By DEXTER DUGGAN
PHOENIX — Politics shouldn’t take too long to give its twist to the surprise announcement here that Sen. John McCain has aggressive brain cancer.
Although initial reaction from both sides of the aisle praised McCain and expressed hopes for his recovery — sometimes even sincerely — how long could it be before Republicans were warned by liberal Democrats to truly honor the Arizona senator by working with them to improve, not replace, Obamacare?
A quick look around the web after the cancer announcement was made later in the day on July 19, Wednesday, didn’t show this line was being pushed yet. But it’s hard to believe it wouldn’t be taken up shortly, even before this hard-copy issue of The Wanderer was in readers’ hands.
Even before McCain had been taken out of action by surprise surgery to remove a blood clot above his left eye on July 14 — surgery that led to the revelation of the dangerous tumor — he had reverted to a familiar stand by urging that the GOP work with Democrats on government-flavored medicine.
Some proponents of government health coverage also suggested it would be unfair for McCain to be getting presumably top-quality treatment unless everyone else could enjoy guaranteed access to good health.
It didn’t seem so obvious to them, however, that the questionable VA hospital system is already widely government-provided medicine, but many military veterans, including McCain, would rather not go there.
You can take it to the bank. If President Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) show some serious reluctance to swallow the sour prescriptions of Sen. Charles Schumer (D., N.Y.) and his witch doctors, the cry will go up that even McCain’s own Republican Party is dishonoring his bravery and courage.
Why, the witch doctors can insist, even their “Maverick” friend had recently hoped the GOP would join hands with them for a solution.
It was just another irony that the Maverick’s condition first slowed Senate action on health-care reform while results of the minor surgery were assessed as McCain recovered, followed by the more serious revelation of the aggressive brain tumor.
The Washington Examiner reported July 19: “McCain’s absence is likely to complicate Republican efforts to pass legislation to repeal and replace Obamacare. The GOP bill in the Senate is stalled for lack of votes for the Better Care Reconciliation Act, which McCain supported. A separate bill, which would repeal the Affordable Care Act but delay passage of a replacement by two years while the details are hashed out, also lacks the votes to pass.”
A July 19 statement from the Mayo Clinic at McCain’s website said, “The senator and his family are reviewing further treatment options with his Mayo Clinic care team. Treatment options may include a combination of chemotherapy and radiation.”
In addition, McCain’s office said: “He is grateful to the doctors and staff at Mayo Clinic for their outstanding care, and is confident that any future treatment will be effective. Further consultations with Sen. McCain’s Mayo Clinic care team will indicate when he will return to the United States Senate.”
The Associated Press reported July 19, “Even among those who respond to initial treatment, the cancer can come back, and often within 12 to 24 months. The American Cancer Society puts the five-year survival rate for patients over 55 at about 4 percent” with this kind of cancer, a glioblastoma.
The AP reported that a New York brain surgeon who lacked direct knowledge of McCain’s care said “some people do beat the odds for long periods.”
Still, the cold political calculation that remains in the background at this point, unless it’s dragged into the daylight, had to be mulling the possibility that Arizona might have both of its U.S. Senate seats opening up in 2018 — McCain’s, who’s only in the first year of the sixth term that he won in 2016, and also Jeff Flake’s, the frequently unpopular former congressman whose first term in the Senate expires next year.
Are Arizona’s corrupt power brokers already hotly reviewing plans to keep both seats in their corral, where they are now?
Ironically, shortly before McCain’s cancer was revealed, the Politico website reported on July 17 that the White House had met with at least three possible Arizona GOP challengers to Flake in next year’s primary election. Flake’s history with the president is strongly anti-Trump.
The story named Arizona State Treasurer Jeff DeWit, former State Sen. Kelli Ward, and former Arizona GOP chairman Robert Graham.
Under the headline “White House squeezes Jeff Flake,” Politico said the meetings were “a reflection of Donald Trump’s strained relations with the senator and the latest sign of the president’s willingness to play hardball with lawmakers who cross him — even Republican incumbents.”
DeWit might be a logical choice. During Trump’s presidential campaign, the well-spoken DeWit proclaimed himself the first elected official in the nation to endorse the Manhattan developer.
And Ward gained political experience by making a strong showing against the entrenched McCain in the 2016 GOP primary although losing to McCain by about 12 points, while two other candidates split off 9 percent of the vote. Ward already has announced her candidacy against Flake.
Former party chairman Graham, a Flake backer and supporter of McCain, was a more dubious possibility.
The conservative Seeing Red AZ blog commented on July 18: “The conjecture of possible challengers might be music to Flake’s ears, since having numerous candidates splitting the vote is how McCain has stayed in office. He was often accused of recruiting some ‘opponents’ for that very reason. But Flake has charted a risky course far and apart from a potentially crowded field.”
Politico said: “While his supporters praise him as an independent-minded lawmaker who charts his own path, Flake’s detractors deride him as a grandstander — one all too willing to poke his party in the eye.”
Not Adroit
Rob Haney, a strong Arizona Trump supporter and foe of McCain, told The Wanderer on July 19, before the senator’s brain cancer was revealed:
“DeWit is a much more credible candidate than Robert Graham. Graham has repeatedly burnished his McCain credentials. His duplicity was front and center when it came to dealing with state committeemen. His wanton disregard of the Arizona GOP state bylaws when it was necessary to advance McCain’s agenda was evident to all politicos. Graham would have virtually zero support from Arizona conservatives.”
With the Senate closely divided between Republicans and Democrats, McCain’s tumor and absence made maneuvering all the tougher for Majority Leader McConnell, who’d already showed himself to be far less than adroit at lining up his narrow majority for successful action.
He wasn’t helped when a few other Republican senators had said they wouldn’t favor the latest health solution bolted together in McConnell’s legislative closet. Or was that the solution just before the latest solution? McConnell’s and Trump’s leadership left much to be desired here.
The GOP had promised for seven years to repeal Obamacare, but obviously had no consensus in the bag a half-year after the party had control not only of both chambers of Congress but also the executive power of the White House.
Republicans could promise that if voters just gave the GOP more congressional seats in the 2018 midterm elections, there’d finally be a large enough margin to overcome remaining difficulties. But would many voters by then have lost patience and confidence in Republican leadership’s assertions?
And Trump’s winning campaign image as a successful multi-billionaire developer couldn’t have been enhanced by his failure as president to assemble what he needed to wave bye to Obamacare. Despite all his confident tweets, Obamacare remained in place.
However, Barack Obama’s government health dictatorship was desperately unhealthy. As Trump had tweeted more than once, just go ahead and let Obamacare fail, then Dems will beg for help. Democrats simply digging in their heels for the moment is no answer.
Bloomberg View columnist Megan McArdle posted on July 18 that “Democrats who want to cheer ‘Obamacare is saved!’” are very wrong. “Obamacare is now in worse shape than ever. And Obamacare was not exactly in good shape before. Obamacare was, in fact, wheezing and sweat-soaked every time it had to walk from the couch to the fridge.”
McArdle often has written on Obamacare. She added:
“The late economist Herbert Stein once observed, ‘If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.’ That is as true of Obamacare as everything else. Eventually, if Obamacare’s problems get bad enough, something will have to be done, and something will be, as frightened politicians survey the smoking rubble of the individual market and the fleeing voters headed straight for the ballot box.”
Trump tweeted on July 18, “We were let down by all of the Democrats and a few Republicans. Most Republicans were loyal, terrific & worked really hard. We will return!”
However, even if McCain’s hopes could be fulfilled for joining hands with Dems, he and other Republicans surely are aware that the overriding priority of national Democrat leaders is protecting tax funding of Planned Parenthood and spreading permissive abortion, in government medicine and elsewhere in politics.
Like dumping Obamacare itself, removing tax funding from baby butcher Planned Parenthood is a winner with voters. If the Republican majority can’t even achieve this, with or without some Democrat help, what can voters count on?
The RINO Factor
Haney, the Trump backer, told The Wanderer that elected Republicans In Name Only still pose a high hurdle against the president’s objectives.
“Despite Trump’s bluster about ending Obamacare and cutting taxes, I saw these objectives as impossible to achieve because of the numerous RINOs in Congress,” Haney emailed on July 19.
“Establishment’s big-money people and the media are responsible for the health-care fiasco. . . .
“The establishment money brokers control politicians in both parties. Thus, very little in the way of conservative initiatives see the light of day,” said Haney, a retired chairman of the Maricopa County Republican Party, headquartered in Phoenix.
He said the “big-money people” financed and supported the campaigns of politicians including Senators McCain, Flake, Susan Collins (R., Maine), Lisa Murkowski (R., Alaska), Shelly Moore Capito (R., W.Va.) and Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.).
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