John McCain was a committed leader. He was also really fun.

One time, during a long, lonely debate before we had nearly enough votes, we sat together on the Senate floor and commented about how our colleagues in each of our parties weren’t speaking to us much anymore. I said, “Yeah, and now you’re going to become president and leave me here alone.” John replied, “No, no. You’ll be in the cabinet.” He paused and then, with a grin, said, “But just not as secretary of defense.”

And, indeed, while we often agreed on domestic reform issues, we had almost diametrically opposed views on defense, especially on certain military interventions, Iraq in particular. But this did not stop John from inviting me as one of two Democrats on a nine-person Congressional delegation trip to Iraq in 2006, when things were not going at all well there. On the plane trip over, he had us all convene for a briefing. John spoke at length about the approach of Col. H.R. McMaster, who would later become a three-star general and President Trump’s national security adviser, to insurgencies. At the appropriate time, I interjected my views about the likely futility of such an approach, to which a Republican governor on the trip said: “Why did you bring this guy along?” Not missing a beat, John responded: “I bring Russ along because he is consistent — consistently wrong.” The fact is, as passionate as John was about his positions, he truly valued hearing all sides and was a good listener.