[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 143 (Monday, August 27, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5941-S5943]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        REMEMBERING JOHN McCAIN

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, on Saturday evening, a great loss 
echoed throughout our country. Six decades of patriotic service came to 
an end.
  We have suspected for some time that we would bid farewell to our 
colleague, the senior Senator from Arizona, John McCain. John took full 
advantage of the months since his diagnosis. His hard work continued, 
but happy reminiscing, fond farewells, final reflections, and time with 
family actually came to the fore. I was privileged to spend a small 
share of that time with John. We sat on his back porch in Sedona under 
the desert sky, replaying old times. John did things his way these last 
months.
  For his colleagues here, the time confirmed a sad but obvious truth: 
The Senate won't be the same without John McCain. I think it is fair to 
say that the passion John brought to his work was unsurpassed in this 
body. In more than 30 years as a Senator, he never failed to marshal a 
razor-sharp wit, a big heart, and, of course, a fiery spirit.
  When John saw an issue the same way you did, you knew you had just 
found your most stalwart ally. You would thank your lucky stars because 
when you found yourself on the other side of that table, as I think all 
of us learned, you were in for a different kind of unforgettable 
experience. Either way, serving alongside John was never a dull affair. 
I found myself on both sides of that table over the years. John and I 
stood shoulder to shoulder on some of the most important issues to each 
of us, and we also disagreed entirely on huge subjects that helped 
define each of our careers.
  John treated every day, every issue, with the intensity and 
seriousness that the legislative process deserves. He would fight like 
mad to bring the country closer to his vision of the common good. But 
when the day's disputes were over, that very same man was one of our 
most powerful reminders that so much more unites us than divides us;

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that we should be able to differ completely on policy and stay united 
in love of our country. John himself once put it:

       We have nothing to fear from each other. We are arguing 
     over the means to better secure our freedom, and support the 
     general welfare. But it should remain an argument among 
     friends who share an unshaken belief in our great cause, and 
     in the goodness of each other.

  John and I sure had those fights, and we sure had that friendship. I 
am just glad we never found ourselves in opposite dugouts. You see, 
John and I spent years as neighbors in the Russell Building. Often, 
when softball season rolled around, our offices would take the field 
together as one united McTeam, we called it.
  As a seriously wounded war hero and a childhood polio survivor, I 
would have to say John and I didn't exactly have the makings of an 
elite double-play duo. I took the mound once or twice, but I admit, we 
mostly offered moral support. Moral support. Really, that is what John 
McCain gave this body and this country for so long. His memory will 
continue to give it because while John proudly served with us as the 
Senator from Arizona, he was America's hero all along.
  Just this month, Congress finalized a major bill for our All-
Volunteer Armed Forces that we named after John. This might seem like a 
small detail, but, really, it was a fitting capstone for a career so 
thoroughly defined by service in and then service for the ranks of 
those who wear our Nation's uniform.
  Generations of McCains have served with distinction in our great 
Navy. As John described his Scottish heritage in one memoir, ``The 
McCains [were] bred to fight.'' And fight they have. One by one, 
McCains have entered the academy's gates in Annapolis. One by one, they 
marched past a centuries-old battle flag bearing the phrase ``Don't 
Give Up the Ship.''
  While honorable service was in his DNA, John's story was never 
simple. At Annapolis, as he would come to explain with some relish, his 
major distinctives were mostly the weakness of his grades and the 
length of his disciplinary record. The first miracle in John's military 
career was the fact that he somehow made it through school. But he 
prevailed, and bigger tests soon came. He stared death in the face 
aboard the USS Forrestal and again when he was shot down and dragged, 
battered and broken, into the hands of our Nation's enemies. Five and a 
half hellish years in captivity. Merciless beatings for the uniform he 
had worn and the values he would not renounce. That stubborn, 
rebellious streak went from a stumbling block to a saving grace. 
Stubborn virtue sustained John. He declined early release in solidarity 
with his brothers. He never gave up the ship.
  We all know this story. But while John didn't shy from sharing his 
experiences, he insisted he was no hero and no saint. He measured his 
life in simpler terms. When asked after this diagnosis last year how he 
would like to be remembered, here is what he said: ``He served his 
country, and not always right--made a lot of mistakes, made a lot of 
errors--but served his country, and I hope we can add, honorably.'' He 
will certainly get that wish.
  For many, the service and sacrifice that John rendered overseas would 
have been more than enough--more than a lifetime already--but somehow 
John McCain was convinced that he still owed his country more. In 1983, 
he arrived in Congress. John knew exactly what it meant to swear to 
``support and defend the Constitution of the United States.'' When he 
was sworn in here in the Senate 4 years later, he was no stranger to 
pledging to protect the Constitution from ``enemies, foreign and 
domestic.''
  The following years brought legislative accomplishments, to be sure. 
While John's constituents were lucky to have him as their Senator from 
Arizona, John also remembered that our titles say ``United States 
Senator.'' He worked across the aisle on the Select Committee on POW/
MIA Affairs, whose work helped heal the wounds of war and normalize 
relations with Vietnam. He led congressional delegations and overseas 
travel that were famously as grueling as they were educational. John 
was seemingly immune to jet lag, and he was never more excited than 
when he had an opportunity to share American values abroad.
  And, of course, he was singularly devoted to the men and women of our 
Armed Forces. From countless visits with deployed units in Iraq and 
Afghanistan to his committee meetings right here in this body, John 
honored their sacrifices in a way that only he could. He never forgot 
that notwithstanding the grandeur of our military might and 
technological prowess, our armed services are made up of people--of our 
constituents, of volunteers, of the brave.
  John's favorite novel was Ernest Hemingway's ``For Whom the Bell 
Tolls.'' I suspect we will hear it quoted quite a bit in the days 
ahead. The lead character is an American ex-pat named Robert Jordan who 
risks everything in the Spanish Civil War. He is a little bit brash, 
maybe a little hotheaded. In fact, he is a dynamite specialist whose 
specialty literally is blowing things up, and he goes down fighting, 
right down to the book's final pages. I am sure some of us can imagine 
why John might identify with this guy.
  I recently rediscovered something John wrote a few years ago about 
this book. He noted that his favorite literary hero wasn't some 
contrived caricature of a hero from central casting. The book is full 
of complexities. The character has to face all of the messiness of life 
and war. His idealism is challenged. But he realizes that the 
imperfections of this world don't mean the concept of sacrifice is 
outdated. They don't make love of cause or country into something 
quaint or naive. They only make patriotism, service, and hope that much 
more noble and necessary.
  It takes one kind of heroism to undergo unimaginable pain and 
suffering as a POW but then persist in loyalty. It takes another kind 
of heroism to sustain that passion for decades more, to withstand the 
slings and arrows of politics, the compromises, the disappointments, 
the defeats, and yet still consider it a joy and an honor to serve. Few 
have either kind of heroism. John McCain had both.
  Fortunately, all that intensity came paired with a world-class sense 
of humor. As we all know, John really hated to lose. The line he used 
after his Presidential campaigns still makes me laugh. Some would ask 
how he was coping with defeat. John would say:

       Actually, I'm sleeping like a baby. You know--I sleep for 
     two hours, wake up, and cry.

  Seriously, it is hard to describe this larger-than-life figure 
without lapsing into what sound like cliches.
  We have all heard our whole lives about the importance of patriotism 
and self-sacrifice, but we cannot take that culture of commitment for 
granted because just like our Nation's security and our American 
liberty, the very notion that some causes really are greater than 
ourselves only survives because servicemembers and statesmen like John 
McCain will fight and even die to defend it.

  The bond between John and his country was so deep, but, of course, 
other bonds ran deeper still. While John's colleagues grieve our own 
loss, we also send our love and support to those who know him even 
better--those who call this man their husband, their son, their father, 
and their grandfather. We stand with John's loving wife Cindy. We stand 
with Doug, Andy, Sidney, Meghan, Jack, Jimmy, and Bridget. We stand 
with his mother Roberta and with all of John's devoted friends and 
loyal staff. Thank you for lending him to us longer than we had a 
right. Thank you for supporting him while he supported us.
  John McCain has fought his last battles and cast his final votes, but 
the Nation he loved is still not done with him yet. This week will be 
dedicated to remembering him. On Friday, he will lie in state in the 
Capitol like other American heroes before him. As the days turn to 
weeks, I know we are all eager to come together and collaborate on ways 
we can continue to honor his memory.
  Generation after generation of Americans will hear about the cocky 
pilot who barely scraped through Annapolis but then defended our Nation 
in the skies, witness to our highest values even through terrible 
torture, captured the country's imagination through the national 
campaigns that spotlighted many of our highest values, and became so 
integral to the U.S. Senate,

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where our Nation airs and advances its great debates.
  America will miss her devoted son, her stalwart champion, her elder 
statesman. We will miss one of the very finest gentlemen with whom I 
have had the honor to serve, but we will not forget him. I consider it 
our privilege to return some small share of the love John poured out 
for this country.
  It is our honor as Americans to say to the late, great John Sidney 
McCain III what we pray he has already heard from his Creator: ``Well 
done, good and faithful servant.'' Well done. You fought the good 
fight. You finished the race. You kept the faith. You never gave up the 
ship.

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