As a man of military service who showed courage enough of his critics would be hard pressed to show,
I take my hat off to Mr. McCain.
As a politician with an authoritarian streak ten miles wide, who seemed to believe the State should be
the
alpha and
omega of life, who seemed to believe "
a virtuous federal bureaucracy [should]
purify unclean private transactions from the boardroom to the bedroom," and who was quite willing
to abrogate the Constitution to exercise his beliefs (McCain-Feingold for openers, anyone?), I put my hat
back on ten times.*
But pray for the best regarding his health.
(* With apologies to Arturo Toscanini, who once castigated Richard Strauss, after learning a Strauss opera
had in fact had its world premiere the evening before Toscanini was to have conducted the originally-
announced premiere:
As a musician, I take my hat off to you. As a human being, I put it on ten
times. And right there, having traveled from Milan to Vienna to confront Strauss in the first place,
Toscanini did just that!)