McCain led a battle against Vice President Dick Cheney on the issue and repeatedly denounced torture.”)
• GOP Arizona Senate candidate suggested McCain family statement on cancer treatment was meant to hurt her campaign (Demented freak, much more typical of today’s/Palin’s GOP than of John McCain’s GOP.)
• Barack Obama Reacts To John McCain’s Death: He Was Faithful To ‘Something Higher’ (“Joe Biden also lamented the loss of his friend: ‘America will miss John McCain. The world will miss John McCain. And I will miss him dearly.'”)
• ‘Patriot,’ ‘Hero,’ ‘American Original’: Politicians Remember John McCain (What if McCain had won the GOP primary in 2000 and been elected president? How would things have played out after 9/11? In the Republican Party?)
• McCain’s experience as POW shaped lifelong opposition to torture (As far as I’m concerned, this is fundamental/bedrock: if you support or condone torture, you should be completely disqualified from consideration for public office.)
• John McCain, a hero and leader who took causes more seriously than himself: ANALYSIS
• Arizona Governor Doug Ducey will choose John McCain’s replacement
• McCain requested Obama and George W. Bush deliver eulogies at funeral
• John McCain, Sarah Palin, and the rise of reality TV politics (“McCain empowered a demagogue who put the Republican Party on the path to Donald Trump.” Definitely the worst thing McCain ever did in his life was picking Palin as his running mate. She represents basically everything wrong with the Republican Party.)
• ‘He can’t get rid of any of this’: Trump’s wall of secrecy erodes amid growing legal challenges (Trump is such a massive contrast, in a BAD way, to John McCain.)
• Schumer introducing resolution to name Senate office building after McCain
• Pompeo decries ‘abhorrent ethnic cleansing’ in Myanmar on anniversary (We should have been – and still need to be – much more aggressive in our condemnations of this barbarity.)
• America is waging ‘psychological war’ against Iran: foreign minister
• The Full-Spectrum Corruption of Donald Trump (“Everyone and everything he touches rots.”)
• Trump Sends Condolences to McCain’s Family, Says Nothing About Late Senator (No class as usual.)
• Football Players Are Protesting Police Violence, Not the Anthem (“There are consequences to mischaracterizing the reason players aren’t standing.” CBS News did this yesterday – mischaracterized what the players are protesting – and even in correcting their f’up, they f’ed up. C’mon guys, this is NOT that difficult!)
• Former Vatican official claims Pope Francis knew of abusive priest and calls for his resignation (“A former Vatican ambassador to Washington said Sunday that he told Pope Francis in 2013 about allegations of sexual abuse against a prominent priest – and that Francis took no action. Now, the former official, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, is calling for Francis to step down.” Yikes.)
• Pope Decries Sex-Abuse Scandals, But Fails to Satisfy Critics
• Judge Curbs Trump Orders That Made It Easier to Fire Federal Workers
• GOP divided over midterm threat posed by Trump’s legal travails
• Democrats Vote to Strip Power From Superdelegates, Reform Caucuses (“The way state caucuses are governed will also change under the reforms, with state parties now required to accept absentee votes, rather than requiring caucuses voters to be physically present to support candidates at the events” I’m all for that!)
• Democrats weaken ‘superdelegates’ in effort to avoid another bitter presidential primary
• 7 arrested in protest over ‘Silent Sam,’ Confederate statue toppled at University of North Carolina (I don’t believe we should have public monuments to Confederates, but you can’t just go vandalizing stuff. It’s called “rule of law.”)
• Senators Kaine, Warner; Barack Obama Statements on the Passing of John McCain [UPDATED – More Statements by Virginians]
• AG Mark Herring campaigns in Roanoke for Senator Tim Kaine
• Stephen Nash: Virginia is vulnerable in battle for endangered species
• EDITORIAL: Backsliding on the SOLs
• Lynchburg prosecutor won’t file charges over complaint in 6th Congressional District ballot process for Democratic candidates (“Harrison’s letter said she found no evidence that Volosin or Childress broke any law.” I never thought there was any “there there” with this story.)
• Editorial: Another fascinating economic development proposal out of the coalfields (“What if, say, an urban locality in Northern Virginia didn’t have a site available for a particular project but referred it to a rural locality in Southwest Virginia that did? In return, the rural localities could share part of their revenue as payment for the help in landing a new employer.”)
• Gordon C. Morse: Tax windfall means different things to Virginia’s leaders
• Short expected to plan events, draw GOP voices to Miller Center (Gross.)
• Lieutenant governor pays special tribute to Danville pair for decades of service
• Chinese student still pushing for reinstatement at Virginia Tech (“Charged in January on a technical-sounding weapons violation — the Tech freshman was accused of equipping his legally acquired rifle with a 30-round magazine instead of the 20-round magazine allowed for a person with his visa status — Zhao’s arrest attracted national news coverage after the 10th anniversary of the 2007 mass shooting at Tech.”)
• Heat and humidity build today and tomorrow; really hot Tuesday and Wednesday