A fellow FB friend of mine posted this earlier today, and all I can say is "WELL SAID!!! WELL SPOKEN!!!"
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My dear friends, I apologize. This is going to be long. I received an email solicitation from Mrs. McCain today seeking donations to the John McCain Institute. I am not so sure that this was not a PAC letter. It infuriated me. After trying to calm feelings after the President's recent remarks, I decided to express exactly where I stand. I hope you approve. What follows is my exact email response to Mrs. McCain. I am not happy about it, or speaking harshly, but it is true and her attempts to raise money off the most recent controversy sickened me....

Mrs. McCain:
I am truly sorry for the passing of your husband. He, from all appearances, was a wonderful husband and father.
However, I cannot, at any time, support any PAC or Institute using his name. His behavior in his last years was not something I am proud of nor can I admire, I believe it hurt our country.

He took his antipathy toward our President to an ugly extent. He rushed a dossier, that I believe he knew was fake, to the FBI. From that action, a cascade of events followed which has at times paralyzed the national agenda, the one we elected the President to implement. The President's children have been enveloped by these investigations. Countless others have been negatively impacted simply by being associated with the President and his campaign, even briefly. The President's businesses which he has spent a lifetime building are under undue scrutiny. The President's wealth did not come from a wealthy wife and her family, he earned every dollar on his own.

Your husband called out the President for unseemly remarks the President made in a private "locker room" talk with a single man, aired publicly over a decade later to hurt him. At the same time, Mrs. McCain, your husband was QUOTED in the media referring to YOU with the very ugly profanity that starts with "C." Your husband was also known to use "spicy" language not suitable to a woman's ears. He held others to a standard he never met.

That cascade of events with the "dossier" has cost American taxpayers millions and millions of dollars in endless investigations, that have only revealed thus far that the dossier was an ugly, dirty, demented piece of fiction to undermine a sitting president. That is repugnant to me. I believe Sen. McCain could not have believed such an ugly piece of fiction. I believe he was aware of how it was written and that it was likely the ugliest of falsehoods. From THAT action of Sen. McCain, the President and his lifetime of work in business have become the subject of investigation. His children have been investigated and required to speak in private against THEIR FATHER. It is this private and public pain that causes the President to still, at times, speak out against the Senator. Let me add, I cannot afford my own health care due to changes since the "Repeal of Obamacare" failed due to last minute sabotage by Sen. McCain. He knew exactly what he was doing, after boasting for years that he and his colleagues would correct this if given the chance. I have had Cadillac insurance coverage my entire life. Now, I cannot afford that I am essentially "cash paying" due to high deductibles that are now the industry standard. Your husband was responsible for causing our families much pain and the loss of cash reserves because of his decision to deny the President a success on a campaign promise. NOTHING could have been a worse path than that under which we struggle every day with no repeal and no corrections.

Sen. McCain took his vindictiveness to a height even those who had helped the Senator at one time, could not believe. In the face of death, Sen. McCain planned his funeral, including honors that are ordinarily reserved only for a president in death, which Sen. McCain decidedly WAS NOT. The President honored those wishes and even more, providing whatever dignified attention and support that were at his disposal. In an ultimate wicked slap in the face, the Senator made it clear that the leader of the free world, who outperformed in multiples, any run for office that the Senator had ever mounted, was denied welcome at the services. That alone was so undignified that I cannot ever imagine honoring in death, a Senator who carried to his grave, more indignities toward our President.

Finally, not only were the President and his family excluded, but by design, Sen. McCain excluded Governor Sarah Palin. Perhaps the senator never understood reality, Gov. Palin brought life to his lifeless run for office. Because of her, we were energized about the Republican ticket. I know. I served as this leading Republican county's co-chair of Women for the McCain/Palin ticket. When he, facing death, expressed that indignity toward Gov. Palin, he lost me and many women who now deeply regret working for his ticket.

Instead of sending out mass emails trying to recreate a dignified vision of Senator McCain, and soliciting funds likely to be used by his "Institute" or a PAC to work against the President, please save yourself time and save me the imposition of having to express these thoughts to you so that you may understand. I also understand a daughter defending her father. However, I find Meaghan's comments about the President to spread fuel on a fire. Her comments during her father's funeral were classless. They were clearly intended to cast dispersion on the President in his absence after he provided many exceptional funeral service honors.

I hope you enjoy a retirement from politics. I, for one, and many like me, (don't underestimate how many we are) do not wish to consider any such pieces of correspondence on the Senator's legacy. His legacy will forever be pock marked by his final vindictive acts. I do not admire that. I wish to forget that. There is NOTHING in these experiences that would ever cause me to donate to the McCain Institute. I hope many others feel as I do.

Respectfully,

Rebecca Ann Burke
Former County Co-Chair, Women for McCain/Palin
Former President, America First Federation
Tennessee Republican Party; State Executive Committeewoman, 2014-2018