Unsuprisingly, it looks like McCain’s votes against a Martin Luther King holiday were part of a larger pattern:
In 1990, McCain was one of the deciding votes in helping then-President George H.W. Bush sustain a veto against the relatively benign Civil Rights Act of 1990.
In doing so, the senator found himself at odds with majorities in both chambers of Congress, most senior African Americans within the Bush administration, and the Republican-led U.S. Civil Rights Commission. He also helped Bush became the first president ever to successfully veto a civil rights measure — Andrew Johnson in 1866 and Ronald Reagan in 1988 both had vetoes overridden.
In the end, the override lost by one vote. McCain still defends his decision today. Looks like all that “growth” McCain has been doing since his MLK vote hasn’t had much impact on his ideas about whether women and people of color should have an equal shot at employment.
