How John McCain saved ObamaCare and proved the haters wrong

The senator from Arizona finally earned his "maverick" reputation with the highest stakes imaginable

John McCain.
(Image credit: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images)

Early Friday morning, Sen. John McCain walked into the Senate chamber and, to a burst of applause from Senate Democrats, cast the decisive vote to defeat Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's Health Care Freedom Act. It was a historic moment. And I have never been happier to have been dead wrong.

Earlier this week, McCain — who was recently diagnosed with brain cancer — flew to Washington, D.C., to vote on the motion to proceed with health-care legislation. He gave an intense speech harshly (and accurately) condemning the incredibly opaque and undemocratic process that McConnell was trying to use to ram an extremely unpopular bill through the Senate. The only problem was that he had just cast a crucial vote to allow the process he was attacking to go forward.

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Scott Lemieux

Scott Lemieux is a professor of political science at the College of Saint Rose in Albany, N.Y., with a focus on the Supreme Court and constitutional law. He is a frequent contributor to the American Prospect and blogs for Lawyers, Guns and Money.