A member of the Republican National Committee assented when another Republican said that Senator McCain should "just die already".

McCain is for the most part just another cruel and heartless Republican, but there are a few issues where he disagrees with them. For instance, he has sometimes publicly opposed torture even when most Republicans were in favor of it, because he experienced being a prisoner of war and retains the rational recognition that the US must treat prisoners decently so that captured US soldiers will be treated decently.

It is due to localized scruples such as these that many Republicans consider him an obstacle to their plans.