On the 30th of August 2018, a funeral service was held in honor of the late war hero and Senator John McCain (R-AZ) in the State of Arizona that he had represented for decades. His good friends, the former democratic VP and Senator Joe Biden delivered the eulogy but others like Larry Fitzgerald of the Arizona Cardinals and Grant Woods, his former chief-of-staff, also spoke a few words.
LARRY FITZGERALD SPOKE AT FUNERAL /AP PHOTOHere is the rest of the story…
On August 30, 2018, Domenico Montanaro of NPR penned the following portrayal of events, ‘We Shall Not See His Like Again’: Joe Biden Honors His Friend, John McCain”
Excerpts:
Joe Biden walked up to the microphone on the altar in the church at his friend John McCain’s funeral, and sounded like a man with something to confess.
“My name’s Joe Biden,” he said. “I’m a Democrat, and I loved John McCain.”
Then he paused. Biden noted that he had given a lot of eulogies over the years. But, “This one’s hard,” he said.
He choked up, wiped away a tear at the ceremony at North Phoenix Baptist Church in Arizona, and continued. “I always thought of John as a brother,” Biden said, “We had a hell of a lot of family fights.”
“McCain requested the former Democratic vice president eulogize him at his funeral. And through the lens of today’s era of partisanship, their friendship makes little sense. Biden is cut from a decidedly liberal cloth; McCain was conservative. And they deeply disagreed on policy. But they were friends for 40 years.”
“Both men were forged in the fires of deep pain — Biden lost his wife and daughter in a car accident; McCain had just gotten out of Vietnam, where he was tortured at the hands of his captors for five-and-a-half years.”
“Biden said at the ceremony Thursday (8/30/18) that when they became friends, they didn’t talk about the tragedies that shaped each other’s lives. ”
“I trusted John with my life,” Biden said. And, he added that “the thing that’s understated the most was his optimism. That’s what made John special, made him a giant among us.
Biden, as he’s done repeatedly over the years at funerals, played a pastoral role.
“The disease that took John’s life – that took our friend Ted Kennedy’s life – that took my son Beau’s life – is brutal, relentless, unforgiving,” Biden said. “It takes so much from those we love – and from the families who love them – that in order to survive we have to remember how they lived – not how they died.
“The image I carry with me of Beau is of him starting a boat, staring and waving,” Biden said. “Not the last days.”
“To McCain’s family, he said, “you will all find your own images.” Maybe, it’s a smile, a laugh, a rub on the shoulder, a touch on the cheek, him turning and smile.”
“Or… “the sheer joy that crossed his face when he was about to take the stage on the floor and start a fight. God, he loved it.”
“And Biden, as a man who has seen and felt great pain, implored those closest to McCain that there will come a day when the mention of McCain’s name will bring a smile to their faces before a tear to their cheeks, and that’s when they will know they will make it.”
“Biden ended his speech, paraphrasing Shakespeare, “We shall not see his like again.”
“Rick Davis, who was McCain’s campaign manager, said of their friendship, per NBC News: “If there’s a better of exemplification of debating and throwing a few punches, but at the end of the day being able to maintain a relationship with the people you are at battle with, as the model of governance John McCain adhered to, that relationship with Biden was in the category.”
“McCain’s friendship with Biden was one in a long line of Democrats he reached out to and befriended over the years. It was, in part, because McCain believed in the necessity of reaching across the aisle to get big things done. But it was also because he just liked some of them, and he wasn’t going to let politics get in the way.”
“Biden lamented the decline of bipartisanship in the Senate. He pinned to decline back to a moment in 1996. He said he and McCain would sit next to each other during floor fights when issues were being debated, either he would go over the Republican side or McCain would venture over to him.”
“One day, though, Biden said, McCain and Biden were each approached separately by leaders of their respective caucuses, who told them to stop sitting with each other because “it didn’t look good.”
“Biden said that kind of attitude makes it “impossible to reach consensus.” He added that today, people in both parties are busy attacking each other’s motives rather than the the substance of their arguments.”
“McCain was also good friends with the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, the Massachusetts liberal, who died of the same brain cancer nine years earlier and with whom he worked on comprehensive immigration reform.”
“Some of the biggest fights I’d ever had was with one Ted Kennedy,” McCain joked on CBS’s 60 Minutes last year. And yet, he added, “We were the closest of friends. … Whether you liked him, whether you disliked him, whether you agreed with him or disagreed with him, he was always ready to do battle, but he wasn’t ready to get personal. ”
“McCain also invited another Democrat to eulogize him at his funeral: Barack Obama, the man who defeated him for the presidency in 2008. Obama is set to speak Saturday at the National Cathedral. Former Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, an independent/Democrat, will also speak that day. McCain wrote in his book, The Restless Wave, that he wished he had picked Lieberman to be his vice-presidential running mate in 2008.”
“Obama will follow former President George W. Bush, with whom McCain also sparred. Bush defeated McCain for the Republican nomination for president in 2000 in a bitter battle. Not invited to speak: Sarah Palin, McCain’s vice-presidential pick in 2008, and President Trump.”
“Trump and McCain both had charmed upbringings, but couldn’t have made more different choices with their lives. McCain wasn’t one for conspiracy theories; he was generally courteous and respectful of the press — and he truly believed in the system of governance the founders set up.”
“During the 2016 presidential campaign, McCain said Trump was “firing up the crazies,” Trump hit back saying he likes people who weren’t captured, and then McCain thwarted the Republicans’ health care repeal effort.”
“McCain’s funeral, which he had a great say in planning, was full of diversity — a former Republican chief of staff, a Latino pastor, a Mexican-American Democrat who chaired his early Senate campaign, Biden, a Navajo flutist and Larry Fitzgerald, a wide receiver for the Arizona Cardinals, who is black.”
“Grant Woods, McCain’s former chief of staff, delivered what sounded like a veiled shot at President Trump, noting that McCain “wouldn’t stand by” when people try to stamp on the Bill of Rights, “including the First Amendment.”
“Biden, quoting the Declaration of Independence, said, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights….”
“Then he thundered, “To John, those words had meaning.”
“Trump and McCain never patched things up. And McCain, whose casket exited the church to Frank Sinatra’s My Way, got in the last word.”
See: ANALYSIS McCain’s Death Marks The Near-Extinction Of Bipartisanship
Gronda Morin 
Thank you for this post, my friend. It made me cry, but I so enjoyed reading it. Biden’s tribute was beautiful. John McCain will certainly be missed.
Hugs!!!
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Hi Gronda and Jill,
I agree with Jill entirely. This post is definitely very hard to read but read to the end SoundEagle did with wet cheeks and eyes.
Still, I can’t help wondering why John McCain did not cross over to become a democrat. Do you know why?
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Dear Sound Eagle,
Senator McCain was a true conservative who believed in getting things done to where he was willing to cross the aisle to create legislation. Frankly, he was a pain to both sides of the aisle because he fought both sides hard to do what he believed was the right thing to do.
He was not always right but he was one of the few who would go back, apologize or to remedy/ fix whatever he felt he did wrong. He was open about his mistakes.
Hugs, Gronda
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Indeed, Gronda! Too few politicians (or any human being for that matter) have the courage, fortitude and magnanimity to turn around and steer a better course by owning up their mistakes, though it would have been much better if he could avoid those mistakes altogether by being a “born-again democrat”, so to speak.
I would like to wish you a very Happy September with my thematic poem and art as well as birthstones at https://soundeagle.wordpress.com/2012/09/07/soundeagle-in-art-poem-and-gem-%e2%80%95-september-sapphire/
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McCain’s views were always conservative, and he would not have fit well into the democratic, more liberal, camp. But, unlike most of today’s conservatives, he was willing to compromise, to “reach across the aisle” in order to do the best he could do for the people. He was not die-hard and stubborn to the point of destruction, as far too many are today.
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Thanks, Jill. Do you think that McCain might indeed question and even challenge his own worldview, biases and assumptions if he were to thoroughly read something like my critical social (as well as sociological, psychological, philosophical and existential) analyses contained in http://soundeagle.wordpress.com/2017/10/18/the-quotation-fallacy/ ?
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It is impossible to speak to what anybody might or might not have done, exposed to different viewpoints or data, and rarely do I try to predict unless I knew the person well. My off-the-cuff guess is “not likely” that he would have changed his platform, party or ideology, though I trust he would have listened and considered.
That said, I did go to your post, albeit briefly, and am interested in exploring it a bit. Unfortunately, it is after 3:00 a.m. and I still have about an hours’ work to do before I can go to bed, so I have bookmarked it to peruse a bit later this weekend. Thank you.
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Hi Gronda and Jill,
I submitted a comment earlier but for some reason it disappeared from this post.
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Dear Sound Eagle,
I hope you see your comment now. I apologize for this glitch.
Hugs, Gronda
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Your comment was there … I just replied to it! 😉
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Yes, I noticed it later. It disappeared earlier though for a short time. Thank you.
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Dear Jill,
The ceremony was a tear jerk er. Mr. Biden was channeling Senator McCain as he delivered the eulogy. It was the tale of how decent peoples behave.
Hugs, Gronda
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This post needs a love button. VERY well said, and yes, Senator McCain is definitely going to be missed.
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Dear Cherilyn,
Senator McCain represents the best of the American spirit, whereas President Trump and his ilk represent the worst. It’s like the tale of two countries. I choose to live in the country as exemplified by Senator McCain.
Hugs, Gronda
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Agreed.
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Very sad, Biden’s speech, but good.
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Dear Rugby 843,
VP Biden’s eulogy brings out the tears with his words describing a genuine friendship developed over years with Senator McCain. They both represent a bygone era where compromise was possible, and words like truth, honor, courage, duty meant something.
Hugs, Gronda
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It was very sad and so touching..my heart breaks when I see Meghan McCain so grief stricken.
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Dear Mary Plumbago,
You know that Meghan was definitely a Daddy’s girl. She is taking this loss hard. It is painful to watch someone hurting like that.
Most peoples feel empathy for Meghan and the entire family, but take a look at Dr. Rex/ Horty’s last comment to see how hateful some people have become under the leadership of President Trump.
Hugs, Gronda
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I only knew the most basic things about John McCain before his death. I now feel as if the whole world has lost a great man. 😦
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Dear ACFLORY,
He was an unofficial US ambassador because he was frequently traveling to meet world officials, leaders and even dissidents. He represented the best of what it means to be an American.
He has unruffled a lot of feathers in the wake of President Trump.
Hugs, Gronda
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I think McCain got a standing ovation in the Australian parliament when he came here. 🙂
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Reblogged this on It Is What It Is and commented:
John Sidney McCain, III … he got the last word! Simply beautiful memorial!
‘‘We Shall Not See His Like Again’: Joe Biden Honors His Friend, John McCain”
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Dear Horty,
I’ve gotten old enough to accept the reality that I don’t have to agree with someone to admire them, and Senator McCain was one in this category.
I admired him for sticking by his principles, for being in favor of diversity and immigration but he was a conservative. Still that never stopped him from crossing the aisle to get things done and for taking the high road. I want more like him in both parties.
Thanks a million for all your support and for this reblog.
Hugs, Gronda
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Hugs back, dear friend!! Agree … but America has a strong hate component … look!!
https://www.thedailybeast.com/meghan-mccain-husband-slams-twitter-ceo-for-post-of-gun-pointed-at-her-at-funeral
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Dear Horty,
This is so disgusting. This level of hate rhetoric is just not acceptable.
Hugs, Gronda
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😢😡😢
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There is some real scum in this world…I see much of it in the trump camp. Miserable people full of hate and vengeance. It’s sickening!
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Gronda, a statement was made that we are all Americans and working together is a good thing. That is a much different message from the big ego. Keith
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