John McCain telling reporters how opposed he is to Trump, while heading to the floor to vote for another Trump nominee.

Sen. John McCain (R-Crankyville) has been doing a world tour of Trump-bashing. First he went off to Munich last week for a security conference, then he came back to his happy place—the Sunday shows. His whole message dutifully reported by The New York Times: “John McCain Becomes Critic in Chief of the Trump Administration.”

WASHINGTON — Senator John McCain has long had a reputation as a political maverick. But with the rise of a president who has vowed to shatter the old order, Mr. McCain has emerged as an outspoken defender of longstanding Republican verities on foreign policy and as one of his party’s most biting critics of the new commander in chief. […] In a star turn at a security conference in Munich on Friday, he delivered a forceful critique of President Trump’s "America First" vision before a receptive audience of experts and allied officials worried about American drift from a seven-decade-old Western alliance. "Make no mistake, my friends, these are dangerous times," Mr. McCain said. "But you should not count America out, and we should not count each other out." […] A day later, in an interview for "Meet the Press," Mr. McCain challenged Mr. Trump’s contention that the news media is "the enemy of the American people." "The first thing that dictators do is shut down the press," he said, adding that while he was not calling the president a dictator, "we need to learn the lessons of history."

He also told Meet the Press that he has "more hope than belief" that a Republican-led Congress will actually investigate Trump, even though he believes "there's probably going to be some more shoes to drop" on Russian interference in the 2016 election and Trump’s ties to Russia. As if he wasn’t in a position to do something about that.

It’s just a lot of tough talk from someone who has only voted against one Trump nominee for a cabinet position (Mulvaney at Office of Management and Budget because he doesn't want to increase defense spending sufficiently), and has thus far voted for everything in the Trump/McConnell agenda. That's hardly mavericky now, is it.

Here's the deal, McCain. Until you can stand up to your own party leader—that's Mitch McConnell—all of this is just bluster. Warning against Trump's dangerous foreign policy isn't enough. You've got to do something about it. If he's that dangerous to the nation, to the world, if you really think he's a dictator, oppose him on everything. Help the Democrats hasten his departure. Or just shut up.