opinion

Roberts: Kelli Ward to John McCain: get out now

Kelli Ward has shown once again that she’s willing to go there.

There, as in a place beyond good taste or decency or respect.

Ward is once again calling on Sen. John McCain to resign.

Ward became famous (read: infamous) in July when she called on McCain to resign within hours of him learning that he has brain cancer.

Ward says McCain's got to go

"I hope that Senator McCain is going to look long and hard at this, that his family and his advisers are going to look at this, and they're going to advise him to step away as quickly as possible," she said on Indiana radio WOWO 1190 AM, just a day after the diagnosis was made public. "So that the business of the country and the business of Arizona being represented at the federal level can move forward."

Naturally, she told the radio station that she would be the logical replacement.

"I have a proven track record of years in the Arizona state Senate of being extremely effective and of listening to the voice of the people that I represent,” she said. “And you know, I made an extremely good showing against Sen. McCain against all odds."

If, by extremely good showing, she means she lost by 10 points, then yeah. Her showing was stellar.

Ward repeats call for McCain to quit

Over the weekend, Ward – who is now running to replace Sen. Jeff Flake – repeated her call for McCain to just get out of the way.

“I think that anybody’s who’s not able to do their job should step aside and allow the process to continue in Washington D.C. because there is such important work that has to be done,” she told MSNBC.

McCain came home during the December break, vowing to return to Washington in January but has been thus far unable to do so.

Over the weekend, daughter Meghan McCain told CNN that her father is recovering from a rough spot.

"He's doing really good, all things considered," Meghan McCain said. "He had sort of a bad bout at Christmas time. He was hospitalized at Walter Reed. He had ramifications from his chemotherapy. He had pneumonia. But he's made this, like, really incredible comeback."

Flake also has seen McCain recently and given a good report.

Back off, Kelli

Me? I thinking a couple of things.

No. 1. McCain’s absence hasn’t caused Congress to do anything more than its usual nothing. In fact, he still seems to be engaged. Earlier this month, he teamed with Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., to offer an immigration compromise that would protect DACA recipients and strengthen border security.

The Christian Science Monitor, in a piece last week, chronicled McCain’s ongoing influence in the Senate.

No. 2. The senator has been in public service all his life. He has represented Arizona, first in the House and then in the Senate, for 35 years.

Surely, we can give him the time and the space to fight his illness and reach his own conclusions about whether or not he can represent us.

And if the day comes when he must give up his seat, then a third thing occurs to me.

A gravely ill McCain now and forever will be more effective in the Senate than a woman who may be all about putting herself first or America First.

But she's got a thing or two to learn about putting common decency first.

Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com.

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