For a dozen years, Richard Bryan served in the Senate with John McCain, who died Saturday after a long battle with brain cancer.
Bryan remembered his former colleague as a blunt-talking lawmaker who was unafraid to go against his party.
“What endeared him to me is that John was a maverick,” Bryan told State of Nevada. “John would frequently speak out against a position that a number of his Republican colleagues had taken.”
After his election to the Senate in 1988, Bryan had his office near McCain’s and recalled him limping and favoring an arm when they walked to the Senate floor, reminders of McCain’s years as a prisoner during the Vietnam War.
“I was struck with the evidence of the physical injuries he suffered,” Bryan said. “It was a constant reminder to me of the suffering and brutality he had endured.”
Bryan, a Democrat, also remembers working across the aisle with McCain on the Muhammed Ali Act that toughened federal boxing-safety regulations.
“Mccain was a boxing fan and had come to Las Vegas to watch some of the high-profile fights,” Bryan said.
While McCain was famous for his temper — something Bryan said he saw on more than one occasion — he also had a more thoughtful side.
“John was in some ways sort of soft-spoken,” Bryan said. “There was was no bombast in John; what you saw was what you got.”