Wednesday, September 27, 2017

CAN YOU IMAGINE WHAT DONALD TRUMP WILL BE LIKE WHEN JOHN McCAIN DIES?

Axios's Mike Allen reports:
In private, President Trump has taken to physically mocking M&M: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (slumped shoulders; lethargic body language) and Sen. John McCain (imitating the thumbs-down of his historic health-care vote).
McCain's daughter is not pleased:



Also:



As I've watched right-wingers become angrier and angrier over the years, I've wondered how mean-spirited some of them are going to be when major figures in the Democratic Party pass away. Jimmy Carter? He's in his nineties, and they hate him. They hate Bill Clinton, who's a generation younger than Carter but has had several heart procedures. They hate Hillary Clinton, who's clearly much healthier than the National Enquirer and Julian Assange haveclaimed, but who does have some acknowledged health problems.

I've been expecting contemptuous responses to the deaths of any of these figures from elements of the right-wing media and from some GOP back-benchers. I've assumed that the most important GOP leaders would respond graciously.

But now Donald Trump is president. And to my list of Democrats we can add McCain, who's despised by the president and also a significant percentage of his rank-and-file supporters.

I have serious problems with McCain's record as a senator, but I think he'll deserve dignity in death. The rest of Washington is likely to agree: He may be a rare member of Congress whose body will lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda. The last to do that was Senator Daniel Inouye, a World War II Medal of Honor winner. It's no surprise that Barack Obama went on to eulogize his fellow Democrat and Hawaiian at the National Cathedral -- but Richard Nixon died while Bill Clinton was president, and Clinton delivered one of the eulogies.

What will Trump do under similar circumstances?

He doesn't have to lavish praise on McCain. When Ted Kennedy died, the responses by some prominent Republicans were restrained but respectful:
Former President George H.W. Bush expressed sympathies from members of the Republican Party.

"While we didn't see eye to eye on many political issues through the years, I always respected his steadfast public service," he said in a statement.

Bush's son, former President George W. Bush, said he was pleased to work with Kennedy on legislation for improving public schools, immigration rule and mental illness care.

"In a life filled with trials, Ted Kennedy never gave in to self-pity or despair," the younger Bush said.
Trump doesn't have to give a eulogy. I'm sure he won't be asked.

But can Trump even manage civility?

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