There are some movements afoot to name and rename things after the recently passed Arizona Senator John McCain.

John McCain’s father and grandfather were both admirals in the Navy. They have a guided missile destroyer named after them (sponsored by Cindy McCain), the USS John S. McCain. Senator John Sidney McCain, III, was added as a namesake in 2018. But apparently a boat is not enough. Chuck Schumer has proposed renaming the Russell Senate Building after John McCain. Marco Rubio is supporting the naming of the new billion-dollar NATO headquarters after John McCain.

There was no greater support of @NATO than @SenJohnMcCain. I am drafting a Senate resolution supporting the naming of new #NATO HQ after him & calling on @USNATO to support this move. As McCain loved to say when asked why he held a certain position “it is the right thing to do”.

— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) August 30, 2018

And from the NATO Secretary-General:

John McCain – soldier and senator, American and Atlanticist. He will be remembered both in Europe and North America for his courage and character, and as a strong supporter of NATO. My thoughts are with his family and loved ones.

— Jens Stoltenberg (@jensstoltenberg) August 26, 2018

McCain has collected a government paycheck for all of his adult life. Isn’t that payment enough?

McCain graduated from the Naval Academy in 1958, spent 22 years in the Navy, had a brief hiatus in private corporate life working for his wife’s father’s company, then signed up to be the Senator from Arizona for the next 31 years. To win that first race he invoked his stay at the Hanoi Hilton making him the much more sympathetic candidate. That would be the start of a long public career of irascibility and opportunism. To be sure, as the memorials and crowds this week have proved, he was respected by many. But a look at all the myriad positions he has taken over his career show that in the end he was loyal to no one but himself.

Google maps was ready to go with the proposed change!

The Senate building is named after Senator Richard Brevard Russell (Ga). Russell served for 40 years, was a master at Senate rules, increased defense spending, and supported the New Deal. He was also an ardent opponent of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, condemned Brown v. Board of Education, and a supporter of segregation. Despite this, after his death in 1971, the Senate decided to put his name on the building. Chuck Schumer ((D-NY) and Jeff Flake (R-AZ) are ready to propose another ill-advised naming.

“Renaming the Russell building in his honor ensures that his story will be told with the hope that inspiration becomes motivation and future leaders emerge with his brand of courage and commitment,” Flake and Schumer wrote in the letter to their Senate colleagues.

Except that McCain’s brand of courage and commitment was inconsistent and self-serving. I would prefer not to have him held up as the standard bearer for elected officials. The deal for politicians is that they promise to follow through when in office. One of the things McCain is most famous for is his 2017 thumbs down vote on the repeal of Obamacare – something he had promised to do while campaigning for his sixth term. When the time came for him to live up to his words, he took the low road, in contrast to how the media is currently portraying him. He used that momentous vote to both give a thumbs down, and to thumb his nose at Trump. What was left out of the equation was the American people.

With regard to NATO, Trump is right to push its members to live up to their obligations. After all, the United States of America isn’t even part of the continent! Yet we support and defend those interests. And we are happy to do so for our friends, but once again John McCain had to act like he’s the president and continued his digs at Trump less than two months ago:

In July, the senator issued a fiery rebuke to the president following a fractious NATO summit meeting where Trump hammered allies over relying too much on U.S. military might.

“President Trump’s performance at the NATO summit in Brussels was disappointing, yet ultimately unsurprising. There is little use in parsing the president’s misstatements and bluster, except to say that they are the words of one man,” McCain said in the statement. “Americans, and their Congress, still believe in the transatlantic alliance and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and it is clear that our allies still believe in us as well.”

Well, John McCain’s words are the words of just one man as well. With his trickery he was able to fool a lot of people into thinking he was a magnanimous statesman, but in reality he followed his own agenda, and truly did betray his charge as an elected official. So no thanks, let’s not be reminded in perpetuity of the “Maverick” that was John McCain.