The fight over renaming a building after the late John McCain has only just begun in the Senate, but in the court of public opinion, the matter is already resolved. Visitors in search of the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C. are now being directed to the “McCain Senate Office Building” by Google Maps.Sens. Chuck Schumer and Jeff Flake have proposed renaming the building, currently titled after Richard B. Russell, a segregationist and Jim Crow supporter, to the McCain Senate Office Building. The idea that has already been met with backlash and controversy, but not fromGoogle, which has apparently renamed the building in advance of the Senate’s decision.
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Schumer, the Senate minority leader from New York, and Flake, an Arizona Republican, introduced the proposal on Tuesday as a way to honor the late McCain, the longtime Republican senator who died earlier this week after a prolonged battle with cancer. Schumer described Russell, who served in the Senate for almost 40 years, as “an avowed opponent of civil rights and the architect of the Southern filibuster that long delayed its passage.”Like most things in the Senate, the issue immediately became a partisan one, prompting Republican lawmakers to find reasons to oppose the idea.“This is a guy that was a giant of the Senate. So this renaming thing because of one issue is somewhat troubling,” said Sen. David Perdue, a Republican from Georgia. “The fact that it’s been brought into the John McCain thing I thought was inappropriate.”Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell also expressed trepidation and proposed instead putting together “an official group” to think of a different way to memorialize McCain.Cover image: Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) makes remarks after receiving the the 2017 Liberty Medal from former Vice President Joe Biden (not shown) at the National Constitution Center on October 16, 2017 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by William Thomas Cain/Getty Images)