By Brad Bernstein
President, The Law Offices of Spar & Bernstein
http://www.4immigration.com/
There was a time when we really loved, respected, and admired Sen. John McCain.
He was a shot-down Vietnam war hero who spent nearly six years within that torture chamber called the Hanoi Hilton, refusing a way out to continue suffering with his troops. He was a political maverick who chose tough positions – especially on comprehensive immigration reform – based on nothing more than what he thought was right, unafraid to tick off the extreme right of his Republican party. He was a man who was willing to stand alone to make a difference.
Geez, what happened to that guy?
Along the way, especially during his 2008 presidential campaign, something definitely turned over in McCain.
He turned soft, appeasing the very people he once fight so vigorously.
He turned political, becoming the very type of cookie-cutter political animal he once decried, seeming to look no longer to lead the way to a better country but all but begging for votes.
Today, in the Arizona primary for McCain’s Senate seat, he faces off against J.D. Hayworth.
It has been the battle of McCain’s political life.
And as much as we loathe what McCain has evolved into, it’s still a no-brainer to pick him over that lout Hayworth, who’s one of the most vocal anti-immigration yammermouths you’ll ever find.
McCain, by all polls, will come out victorious – but at what price?
He has gone from a man who so beautifully had worked with the late Ted Kennedy on creating a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants to someone staunchly against illegal immigration, emphasizing aggressive border protection, speaking in favor of Arizona’s unseemly SB 1070 immigration law, and even supporting hearings contesting the 14th Amendment provision that ensures American citizenship as a birthright.
Those positions will make his anti-immigrant constituency happy. They will keep him his Senate seat, save his political life.
But so what.
It’s McCain’s legacy that is forever ruined, flip-flopping so much on so many important issues that he should be covered in skin burns by now.
Oh, we’ll congratulate McCain at the end of the day for his win over Hayworth the Huckster, but we’ll also wonder, if not hope and pray: When will the John McCain we once loved and admired and respected return to us to lead again?
