McCain never has been much of a “Maverick”

Headline: John McCain to return to Senate Tuesday for health care vote

McCain’s office announced Monday night that he would return Tuesday — a surprise to most in Washington who expected him to miss the crucial vote and return to Washington at a later date.

McCain is expected to get GOP leadership one vote closer to beginning debate on health care legislation, which is on the verge of collapsing.

“Senator McCain looks forward to returning to the United States Senate tomorrow to continue working on important legislation, including health care reform, the National Defense Authorization Act, and new sanctions on Russia, Iran and North Korea,” his office said in a statement.

Despite the press’s love affair with the senior Senator from Arizona and his perceived “Maverick” persona, he really hasn’t voted against party lines on much of anything except campaign finance reform. Considering his role in the corruption scandal that was The Keating Five, I’m not sure that his co-sponsorship of the McCain-Feingold legislation was principled or a distraction he could point to when people brought up that S&L scandal.

As others have pointed out, it’s rather ironic that McCain might vote to take access to medical care away from roughly 22 million Americans just at the time when he’s receiving extraordinary health care himself to treat his brain tumor. I doubt he realizes that, though. If he’s ever had a political conscience he’s kept it locked up and voted with his party probably 95% of his time in office.