critique of the military. he did a really good job of having an equilibrium of moving our country forward while standing strong for those folks who could not stand up for themselves. that was part of the passion that he had abated eric: how did he deal with you personally? you started as an intern at one point in the senate before you became a senator, any difference with senator mccain senator mccain? i think the story you re referring to is that my brother who was a 32-year-old army veteran when he got out, he was looking for something to do as he transitioned into the private sector and i spoke with john about my brother s service and my brother quickly became john mccain s favorite, there is no question. it was a guy who served 32 years defending our country. the john mccain gave my brother an opportunity, a fellowship to work in the senate armed services committee for several months, unpaid of course because john and i are both cheap but the fact of the matter
literally i was on the floor of the house when dame when john was still in the house and i had been involved in some big fight with the democrats and two of their larger members, physically larger came over and they were sort of trying to psychologically push me and they said though, we know what you re doing and we are coming for you. i didn t realize that john was next to me. he instantly physically stepped in next to me, looked up at them because he s not that big physically, looked up and said if you come to him, you have to come for me, the name is mccain. if i am most felt i was watching the automatic behavior that he learned in hanoi in the prison camp ever since. i ve always looked at him like he was a guy who will protect you and moment s notice. sandra: if i could ask you to weigh in on the discussion that is the relationship that he had with the president. he was obviously openly critical of the president and his policies and fox news is
first elected, so it was a long experience. i worked with him in his campaign in 2008 and i have enormous respect for him partially because i m very, very close to general chuck boyd who was a prisoner of war with mccain and who thought so highly of the leadership and the courage that mccain showed in the prison camp in vietnam. and that really colored my whole approach to john when you realize you went through, you realize how deeply he was patriotic and wanted to serve the country. and the only thing, did a great job just now, i don t think that john looked for fights. i think john was like theodore roosevelt, he spent every morning looking for causes which then justified a fight. he was a very cause oriented person whether the cause at one point when he took on the bush administration over the
meant that he had to have a very short memory on things that we disagreed upon. eric: did you feel like ouch, i m not doing that again? is kind of having a car roll over your feet and backing up and doing it one more time, you don t want to do it twice but the fact of the matter is he welcomed the type of challenge that people today do not. sandra: with a short time that we have left, obviously a lot of questions about how that a vacant seat will eventually be filled, the governor of arizona has decided not to name the replacement for mccain s seat until he was laid to rest. how would you like to see him fill that seat? there is no doubt that the governor has an amazing task on his hands. i know that there were three or four folks in the running, one of the things i like that the governor said is that everyone who is lobbying for the position before john was even gone have basically disqualified
priorities before funding them so he really had a complicated and complex relationship that inspired, incorrect, and produce the best out of each and every one of them. eric: use a complicated and complex relationship, and let s face it, he could be ornery at time and kick take off his colleagues. how did you guys deal with it, you knew that that was the way he was and he would let bygones be got bygones. as a new senator coming in five years ago, watching john operate was interesting. having a confrontation with him or to always left you wondering what in the world just happened number one and number two, will they ever overcome it? and by the next day, john was back to being john and i had a couple of those altercations that proved to me that his desire to move things forward