Warren Beatty Is Serving as a Pallbearer at John McCain's Funeral
A self-described “foot soldier in the Reagan revolution,” the late Senator John McCain was a lifelong and avowed conservative; a fact that makes the increasingly bipartisan nature of his upcoming funeral all the more surprising. The latest update on the memorial is one of the biggest brow-raisers yet: along with former vice president Joe Biden and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, openly liberal Academy Award winner Warren Beatty will serve as a pallbearer in today's services at Washington National Cathedral.
Though a dedicated Republican, McCain was known for pushing back against the conservative party line on occasion, earning himself a reputation as a "maverick." And it was one such issue, his belief in the need for campaign finance reform, that would spark his fast friendship with Beatty.
Beatty has also been deeply passionate about the state of American politics, and particularly the role that money plays in our political system; he briefly toyed with the idea of running for office in the '90s to much fanfare, but the campaign never materialized. Instead, Beatty wrote, directed, and starred in the Oscar-nominated 1998 film Bulworth about a disillusioned Democratic senator which criticized, among other things, the negative impact of courting campaign donations on the democratic process.
It's not entirely clear when McCain and Beatty crossed paths, but for an interview with the New York Times prior to the release of Bulworth, Beatty met with a reporter over coffee in John McCain's office alongside the Senator. Indeed, Beatty even suggested at the time that McCain make a bid for the presidency without accepting any campaign contributions.
“You need some kind of funding to rent the room and the bus and all that kind of stuff,” McCain reportedly responded. “I understand the allure of a candidate not taking any money, but it ignores the realities of a campaign.”
While they may not have agreed on methodology, they were obviously on the same ideological page about the issue. By 2000, the duo were co-starring in a TV commercial about a California ballot measure aimed at campaign donations. In an interview with Arianna Huffington, McCain even said of his 2000 presidential bid that Beatty had said he would support him if he chose to run as an independent.
It wasn't the last of Beatty's interventions into McCain's political life. For John Kerry's 2004 Democratic presidential run, Kerry reportedly tried to get Beatty to convince McCain to join him as a running mate.
“I thought he might do it,” Beatty told The New Yorker of the incident. “Of course, I’m a fantasist by trade. ... With John’s personality, he would be able to say what he wanted to say, and to do quite a bit [as vice president.] Whether that would be good for John Kerry was less clear.”
Despite their differences of political stance, Beatty and McCain remained close throughout the years. “I think I’ve made it clear that I’m a liberal Democrat,” Beatty told The Atlantic in 2008. “I consider my friendships to be friendships. ... I don’t think that political ideology is necessarily germane to friendships.”
It would seem that on that point, McCain agreed. In addition to Biden and Bloomberg, Beatty will share the position of pallbearer with McCain's friends from both sides of the aisle including former Democratic senators Russ Feingold and Gary Hurt, former Republican senator Phil Gramm, and Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse. Former presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush and former secretary of state Henry Kissinger are all set to speak at the services.
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