Vengeance!

Dramatic week in politics, I am gonna talk about healthcare some more, specifically John McCain, hailed by some as the hero of the week.

Now some will tell you that Senators Collins and Murkowski are the true heroes of this whole ordeal, having been up front from the beginning about why and how they were voting, and they aren't wrong, it does take courage to piss of the president in the way they have, however McCain's actions were also decisive, more so for being completely unexpected.

To recap: John McCain, having been diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer, hauls himself out of the hospital and flies to Washington DC to cast the tie-breaking vote that brought the health care bills to the floor of the Senate for discussion and voting. This was widely regarded as a bad move and many, myself included, panned hum for it. During the week three versions of an Obamacare repeal bill came up, he voted for the first option, to no effect as nine Republicans defected on that one, he voted against the second one, and then during the vote on the "skinny" repeal, the version widely expected to pass due to some quite appallingly stupid ideas, he arranged to vote last and voted no, joining Collins and Murkowski and killing the bill 51-49.

It was a moment that is probably going to be legendary in American politics going down the line, assuming we don't all die first.

I wrote earlier this week that I didn't know why he was doing this, that he had nothing to lose, and used to have principles, twisted though they might be, so why not take the opportunity to discover them again? I guess I got my answer in a way.

First, the move to vote to proceed was actually sort of brilliant, if you assume, as I do now, that his master plan was to kill the healthcare bill completely. See, the Senate has been attempting to use budget reconciliation to pass their bill, however under those rules you can only have one attempt at passing something like that during a budget session, which means if your bill comes up and is voted down, you don't get to try again until you decide on a new budget. This is why McConnel and company kept pulling the bill when it became clear they didn't have to votes for it, so they could try again until it worked.

McCain apparently didn't want to spend the entire summer on this train, so hatched a plan, in broad strokes it appears to have been make everyone think you are going to vote for it which would give McConnel the confidence to allow it to proceed, and then vote it down at the eleventh hour, burying health care reform as an issue until at least the next budget. And it worked, although The Toddler is still demanding something happen, it seems unlikely at this point.

Which brings me to his motivation, see, I do not believe McCain was doing this out of the goodness of his heart or because he suddenly started caring about poor people, no, this is about one thing and one thing only.

Vengeance.

"I like people that weren't captured okay?"

You remember that? You should, it was among the more shocking things he said during the debates and while McCain was too controlled to just outright show rage, it clearly hurt him deeply, combine that with The Toddler then proceeding to take over his party, and you can see why he might be looking for revenge.

He got it, in historic fashion

Now I am not saying that he is a good person, his motivation was spite, we are fortunate that spite was directed at the president this time, he is also not a brave person, he has virtually nothing to lose at this point and it cost him nothing to make this statement, and may very well gain him much in the way of legacy. At best our interests aligned for one day, and within five years we will likely see an Oscar bait movie based on the events of the past week.