By Dave Dahl
SPRINGFIELD – The Illinois chairman of John McCain’s two presidential campaigns — 2000 and 2008 — paid tribute to the senator during the spring legislative session in Springfield.
The way House Minority Leader Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs) told it in May, a private fundraising dinner about twenty years ago included everyone naming their most inspirational movie.
“He proudly stated that the movie that had influenced him the most was a 1963 comedy called It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World,” said Durkin. “It was silence for ten seconds, and then Sen. McCain burst out laughing in the way that I have known him over the years.
“At that point, I realized that John McCain was my guy.”
State Rep. David Harris (R-Arlington Heights) noted that while a POW, McCain “was offered the opportunity to leave, and chose not to do it, because he refused to leave his comrades behind.”
And State Rep. Barbara Wheeler (R-Crystal Lake) remembered another facet of McCain’s service: “John McCain and his wife, Cindy, have led the McCain Institute, which is headquartered in Washington, D.C. I became aware of it because of its human rights issues, most specifically in human trafficking. They do a tremendous amount of work, and it is because of his leadership and his wife’s leadership that they have had quite an impact across the world. Thank you, Sen. McCain!”
