RIP SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN, A BIPARTISAN PATRIOT AND CHAMPION OF GLOBAL DEMOCRACY

My heart goes out to Senator John McCain’s family.

It was announced over the weekend that Senator McCain finally succumbed to brain cancer, but in true Senator McCain fashion, he fought it all the way to the end.

This is nothing new for the Arizona stalwart, who fought battles at seemingly every turn.

This included surviving torture as a POW in Vietnam to eventually return home to the United States and have a long and distinguished career in public service going all the way back to his days as a foot soldier in the Reagan Revolution back in the 1980’s.

Full disclosure: while I have my disagreements with Senator McCain, particularly on foreign policy where he favors a far more interventionist approach than I do, I helped raise money for his presidential bid in 2008.

Disagreements aside, I thought he was the best man for the job and still believe his ability to lead and work with people of all viewpoints were important qualities that would have served him well as chief executive.

That is why I stuck by Senator McCain and helped him raise money even when almost everybody I knew said he had no chance to win the nomination let alone the presidency.

Senator McCain and his wife Cindy were both incredibly gracious and honorable people and I was proud to know both of them and be able to call them friends.

Character matters and they were both impeccable in that regard.

Which is why despite the temptation to bicker over partisan politics, at a time like this, we should be focusing less on political agreements or disagreements and simply zero in on the fact that an American hero who sacrificed his entire adult life as a public servant — whether as a member of the military, the House, or the Senate — has fallen victim to a terrible disease and we are all worse off without him around.

As I said, Senator McCain fought as hard as he could, but in the end, sometimes there are battles that even a seemingly unbreakable warrior like John McCain just cannot win.

RIP Senator McCain.

I will miss you dearly, my friend, as will the American people and the rest of the world.

You may no longer be with us, but your contributions and legacy will live on for many generations to come.