Even if everything Donald Trump has said about the late John McCain is true - and little of it is - why is Trump driven to continue his unrelenting attacks on a man who died over seven months ago.
If everything Trump has said is true, he should take a bow and introduce the next act. We've heard this song many times and even adding another stanza - not having been thanked for approving the federal support for McCain's funeral - we are tired of it.
Everything Trump has said is not true. In fact, little of what Trump has said is true.
The National Association of Amateur Psychologists, located here in Our Nation's Capital, has determined that Trump is suffering from some kind of inferiority complex because McCain's life was lived as a patriot, which we honor.
McCain's life was not lived as a saint, which we accept.
McCain, as you know, went to Annapolis and qualified as a Navy pilot. From Wikipedia:
"As a naval aviator, McCain flew attack aircraft from carriers. During the Vietnam War, he narrowly escaped death in the 1967 Forrestal fire. On his twenty-third bombing mission during Operation Rolling Thunder in October 1967, he was shot down over Hanoi and badly injured. He subsequently endured five and a half years as a prisoner of war, including periods of torture.
"In 1968, he refused a North Vietnamese offer of early release, because it would have meant leaving before other prisoners who had been held longer.
"He was released in 1973 after the Paris Peace Accords."
Donald Trump, on the other foot, had bone spurs and received a total of five deferments. From the NY Times in August 2016:
"After [Trump] graduated from college in the spring of 1968, making him eligible to be drafted and sent to Vietnam, he received a diagnosis that would change his path: bone spurs in his heels.
"The diagnosis resulted in a coveted 1-Y medical deferment that fall, exempting him from military service."
As to bone spurs, here's a definition (not from the National Association of Amateur Podiatrists):
"A bone spur, or osteophyte, is an abnormal growth of extra bone that develops when the body tries to repair a problem. Bone spurs can occur in any bone, but they are most common in the joints. The foot is one region in which bone spurs often develop, and aside from heel spurs, they are also fairly common in the toes and the middle of the foot."
Not many Republicans have stood up to tell Trump enough is enough. One is Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga). From CNN:
"It's deplorable what he said," Isakson told Georgia Public Broadcasting on Wednesday afternoon when asked about a series of critical comments Trump has made about McCain. "That's what I said on the floor of the Senate seven months ago. It will be deplorable seven months from now if he says it again and I will continue to speak out."
Senator Mitt Romney (R-Ut) wrote:
"I can't understand why the President would, once again, disparage a man as exemplary as my friend John McCain: heroic, courageous, patriotic, honorable, self-effacing, self-sacrificing, empathetic, and driven by duty to family, country, and God."
Isakson is not up for re-election until 2022. Romney was just elected in 2018 and doesn't have to run again until 2024.
Other Republican Senators praised John McCain, but studiously stayed away from even mentioning Donald Trump, much less rebuking him.
In an interview with the Associated Press I said if I were advising a Senator who is "in cycle," (up for election in 2020), I might counsel that he or she doesn't have to consider every fight, their fight. Trump still enjoys about 90 percent support from Republican voters. No need to invite a primary challenge.
We are not in an age of political courage.
On the Secret Decoder Ring page today: A link to the latest CNN poll mostly about the Democratic field, to Johnny Isakson's Wikipedia entry, and to more about bone spurs than you ever wanted to know.
The Mullfoto shows some excellent programming humor on Comcast's Channel 200 last night.
® 
